Pin Money

However much people might pretend otherwise, golf is still a great contributor to many a business deal. There is confirmation in the decision of the Computer Software and Services Association to return its annual outing to a golfing venue. This year, the CSSA decided it would be more convenient to hold its conference in central London. The response has persuaded it Gleneagles was a better idea. In the first place, people cannot casually drop in on Gleneagles for an hour or so in the afternoon; in the second, the golf is marvellous and delegates were clearly attracted by it.

If you don't play you could be leaving an important shot in your locker, so to speak. If you're prepared to learn, a lifetime's frustration may be the reward. If you play already, you'll understand the appeal and you'll know what potential the game has for business, relaxation and haemorrhaging money.

Getting started

Driving ranges are a miraculous invention. You can simulate many of golf's potentially most embarrassing moments without anyone noticing. Experienced golfers say the best way to translate that to a course is to play the course as though you're still at the range - until you reach the green, presumably.

Clubbing

You can easily pay hundreds of pounds for a single club. The Terminator TI Driver, for example, costs #185. A full set of Spaldings with steel shafts were on offer last month for #225, by comparison; graphite shafts add a ton or so. Many golf clubs have a club shop where second-hand equipment will do the job for less. If you feel you wouldn't like to be seen with second-hand equipment, consider that most of the top pros seem to do their clothes shopping at Oxfam.

Bags come in one basic shape and size, but they are far from being all the same. An ordinary one might cost #40 or so; one with a stand attached could be anything up to #150. Reckon on another #30 for a trolley, or on several hundred for an "electronic caddie", and on another #80 for a case if you want to entrust the whole kit and caboodle to an airline.

Balls

The ball you use might expose you to some of the fiercest snobbery in the game. The vocabulary of golf balls is astonishing: Maxfli offers Trisect Core Technology; Dunlop has titanium dioxide in the cover; Bridgestone Sports makes do with a Muscle-Fiber core; and Top-Flite has a ball with tear-drop-shaped dimples. It may be an advantage to become fluent in all this; on the other hand, just try to be sure your ball isn't the same as your opponent's. The way to guarantee this is to have personalised balls.

Got the T-shirt ...?

Golf wear is a separate branch on fashion's evolutionary tree. Dress codes vary but the general rules are a shirt with a collar of some kind and no denims. Beyond that, you can get away with a great deal.

Wet-weather attire adds to the cost and to the baggage. Shoes usually look like the kind of thing commonly worn in Chicago during Prohibition.

Be careful of the studs: there is a growing controversy over the desirability of metal studs as opposed to rubbery ones. Remember, you'll only need one glove.

Got the video ...?

Videos are sold so successfully as teaching substitutes in all kinds of activities that it's a wonder schools still bother with teachers at all. Golf is no exception. Among recent releases is Monty's Stroke Savers, which at #13.99 sounds a bargain if it genuinely saves you a stroke.

Where to play?

In Japan, some of the tower blocks have driving ranges on the roof. You can tell which by the netting around the sides. One Japanese executive admitted to belonging to a golf club near Tokyo which cost #10,000 a year, for which he was entitled to one round a month. So that takes care of Where Not To Play.

Closer to home, it can be a great advantage to be able to play during the week. Midweek is also where rounds on some of the more famous courses are possible as an occasional treat - a round at Royal Lytham, for example, costs #75 with a very decent lunch thrown in.

Golf is also the stuff of specialist holidays. All those places in exotic parts that you've seen on the satellite channel - Sun City, Valderrama, Hilton Head and the rest - can become holiday destinations. It won't necessarily cost an arm and a leg; the fee for non-members at Valderrama, for example, is 24,000 pesetas, which works at about #100. But then there are flights, accommodation and so on.

Flash accessories

Some are simple: a rack to store your irons in the bag in an orderly fashion; and others aren't: an electronic handheld game analyser, for example. The range of possibilities is considerable. This is where large sums can accumulate but also, perhaps, where taste can let you down.