Review of Golf Magazine Credit Card

Picture of Item Reviewed
Editor's Rating: 3.4/5.0
An affinity card for Golf Magazine, which is part of Sports Illustrated. It's main attraction is the 15% discount you are supposed to get when you book your teetime at golf.com/teetime. But when we last checked, that page is no longer up on golf.com! Otherwise, you get three complimentary issues of Golf Magazine and one dozen golf balls.
Intro Purchase APR Regular APR Intro Balance Transfer Annual Fee Issuer Credit Needed
N.A. $0 PartnersFirst Good
PROS
  • 15% discounts booking your teetime with golf.com/teetime
  • 3 free issues of Golf Magazine
  • Complimentary golf balls
CONS
  • golf.com/teetime page is no longer up

Who is Golf Magazine? - Golf magazine is actually part of the Sports Illustrated Group1. The magazine is read over over 6 million golfers each month. The magazine features golf tips, equipment reviews interviews and articles on golf courses. Aside from Golf Magazine, Sports Illustrated also owns Golf.com. Golf.com is a website has combines the editorial powers of Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine2. The site has lots of golf content, interactive tools to help you improve your game and also functions to help you in searching for equipments. The reason we mention Golf.com is because part of the rewards of the card we are about to review involves Golf.com

Golf Magazine Team Up with PartnersFirst Bank - Golf Magazine has teamed up with PartnersFirst to issue their affinity card. PartnersFirst is a new bank in Delaware that specializes in issuing affinity card for various organizations. The main thing to understand about their cards is that you get to earn reward points which can be redeemed for both PartnersFirst rewards and also for rewards from Golf Magazine.

So what are PartnersFirst Rewards? - PartnersFirst rewards include travel3, merchandise4, gift cards5 and cash back. The cash back that you will get is simply 1%. I did a quick scan of the merchandise catalog4 and I have to say that the amount of goods there is far less than most other reward programs (especially from mainstream issuers - though they have Apple products). When I was scanning the merchandise rewards, I tried to look out for any golf equipment but could not spot any there. In terms of the gift card rewards, I would not recommend anyone use their points for gift cards because you get less than 1% back in value (better to use them for cash rewards). Their most interesting rewards is the travel rewards because they require a fix number of points to get discounts on airfares. And they tier it such that you could get slightly more than 1% in value.

Free Golf Balls And More? - New card members will receive one dozen personalized Titleist Pro V1 golf balls – a $58 value – after you spend $300. In order to qualify for a dozen Titleist Pro V1 golf balls, you must be approved and make qualifying purchases totaling $300 within the first 60 days of account open date. No where does the site say what is a qualifying purchase. But one can assume it's just normal spending on the card (the catch is you'd better get a credit line of more than $300!)

You will also be eligible for a 15% discount on all golf rounds at golf.com/teetimes when you purchase with your GOLF Magazine Visa card. However, when I checked golf.com/teetimes, the page redirected to golf.com home page. So I'm not sure if that particular page is still up!

You will also get three issues of GOLF® MAGAZINE for free once you get approved of the card. What happens is that you give PartnersFirst approval to subscribe to the GOLF Magazine for you. PartnersFirst will give you the complimentary issues. Then you will continue to get your monthly magazines delivered to you. What is unclear is what happens if you already have a subscription to GOLF magazine. Will you still get the three free issues. By the looks of it, the answer is no. So it looks like you may have to cancel your subscription and get PartnersFirst to subscribe for you.

Is Golf Magazine a good credit card? - When I look at this card, I think the biggest draw was the 15% discounts you get when you purchase golf rounds from golf.com/teetimes. But that page is no longer around! I don't know what happened to it! The three complimentary Golf Magazines and dozen golf balls are peanuts compared to the savings you could get from booking your tee time with Golf.com. But since, the page is not around anymore, I would have to be very cautious on recommending this card. In fact, I would suggest you hold off from getting this card until we are able to clarify these issues. Yes, you would still use reward points from PartnersFirst. But there are other better cash back and travel reward cards out there.

References
1. Golf Magazine About Page
2. Golf.com About Page
3. PartnersFirst Travel Rewards Page
4. PartnersFirst Merchandise Rewards Page
5. PartnersFirst Gift Cards



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