“What if you could plan the ideal group golf getaway, save money, and have a great time doing it?”
You’ve been waiting all year to meet up with your friends for your yearly golf trip. It was supposed to be perfect, but you bought “the package” and your outing turns out to be simply adequate.
You all had such high expectations, but you had to accept what you got.
Have you ever experienced a less than ideal golf vacation that you had been looking forward to all year? To be fair, the majority of golf packages are excellent. Some of them are excellent, but they are truly mass-produced packages with little customization and no unique flair.
A typical golf vacation package includes lodging and one round of golf per day with a cart. The term “lodging” typically refers to two-person rooms in a motel or hotel. Most of the time, you can select your courses and advance tee times from a variety of options. Even a continental breakfast is included. The prices are fair.
Again, this results in a good or great vacation, but we must talk about the ideal vacation. Envision:
-a lovely vacation home with individual beds or bedrooms for each occupant.
-Each night, fine dining.
-You can play golf whenever, wherever, and however much you like.
-evening amusement.
-Maximum camaraderie.
For my former high school and college friends, I have organized this kind of golf vacation every year since 1988. We have perfected Our Event over all those years, and we believe it to be the ideal annual outing. Despite having to keep costs low, our first few years were fantastic. The price has remained largely stable over the last four years despite inflation. A full seven days, from Saturday to Saturday, have been decided.
Typically, we schedule 36 holes per day and alter that number on the fly to end up with an average of about 27 holes per day. On the day of arrival, we purchase the majority of the food and drinks we’ll need for the week’s gourmet evening meals, sandwiches between rounds, snacks, and breakfast. One year, we had two different groups of five men and sixteen men. Eight to twelve is the ideal size range.
This is our idea of the ideal golf getaway; it’s not necessarily yours. For yours, look at the general goals below for the ideal golf outing:
– start things off right away.
– Make sure everyone resides in the same home with a complete kitchen.
– Make a list of your shopping needs in advance.
– Have a broad schedule and unofficial assignments.
Get the ball rolling. Choose a window of time, then spread the word to anyone you think might be interested OR not interested (they might be next year). I send a lighthearted email about five months before a suggested period of time. Because of the way it is written, both men and women will laugh out loud.
Follow-up emails obtain commitments and ask for suggestions, recommendations, and unique requests. With this information in hand, you can choose the ideal home, book tee times, and make rental car arrangements. What meals, snacks, and drinks they’ll want during the outing will be covered in later emails from you. Here is a good timeline:
-5 months: Announce.
-3 months: Obtain all pledges and requests for recommendations.
-3 months: To organize travel, let everyone know when to arrive by plane.
-2 months: Plan your rental cars, house, and golf outings.
-1 month: Accept any requests for food, snacks, or drinks.
-1 month: Verify the rental car, house, and tee times.
-1 week: Make a final food and drink list.
Have the time of your life at zero hour.
house with a complete kitchen. This allows several things:
cooking dinner for yourself. Every group has at least one “chef”.
Reliving the day as a group (yes, this includes an appropriate amount of trash talking and pleading for strokes on subsequent rounds).
a collective evening of entertainment. We play cards, tell stories, watch videos, play games, catch up on TV sports, or do all of the above.
preparing sandwiches, snacks, and beverages for tomorrow.
The preparation for this event will be almost as enjoyable as your vacation. I made a small, eight-page website with information about history, pictures, the schedule, previous results, etc. to hold everyone’s interest and attention throughout the year.
You might consider bringing a laptop and posting the results from each day on your website so that the unfortunate people who couldn’t make the trip could follow the daily action virtually. Our group has considered having a masseuse visit us one evening later in the week to help our aging muscles, but we have not yet taken this action.