Planning the ultimate golf trip for your group of friends

Everybody loves a golf trip with buddies, but the planning – hotels, courses, food! – can be intimidating. Plan your next golf trip with confidence by adopting some of the best tips I’ve accrued over 25 years of being a guys golf trip planner.

Planning golf trips for my friends is something I’ve done for years. I take pride in it. I know that many of these great golfing adventures would have never happened if I didn’t put in the work.

And make no mistake, it’s work.

The golf trip planner is at once a travel agent, banker, transportation booker, hotelier, and kindergarten teacher.

Over the years I’ve learned some critical lessons. I hope this helps you make your next golf trip even more enjoyable.

Find the perfect number of players

I firmly believe that the ideal number for any trip is eight players. This allows for easier planning with tee times, lodging, cars, flights, and meals. It also ensures that each member of the group gets to spend quality time with the others. A full foursome is a happy foursome.

If you plan to play four or more rounds, it also ensures a variety of foursomes, pairings, and games. It can also be difficult to find more than eight people to coordinate around work schedules, kids, wives, work, etc.

Scheduling your golf trip and making the “cut”

If you are like me, you have lots of friends who might want to go on a trip, but narrowing it down can hurt feelings and damage relationships. The worst thing a golf trip planner has to do is tell people, ‘No’.

I have a good solution to these thorny issues.

Get the general details of the trip together. Propose a place and time at least six months into the future. Why? Because no one has a full calendar six months down the road. It’s much easier to find a date that works for everyone far in advance than one month before a trip.

When it comes to invites, I try to remove myself from the position of playing favorites. I get an email list together and send it to every possible person that might want to go. Sometimes more than 20 guys get an invitation.

The instructions are simple: “I’m putting a trip together for next fall. Looking at late October in Alabama. First seven responses are in.”

Will a few folks not see the email and miss the cut? Yes, but those are the breaks. They can become your first alternates when one of your group inevitably has to bow out. This system has really been good to me and I highly recommend it if you feel like you have more friends than spots available.

By setting the trip months down the road there is more time for everyone to digest it and plan around it. That goes for the home front and the work front.

Where to play?

There are more great destinations than you could ever play. There’s no such thing as a bad golf trip, so location often isn’t even critical to having a good time. I’ve been from Pebble Beach to Scotland and can honestly say some of the best times I’ve had were at less historic venues.

My group is a particular fan of the RTJ Trail in Alabama. The golf is amazing, prices are unbeatable, the weather is temperate year round, and travel is usually pretty easy.

The Trail is also great because they are built and staffed to accommodate groups. This is a big help to novice planners. If you are planning a trip for the first time, I recommend finding a resort or course that offers group packages. The RTJ Trail is the easiest trip I plan.

If you can get your group in agreement about these, you are virtually guaranteed of having a great trip.

Gambling? Get it done ahead of time.

Not that I condone betting on the course (how do you make the wink emoji?), but we all know a friendly wager or two can add some excitement to an already fun outing. However, it can also make some of the less gambling-minded a little pouty if they lose. I have a great solution to that.

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Set the bets and collect all the money before you stand on the first tee. Set the overall tournament winner share, skins, snakes, Nassaus, whatever, and tell each player before the trip that they owe $XX for wagering. This means everyone feels the same pain at the same time, and only once.

The money goes to the trip Banker. This is your friend who tried to implement Rain Man’s card-counting scheme on his last trip to Vegas. There’s one in every group. You know who he is. Actual bankers also make good Bankers, I’ve found.

At the end of each round, this Wizard of Odds hands out the payments. No one has to reach for their wallet except to put money in it. That’s a big positive that keeps things friendly. Fast pay makes for fast friends, as they say. This approach cuts down on last-minute ATM runs, slow pay, or any animosity.

Make your communication easy ahead of the golf trip

Herding cats. That’s what being a golf trip planner feels like. I’ve learned the hard way and I have a few great tips to make your experience better.

Consider creating a simple website for the trip. Sites like Wix or Squarespace make it easy, and usually free, to set up a simple site. This way, you can dump all the details in a single place and just distribute the URL. It’s also easy to update on the fly, even from your phone.
Create an email group. This is a no-brainer, but it took me a couple of tries before I figured it out. Try to keep all communication within a single email thread. It’s the one time in your life ‘Reply All’ is a good thing.
Set up a text message group for the same reasons. Participants can chat before, during and after the trip. Text and email groups also make sharing pictures and videos easier.
I am trying to get my group to use The Grint GPS and Scoring app for our next outing. This allows me to set up a tournament and do live-scoring for the entire group. Plus you can track stats on your game and compare with your buddies.
Encourage your group to get PayPal, Venmo, or a similar service to quickly and accurately collect money for the trip or any side wagering that inevitably pops up.

Make it fun, and be your group’s hero forever

I created a trophy for my group for our annual championship. Yes, it is Sean Connery’s sword from Highlander. Yes, it’s a bit of a joke. And yes, it’s absolutely fantastic. I got it engraved and it will travel with the winner to each subsequent event where it will again be contested

I also have some trinkets for the group. I did this by asking for $30 per man for incidentals and planning expenses. Not a single person balked. After all, I did all the work. They get to show up, get a goodie bag I put together, and tee it up without doing anything more than writing a check. It’s a good deal all the way around.

The little details can make all the difference

When you’re planning a golf trip for you and your buddies, remember that it’s about more than just the golf. Paying attention to the little details can make the difference between a fun trip and a legendary one.

If you don’t want to carry your clubs, Ship Sticks is a great option. If you are a member at a club you can ask your pro to ship them straight from the bag room. It saves a little hassle and takes your clubs out of the hands of the airlines. It does cost a bit more than checking them, so consider that in your budget.
Make restaurant reservations in advance. A group of eight or more can be difficult to manage on the spur of the moment for some restaurants. A well-fed group is a happy group.
Look at Airbnb or Homestay to rent a house near the course. Renting a house can save money versus hotel rooms and can also provide amenities like a full kitchen, patio and grill, and maybe even a pool. That beats going back to the Cockroach Inn after 36 holes on a hot summer day.
Our group generally plays “Triple is your friend” for scoring. This helps keep everyone in the tournament but also ensures that no one has to carry around an 11 on their card. It may be funny to you, but it isn’t to them. I’ve been that guy.
If there is a debate about which tees to play, go with the forward option. You are there to enjoy the course, not shoot 127 from the tips.
Take pictures and share them. You will treasure them in the years to come.

Next. Confessions of a golf club addict. dark

There you have it – the keys to planning the ultimate friends’ golf trip. Whether you’re traveling halfway around the world or just a few hours from home, these tips will make everything more fun, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

Have some extra tips of your own? Make sure to drop a comment below, or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

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