5 Tips to Planning Your Ultimate Golf Buddy Trip
We have all been there; five or so years out of college, working way too many hours and trying like hell to convince the opposite sex that they should spend the rest of their lives with you. There is only so much of this that the golf-addicted man can take, sooner or later you will snap and the results will not be pretty.
The solution? An extended golf trip with your buddies that serves to recharge your batteries and reacquaint yourself with competition, trashing talking and a little too much fried foods and alcohol. On the surface, planning a golf vacation may seem rather easy. Pick a group, pick a location, and pack your sticks and some clothes and go.
Well if you have ever been on a buddy trip, then you know that this is not the case. Once you settle on a number in your golfing party, you have to pick a location and schedule travel accommodations, then you need lodging, and of course you have to choose which courses you want to play.
Have no fear my fellow golf-addicts, for I am a veteran golf buddy trip organizer, and I have come to give you top five tips to planning your ultimate golf buddy trip.
Without further ado…
5.) Pick Your Group Carefully: The main goal in taking a golf vacation with your buddies is to have fun and catch a break from the monotony of life. The last thing you want to do is travel with too large of a group. While it may seem like a lot of fun to have 15 of your closest golfing buddies along for the ride with you, you also have to realize that booking accommodations and tee times will become increasingly difficult for every group after your initial foursome. Then you have to factor in dinner reservations, which is one of the more enjoyable parts to a buddy trip. If you get lucky and the restaurant can accommodate a large group, be aware that they will usually charge added gratuity for parties over eight.
In short, you want to be able to relax and enjoy yourself. The larger the group, the harder it is to do so. You can always expand the group as you become more comfortable with planning your annual (or semi-annual) buddy trip.
4.) Plan Ahead: Let’s face it, men and planning do not always mesh well. In this case though, you will want to plan your golf vacation well ahead of time. For starters, you want to be able to choose your destination based on the golf, atmosphere and weather that best suits your group. If you don’t allow yourself the proper lead time, you will end up either paying way too much to play in-peak season, or you will be playing in sweltering heat that will make your trip much less enjoyable.
Another reason why you want to plan ahead is to make sure all members of your desired group are able to take off of work and/or be away from familial obligations. Think about this, how many times have you tried to schedule a tee-time a week in advance and been unable to lock down a full foursome? If you thought getting a foursome together at the local muni was tough, try getting 4-8 guys in their 20’s or 30’s together for 3+ nights out of town on short notice.
3.) Take Charge: While it is noble to gather input from everyone involved in your golf vacation, the truth is that one person will need to step up and make decisions. Otherwise, you end up having split votes on where and what time to play, where to eat etc. Your group will appreciate the fact that you stepped up and made decisions so they did not have to. In my experience, most guys want to show up, play golf, eat food and drink some beers. With my group, we usually take a vote on one course we want to play as a “treat”, which tends to be an upscale daily fee course in the area we are staying. Otherwise, we have a group administrator who knows the preferences of all involved and will make decisions for the group.
2.) Play for Something: This is one of my favorite parts to a buddy trip. If you plan on making this vacation an annual occurrence, which I would highly suggest you do, there are a myriad of ways to make things interesting and encourage friendly competition. I know groups who host a Buddy Ryder Cup, complete with a trophy that has the winner’s names engraved on it after each trip. It doesn’t have to be this structured, but considering you are taking a vacation based around golf, you want to plan something that allows you to rib your buddies after you win. I suggest getting away from standard stroke play in several of the rounds. You can split into teams and play alternate shot or best ball, or you can play individual match play, Modified Stableford or Callaway scoring. Stroke play will always be there, but consider the fact that you are there to have fun, and if you are competing for something, there is the chance that someone shoots themselves out of the match on the first half of the front nine. The other variations of scoring allow you to play through some bad holes without determining the outcome.
1.) You Are Not Immortal: I can remember the first buddy trip I took the year after my friends and I had graduated college. In the end, we played ten rounds of golf in seven days and after the last round we got in our car and drove 15 hours from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to New York City. I do not remember that car ride fondly. We were tired, sweaty and irritable and in many ways it ended the trip on a sour note. My advice to you is this; do not feel the need to pack in 36 holes of golf every day you are there. You may be able to get away with at 23 or even 24…but sooner or later the golfing gods will catch up with you and the last thing you want is for someone in your group to wake up with back spasms on the third day of your trip. Nothing destroys a golf vacation quite like an injury. Instead of jamming in that second day of 36 holes, play in the morning and then hit happy hour or the beach.
In the end you are going on vacation with your buddies to enjoy the camaraderie of the group, and that can be achieved in a multitude of ways. Just because golf is the best vehicle for this, doesn’t mean it has to be the only one.
