Here is my approach to planning the golf trips my buddies and I take.  I extensively use the internet.  What a great tool – a vast library of useful information at your fingertips.

I don’t intend to provide a step by step, orderly description but I will provide an overview of what I do to set things up.  I have goals in mind as I work through my planning process – value, playing nice and challenging courses, and finding interesting place to spend a few days.

Given one of the themes of the lifepast50 golf information is value – getting the most bang for your golf vacation dollar – I look at various factors that affect the overall trip.  Sometimes we have selected the destination based upon an air fare seat sale that was offered on a time limited basis by an air carrier.  If there is an air fare bargain and we know there is good golf value there, then we’ll start with purchasing the plane tickets because the air fare is often the most expensive component of the trip.  Other times we have selected the location and golf courses and then waited for a seat sale to appear, or found a great deal on accommodations and started from there.

I leisurely go through this process and have fun checking out potential destinations.  I usually start investigating possible trip destinations 3 to 4 months in advance of the planned trip date.  I collect the information early and spend a bit of time thinking about what I’ve learned.  I also collect golf destination information throughout the year based upon tidbits of info I hear from colleagues and friends or from the media (magazines, TV) – that way I’m ready if a sale opportunity presents itself (like a seat sale or accommodation special).

My experience has shown that the end of October and early November are great times to travel to warmer US locations especially when the courses at home (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) are closed and you still want to get a few rounds in before the snow flies.  There are good deals to be had.  We don’t always travel in the fall, we have taken trips in the spring as well.

With the time and destination picked, I dive into finding out about the golf courses in the selected region we plan on visiting.  For example, if I was planning a San Diego trip I would search for “San Diego golf courses”, “golf courses in San Diego California”, and “recommended golf courses in San Diego”.  Based upon the search results, I look at the various web pages listed and build a list of course names.  I then conduct another search using the specific course name which typically returns the course specific website and other related information.  Sometimes your search will also list course review information.  You can gather some good information about the course by checking out a few of those reviews if they exist.

As part of this lifepast50 site, I’ve included reviews of some of the golf courses I have played in my travels.  One thing I’ve noticed over the years of planning my trips is that detailed info regarding a course is lacking.  I’ve attempted to address this with the course reviews I’ve created – check them out.  In addition, on this lifepast50 site, I’ve documented my evaluation criteria – check out that page to get a view of the factors I look for as I do my research.

I look for courses to play that have reasonable green fees – rates less than $100 but ideally rates that are less than $75.  From a Canadian perspective, don’t forget to take the exchange rate into account if planning your golf trip to the US.  Almost all the golf course websites will provide their green fee information.  If they don’t then its either a private club or very expensive.  With US courses, your green fee typically includes the cart and warm up time on the range.  That isn’t always the case in Canada.

As I visit the course websites, I try and get a feel for what the course offers in terms of playability and its setting.  This isn’t easy to judge based upon course websites, an electronic view of the scorecard, and some pictures (if they exist).

I take advantage of some of the neat tools available like Google Earth – this gives me a great view of golf course from above using satellite photos (I’m a geography grad and I love looking at the images available).  If the level of detail is available you can almost get a 3D impression of what the course is like.  I use this view in conjunction with any course pictures or layout images I can find (sometimes included as part of the course website).  At this point I look at the scorecard (usually available on the course website) for course the rating/slope and distances from the various tees.  Being golfers approaching our senior years, we tend to stick to the white tees but occasionally play the blues.  If I determine that I would like to play this course (good value and looks like it offers the playability features I like) then I keep it on my list.  I’ve now created a short list after checking out course websites, course review information and images of the course.

Our trips usually last 4 or 5 days so that means 4 or 5 rounds.  We like to play different courses, mostly because we enjoy the variety.  If you arrange an early tee time and find that you enjoyed the course and would like to try it again, you can always ask about an afternoon replay at the pro shop.  You can usually play the course a 2nd time for a very reasonable fee – sometimes just the cost of the cart rental.  This seems to be a US phenomena – you usually can’t find this in Canada unless a course offers exceptional service…..I guess it could be due to our shorter golfing season where courses need the revenue (enough complaining).

My buddies and I are sports fans so, when possible, we look for non-golf activities as well and check into whether there are other professional or college teams in the area for football and hockey.  If a game is nearby we often add this to our itinerary.  Taking in the local sites as well as taking advantage of local amenities like hiking trails, scenic drives, beaches or casinos adds to the trip.  Set aside time to enjoy these amenities offered by the places you visit.  It adds to the whole experience, besides you can’t play golf 24 hours a day nor are we interested in doing that.  There are many great and wonderful sights to behold across North America.

With the golf course short list established, I start working on where to stay and what hotels / resorts in the area offer – many hotels and resorts offer green fee discounts that you can take advantage of.  Once again I take advantage of the internet and tools like expedia, orbitz, etc.  These are great tools that provide you with listings of accommodations in your planned destination.  You can run across great accommodation deals, especially if you search well in advance of your planned travel time.  I always book directly with the hotel / resort using their toll free number – some places will match or beat advertised pricing from travel websites so calling the place can be beneficial.

As with the golf course search process, I look through the accommodation search results and build a list.  Value is the key goal again – find accommodations at a reasonable price.  I typically look for a suite that can accommodate 3 or 4 golfers – something that provides 3 beds and a sofabed are ideal spots.  My list gets whittled down to a short list and then eventually I select the place.  The place that offers the features we want and best value gets our business.

If the hotel or resort offers green fee discounts they usually have a staff person who will assist with arranging your tee times.  This can save you time because you don’t have to make the calls to different courses for tee times yourself saving you long distance charges and time.  I have often found that this staff person is also a golfer and will provide you with good information about the courses and local conditions.

We arrange for a car rental and typically get a full size vehicle or van/SUV.  Car rental rates vary from place to place and the internet is used again to check out all the deals available.  There are specials out there but you often have to spend some time hunting them down across the various car rental business websites.  Remember that the airport car rental locations have extra fees / taxes to deal with so you can sometimes do better renting your vehicle at non-airport locations.  Car rental reservations are very easy to do via websites.

I’ve used the process I’ve described above to set up trips for myself and my buddies since 2000.  Here are the locations where we’ve played a little golf and taken in the sites:

• Mississippi (Gulfport, Biloxi)
  
• Florida (Hutchinson Island, Port St. Lucie area)
  
• Georgia (Jeykll Island)
• San Diego
• Utah (St. George)/Las Vegas
• Tucson (Green Valley, Oro Valley)
• Kelowna.

By following this process we have stayed in some wonderful spots and played golf on some memorable courses.

Don’t expect things to work out perfectly 100% of the time particularly with regards to the golf, but this to also adds to the experience. For the most part the courses we have played have all been good.  There are some courses that we wouldn’t go back to because they were just average courses, especially in comparison to the really great courses we have played in a particular area.

In terms of the destinations my buddies and I enjoyed the most that we would go back to:

• Tucson, Arizona – already been there twice – great courses, great desert scenery, and many other things to do
  
• St. George, Utah – great courses, beautiful mountain scenery, great scenic drives, and close to Vegas
• San Diego, California – beautiful landscapes and beaches, great courses, good food
  
• Kelowna, British Columbia – beautiful mountain scenery, great courses, good food
  

We enjoyed the other spots we have visited but the 4 listed above were by far the best.

Comments appreciated – contact me at Lane@lifepast50.ca