TRAVEL TIPS

Chris Bertram’s golden rules to follow when organising the best week of the year

We’ve tried in this supplement to offer some ideas for your next golf holiday by describing a host of destinations worldwide.

But there are some general aspects we must consider, things which might shape in which direction you look for your 2021 golf break; where you go, who goes with you, when you go and how you pull it all together.

So we thought we would highlight a few key considerations, borne of our years of experience of going to various parts of the world, with various people and at various times. And the various ‘issues’ it has caused…

Interrogate yourself

From the very start, you need to ask yourself some searching questions.

What sort of holiday do you actually want? Packed with golf or just the occasional round?

What sort of golf do you want? Top 100-calibre courses or just some fun, cheerful tracks? Links, parklands, heathlands, or a mix?

What is your budget and what proportion do you want to spend on golf, accommodation, travel and food and drink?

Do you mind spending a lot of time travelling, both to get there initially and between courses once there?

Only once you have answered these kind of questions, candidly, can you start to narrow down your thousands of options.

Pick a captain

They don’t need an armband (though it has been known), but you need to pick a leader. Everyone can have some input into what happens, but having one person who is responsible for sorting it all out and bringing it all together is crucial.

Some travel agents let the organiser go free because it is so useful. Some of those chosen might be reluctant to take on the duties but get on with it, others will have spreadsheets coming out of their ears and pinging incessantly into your in-box. It doesn’t matter how they do it, just that they do.

Oh, and ensure they are utterly ruthless in getting a deposit from everyone – it’s amazing how few “family things” or “work stuff” crop up on the week of the trip once people have stumped up £150…

Weather watch

First, decide if you want sun, and what kind of sun. There’s playing-with-warmth on-your-back sun, and then there’s lyingby-the-pool sun. They are very different (Algarve does the former 10 months of the year but the latter only five) and you need to establish how important one or the other is to you and your friends or partner.

Secondly, be realistic about what each destination really, genuinely offers – there’s no point pretending “It’ll be OK when we get there” if it’s something you have no control over.

Be realistic

This is my greatest failing… trying to play just too much golf. Or golf that is spread too far apart.

It seems fun in the planning to think how you’ll play twice in a day and drive 80 minutes in between, but it actually isn’t. It leads to arguments, speeding tickets, hungry golfers who didn’t have time for lunch, and some bad golf because it’s all been a big rush.

Accept your perfect itinerary of courses isn’t possible and play once in a day or somewhere closer in the afternoon.

Remember, you’re on holiday and you’re meant to be having fun.

Friends disunited?

“There ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” Not my words, the words of someone who can actually write well: Mark Twain.

Or to put it another way, you know when you get your mates from home together, plus your mates from uni, plus your mates from work and it promises to be the best night out ever? And then it somehow really isn’t. Well, a golf trip can so often and so easily end up like that.

It’s the combination of tiredness, poor form (golf and otherwise), alcohol, fussy tastes in food and beverages, differences in what constitutes ‘expensive’, what time to get up for breakfast, and some personal hygiene issues. And that’s just if you go with your other half.

Golf trips tests relationships, so make sure those you invite have half a chance of getting on, because if one or more go ‘off tour’ it really is a pain. And if you’re reading this, you know who you are.

Oh, and never, ever go with a silly number – i.e. too many, or a five, which means there is always a two-ball, which weirdly seems like the boring group on a trip even though the rest of the time two seems fine and indeed normal. Eight is needless to say perfect and 12 is a bit unwieldy but acceptable. Sixteen is just asking for trouble, even if there

will be stories.

Expect the unexpected

Believe me, you need to assume things will go wrong. Because they will. And if you have an itinerary or a costing that assumes everything will be fine, you will come a cropper.

It depends on how adventurous your trip is, of course, but if you’re driving yourself between courses, for example, we have learnt the hard way that relying on phone GPS for navigation is risky, because sometimes you’ll forget to charge it and sometimes you’ll have no signal. And the signs in Slovenia weren’t

all that helpful, let us tell you.

The car hire debate

The $64,000 Question (on a golf trip). I usually do hire, but increasingly I’m sweating the decision. It’s so convenient and often more cost effective, but it is more hassle. Way more sometimes, especially if there’s a city involved, and thus parking. And if you aren’t going to use it loads, all the fuel tolls, initial cost and potential fines add up. Oh, and there’s no designated driver if you’re using taxis…

In the UAE for example, taxis are so cheap it is crazy to hire if you’re in Abu Dhabi or Dubai.

Booking dilemma

The $64,000 Question Part 2. I actually prefer arranging my travel independently because it gives you more freedom. You get good deals from the various elements and you get more flexibility – it all helps balance the books. But using a travel agent does cut out the work massively and they can offer expertise and will get some good green fee deals at times – but remember they have to make money for themselves, somehow…

The precious sticks

The $64,000 Question Part 3. To take or not to take your clubs? Well, 15 years of debating has led me to this conclusion: If you’re playing more than two rounds, taking your clubs is the way. Likewise if it’s just two rounds but one of them is bucket-list stuff.