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So, you have either volunteered or been press-ganged into organising your golf society’s annual tour. Here are our top tips to help you ensure that everything runs smoothly with the minimum of effort and stress.

1. Agree the outline for your golf break

Before you start arranging anything you need to know the budget, the number of nights, and ideally the exact dates. These are usually agreed by consensus, often on the course during this year’s tour, but before you start investing your time organising the next tour it is a good idea to circulate the outline to everybody. This will avoid misunderstandings later and allow you to get a good idea on the numbers.

2. Choose the right golf courses

It is important to match your choice of golf courses to your members’ abilities. If half the members of your golf society have a handicap of 28, choosing nothing but championship courses is a recipe for frustration! Make sure the golf courses have enough buggies or trolleys for your member’s needs, and that they are not too long a drive away.

3. Book the golf courses early

The popular golf courses get booked at peak times well in advance, sometimes a year ahead. The larger your party the more tee-times will need reserving in one block, and the earlier you will need to book the courses. Even so, be prepared for your first-choice golf courses to be already booked, and for a little juggling of the itinerary.

4. Get deposits from your golf society members

One thing you do not want to do is be out of pocket at any point. Although most golf courses do not require a deposit, whoever is providing the accommodation certainly will. This is one of the most difficult and time consuming aspects of organising a golf tour, and you will be well advised to get to grips with it early on. Asking for a deposit from your members well in advance will also allow you to make a good guess at the final numbers. The golf courses, and where you are staying, will want to know exactly how many of you there will be, and you can bet your bottom dollar that a large number of those members who haven’t paid you a deposit will let you down at the last minute. The best way of all is to get your members to pay their deposit direct to the hotel and let the hotel worry about getting the money in. Paying everything in full in advance can also avoid complications later.

5. Find a golf hotel with flexible meal and bar times

It is quite likely that the 19th hole will take a lot longer than you anticipated. And even if you finish this in good time it can still take quite a while to get a group of men to sit down at the dinner table. A good golfing hotel will understand this, and will also not be in a hurry to close the bar at the end of the evening when everybody is still having fun.

6. Make sure you have directions to the golf courses

Making sure everybody gets to the right golf course at the right time can be a challenge. Draw up brief, simple to follow directions, including the postcode of the golf course for those with Sat Nav, and make a number of copies. The time to distribute these is early on the previous evening – don’t leave it till later, or the next morning.

7. Make your golf tour interesting to be memorable

Use your imagination and try to make this tour stand out from others. Perhaps choose a theme and require everybody to wear suitable attire (bearing in mind the golf courses’ dress code), look for interesting competition formats which are also fun, and remember that golf tours are as much about the evening activities as the golf!

8. Send out a brief checklist

Bear in mind that most men, as any wife will attest, do not even know where their socks are kept, and will certainly benefit from a checklist to remind them of what to bring. Make sure to include dress requirements, handicap certificates, anything unusual, and directions to the hotel.

9. Let a good golfing hotel do it all for you

A good golf hotel can advise on golf courses and book all your tee times, provide directions to the courses and are very accommodating when it comes to food and the bar. You do little more than tell them where and when you’d like to play and they take care of all the rest. The hotel should ensure that everything runs smoothly and you can enjoy your trip, rather than you having to worry constantly about the organisation.

10. Get your successor lined up

Follow our tips and everybody will be singing your praises and thanking you for a great tour. There-in lies the danger: do too good a job and everybody will want you to do it next year, and the year after that! Make sure you have your successor for organising the next tour already lined up before you start this one, and then just sit back and enjoy the benefits of all your hard work.

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Source by Martin Watson

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