By Ed Schmidt, The Golf Travel Guru
Your airline tickets are purchased, tee times are made and you are set to embark on your DREAM Golf Trip!
Don’t forget to pack your “A” game! Plus, a few other important items that will help prevent annoyances and hassles that will quickly turn your “A’ game into a “C” game or worse.
Here are ten tips to make sure your trip be full of great memories. Some of these I learned the hard way by forgetting them or foolishly disregarding advice from fellow golf travelers and writers.
1. Invest in a Top-Quality Travel Bag
Absolutely, positively don’t try to save money by purchasing a cheap travel cover. You can protect your golf club investment by getting a cover from a respected company like Club Glove, Sun Mountain or Bag Boy.
More Tips:
- Don’t select an all-black cover so you can avoid looking like everybody else. You’ll save time finding your bag on the carousel if it has a recognizable color treatment.
- Use your travel cover as an additional piece of luggage by packing shoes and extra shirts on departure and dirty laundry on your return.
- Make sure your nametag or business card is placed on the outside of the bag and the inside as well, just in case the outside card is displaced.
2. A lightweight carry Bag for the British Isles
If you’ve every played golf in this part of the world, you’ll notice that the most experienced caddies gravitate to the lightest bag in the group. Show up with one of those giant staff bags and you’ll be treated like someone with a contagious disease.
3. Microfiber clothing
These amazing fabrics were made for golf travelers. They’re lightweight, wrinkle resistant and dry quickly. Plus, they make layering for cool mornings and hot afternoons much easier.
Remember the weather can change at any time and once you are there, you’re going to play, rain, or shine.
4. Quality golf outerwear
If you want to be miserable, I mean truly miserable, take a golf vacation to Scotland, Ireland, or the Monterrey Peninsula in California with low cost, ragtag, makeshift rainwear. Standing in a fairway with a thirty-mile an hour cross wind and a heavy downpour without adequate protection is not a memory you’ll treasure. Take some advice and spend the extra dollars for a top name like, Glen Echo, Columbia, Galway Bay, or Zero Restriction.
5. Take along stain remover for mud, or other mishaps
If you don’t, you might bring home a mud-splotched pair of golf slacks or khakis as a souvenir of your trip.
Plus if you have been overserved during dinner and spill sauce, beer, or red wine, you will still look good on the first tee, despite your aching head.
6. Waterproof golf shoes (with shoe trees)
You must have a dry pair available in case you get caught in a downpour. Ideally, you need to take at least two pair of waterproof golf shoes, especially on trips four days or longer. Also, pack an extra dry set of socks in your golf bag each day to change with your shoes if a downpour occurs.
I don’t think I have ever been on a golf trip that it didn’t rain at least one day during our journey.
7. Quality golf umbrella
Don’t depend on the cheap logo umbrella you received as a gift at your last corporate golf tourney. Invest in a top quality umbrella that can withstand strong winds and, more importantly, keep you dry between shots.
Both Gustbuster and Haas-Jordan are two trustworthy brands that make quality umbrellas.
8. Sizeable golf ball inventory
In my experience, buying golf balls outside of the U.S. always involves serious sticker shock and a suddenly exploding travel budget. If you are a high handicapper take more golf balls. Honestly evaluate your game to calculate how many golf balls will be enough.
9. Extra items
If you’re traveling in the British Isles or just about anywhere away from the continental U.S., take extra tees, pencils and divot repair tools, which aren’t as readily available at golf courses outside the U.S.
10. Healthy snacks
Packed extra boxes of granola bars and peanut butter crackers, especially if you’re playing in the British Isles. The beef barley soup and fish and chips are delicious and are treasured favorites after a round, but you will need healthy snacks during play.
Golf travel has been on the upswing both in the United States and Internationally over the past couple of years.
We hope you enjoy your golf travel adventure and that these tips will make your trip go smoother.
Reprinted from TheGolfTravelGuru.com with permission from Ed Schmidt.
