By: Randall Ulbricht
Remember last year?
You waited all year to get together with your friends for your annual golf vacation. It was supposed to be perfect, but you bought “the package” and your outing turned out to be simply adequate. You all had such high hopes, but you had to take what the package provided.
Sound familiar? Have you been on the receiving side of a less than perfect golf vacation? In all fairness, most golf packages are good. Some are great. But they truly are packages designed for the mass market with little flexibility and no individual flair.
A standard golf vacation package provides lodging and one round of golf per day, including a cart. The lodging usually means motel or hotel accommodations with two people per bedroom. In most cases, you can choose from several different courses, and select your advance tee times. They will even throw in a continental breakfast. The prices are fair, but varying from the standard package starts adding cost in a hurry.
Again, “the package” will yield a good to great vacation, but we need to discuss the perfect vacation. Envision this:
-A beautiful vacation house with a separate bed or bedroom for each person.
-Gourmet dining each evening.
-As much or as little golf as you want, where you want and when you want.
-Evening entertainment.
-Maximum camaraderie.
I have been setting up this type of annual golf vacation for my old high school and college friends since 1988. Over those 18 years, we have refined Our Event to what we think is the perfect annual outing. Our first few years were terrific even though we had to keep the costs down. Each new year improves on the last.
We have settled on a full seven days, Saturday to Saturday. In general, we schedule 36 holes per day, and modify that day by day to wind up with an average of about 27 holes per day. Our smallest group was five gents one year, and the largest group was sixteen. The perfect group size is eight, but anywhere from six to twelve works great.
