Back in the days before modern air travel and global supply chains managed by artificial intelligence, a group of friends seeking a world-class golf trip would take to the open road armed with nothing more than their clubs, a handful of snacks from the gas station and a can-do attitude. Air travel aggregation websites and companies dedicated to ensuring the safe arrival of golf clubs made it much more affordable and practical to fly to golf destinations, but things are a little different these days and the golf road trip is seeing a resurgence.
Here are five reasons a golf road trip is way more fun than flying:
Road Trips Create Excitement, Plane Rides Create Boredom
Let’s face it, even with the most stringent and dedicated planning, you and your buddies just aren’t going to spend your time at the airport together. You won’t sit next to each other – at least not all of you – and you’re going to have your face in your phone the entire time. It’s boring, and it’s just one of those things that happens at the airport.
You and three buddies in the car, however, creates an intimate – and never boring – setting where each of you can explain your plans, your excitement to play both award-winning courses at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club, participate in friendly banter about one of your friend’s weird taste in music and relive the glory days of golf trips past.
No Doubt Your Clubs Will Be There
There are no less than five different companies specializing in shipping your golf clubs. To be honest, they do a great job almost every time. But if you put your trust in a shipping company to deliver your clubs to your destination, there’s always an outside chance they don’t arrive on time. The only way to be 100 percent certain your golf clubs arrive at your golf destination is to carry them yourself.
No Waiting – Airports or Otherwise
The airport can be a miserable place. Even those who aren’t deathly afraid of flying and don’t feel the need to self-medicate at the airport bar at 9 a.m. still feel the “hurry-up-and-wait” aura of the modern airport. It’s too crowded, the food is overpriced and you’re likely more focused on how long you’ve been waiting in line than what is ahead of you after the flight.
Road trips eliminate almost all waiting, and when you factor in the taxi ride to the airport, TSA checkpoints, boarding time, flying time, rental car pickup and driving to the hotel, a two-hour trip by air quickly becomes much longer than simply jumping in the car and driving to Scottsdale.
Flexibility in a Rigid, Modern World
The open road provides much more freedom than airline travel. Instead of blocking out hours and hours of pre-boarding waste, those who opt for the drivable golf trip have the flexibility to do whatever their hearts desire, whenever it tickles their fancy.
Want to stay an extra day because one of your friends shot the low score of his life? Done. No big deal. Found a new place to eat you want to try before you head back home? Easy. Need to head back home early for whatever reason? No change fees, no hassle, just pack up and go. They don’t call it the open road for nothing.
Experiencing the Entire Destination, Not Just the Airport
Modern airports try their hardest to capture the essence and feel of the local destination they represent, but they can’t possibly embody all of the cultural nuance of any one place – especially a large metropolitan area like Phoenix, Arizona and its surrounding cities.
Driving through a region allows you to experience all of the cultural flare, similarities and differences compared to your hometown and the subtle nuances that make each area of the world special. In the case of We-Ko-Pa Golf Club and Scottsdale, drivers coming in from anywhere will marvel at the pristine and untouched Sonoran Desert, the saguaro cacti found nowhere else in the world, and the beautiful oasis that is the Valley of the Sun.
