2020: a year of no trips and a year of preparing for every trip

There is not much to say about 2020 as a golf travel year, because there was almost no golf travel. What I can say is that we used the time better than I would have done in a normal year, because a normal year doesn't give you time to think.

We researched 23 itineraries that we'd been meaning to develop. We rewrote our approach to client proposals — the documents we send after an initial enquiry that set out the trip in detail. We spoke to 847 existing clients over the course of the year (not to sell them anything, simply to maintain the relationship and find out what they were planning). Of those 847, we have converted approximately 340 into bookings in 2021 and 2022.

The most interesting finding from those 847 conversations: when asked where they most wanted to go when travel opened, the top five answers were Japan (first), South Africa (second), Vietnam (third), Scotland (fourth — specific about wanting links golf rather than just Scotland), and 'somewhere we've never considered.' That fifth category — clients actively asking to be surprised — has informed how we write itinerary copy, how we structure the discovery process on this website, and how we approach the initial conversation with new clients.

We also used 2020 to play courses we'd been meaning to play for years. The Scottish links circuit in September (courses were open ahead of overseas travel). Verdura in Sicily in October (Italy opened briefly). Monte Rei on a Tuesday in November when we were the only group on the course.

2020 was not good. But it was, for us, genuinely useful. The portfolio we have now — more depth in Asia, better preparation for Africa, clearer thinking about what makes a trip worth the distance — is partly the product of eighteen months of enforced groundwork.