What 14 years in golf travel actually taught me

I started doing this in 2010. The world of golf travel was different: the big operators had large call centre teams, the internet was beginning to displace brochures but hadn't finished the job, and the idea that a specialist could build an entire business around personal knowledge rather than commission-driven sales was still considered eccentric.

Here is what fourteen years has taught me.

The destination matters less than most people think. What matters is the structure of the trip. I've had clients return from extraordinary courses feeling like they'd been shortchanged because the logistics were difficult, the weather caught them on the wrong day, and nobody had thought to build in a recovery round. I've had clients return from mid-tier courses absolutely elated because the pacing was right, the hotel was better than expected, and we'd timed their best course for their third day when they were warmed up.

The worst thing you can do is over-programme. Ten rounds in seven days is not a golf holiday. It's an endurance test. The best golf trips have rest built in. One round on, one afternoon off. The 'wasted' afternoon at the pool is usually what gets talked about when clients come back.

Most golfers underestimate how much a bad first round affects the rest of the trip. If you arrive on the first day, jet-lagged or tired, and play a difficult course badly, the following rounds carry that psychological residue. Our standard structure: arrive, settle, lighter course on day 2, main courses days 3–6.

The courses that changed how I think about golf: Leopard Creek. Nine Bridges in South Korea. The Old Course on a grey October morning when the wind was 25 mph and the rough was knee-high. Pebble Beach at 7am when the Carmel fog was still sitting on the bay. These places do something to you that takes weeks to fully understand.

The single piece of advice I give every new enquiry: tell me what you've already done and what you're trying to feel. Not 'I want to go to Portugal.' Tell me what made the best trip you've ever taken the best trip you've ever taken. That's the conversation that builds the right trip.

The mistake operators make and that I've worked hard not to make: assuming that the golfer who enquires about Portugal wants Portugal. Sometimes they want the feeling of the last Portugal trip — warmth, ease, familiar courses with friends — and the answer is Portugal. Sometimes they want the feeling without the destination, and the answer is somewhere they haven't thought of yet.

Fourteen years in, the trips that make me most proud are the ones where I talked someone out of their safe choice and into something they wouldn't have found on their own. Japan. Vietnam. Jeju. Kenya. The clients who trusted me on those trips are the ones who call me back without prompting.