What Doesn't Appear on the Itinerary
Lessons from Dozens of Golf Trips to Scotland, Ireland, and England
On paper, most golf trips across the pond look more or less the same. A list of courses, a few hotels, a coach or rental car, and a price tag.
What separates a good week from a great one almost never appears on the itinerary.
It's the decision to play golf after lunch instead of mid-morning. It's the hotel change you didn't make. It's leaving a night open for a local's dinner recommendation. None of those choices show up in the plan, and yet all of them make the difference.
They also can't be researched. They're earned, one trip at a time.
Nick Papadakes is the PGA Head Professional at Onwentsia Club near Chicago, and he has led roughly 27 trips for his members over the years, along with several more of his own.
After all that time on the road, he's developed a pretty good sense of what works, what doesn't, and what makes a trip memorable once the clubs are back in the travel bag.
We recently welcomed Nick on our Golf and the Good Life podcast to talk about his experiences traveling overseas. Along the way, he shared plenty of practical advice for Captains, PGA Professionals, and anyone else responsible for leading a group across the pond.
Here are a few of the lessons that have stuck with him.
1. Start With the Group, Not the Golf Courses
It might be tempting to start planning by making a list of the courses everyone wants to play.
Nick takes a different approach.
"It really starts off with the people," he says.
After leading so many trips, he's learned that group chemistry can have more influence on the experience than even the golf itself.
"You have to have the right chemistry," Nick explains. "You can have the best golf courses on any itinerary, but if the chemistry's not there, it just doesn't make for a good experience."
He also makes an interesting distinction between people who are golfers and people who play golf.
"If you're a golfer, you want to go to a place and you want to play golf all day and all night," he says. "If you're a person that plays golf, you want to go, have a little bit of fun, and do some other things."
That distinction can point toward a destination.
"I always say Ireland is perfect for the folks that play golf, and I think Scotland is probably more appropriate, and England, for the people that are golfers."
A few years ago, a group came to Nick certain that they wanted to go to St. Andrews.
Then they told him who was in the group, and he steered them another direction.
"I said, 'St. Andrews is lost on you guys.' The nightlife is fine, but it's not what this group wanted."
He suggested Ireland instead, and by his account, they had an absolute blast.
It takes a certain amount of nerve to tell a group they're wrong about the most famous place in golf. It also saved their experience.
In other words, before deciding where to play, start with who is going.
Nick with his Members at Turnberry during their 2022 H&B Expedition
2. Don't Try to Do Everything in One Trip
Nick has learned this lesson the hard way.
"Don't overbook. Don't do too much. Don't try to do everything in one trip. More is not always better."
It's an easy trap to fall into when planning golf trips to Scotland, Ireland, and England.
With so many great courses within relatively close proximity, the temptation is to squeeze in just one more round.
Nick cautions against it.
"Booking 36 holes a day isn't always a good idea. People start to get tired."
That fatigue tends to compound as the week goes on. The golf can become less enjoyable, conditions can get more difficult, and the trip that looked fantastic on paper can start to feel like a marathon.
His advice is straightforward: give people time to rest.
"Don't be afraid to offer a day off, where they can just do something on their own, or just make it a golf optional day.
And if anyone worries about the day feeling shortchanged.
"Golfers will find golf if they want more golf."
They always do.
More on this advice → Permission to Pause: Why Your Golf Trip Needs Some Downtime
On the first tee at Ardglass during their 2023 H&B Expedition
3. Think About When You Play, Not Just Where
Another lesson Nick has picked up over the years is the value of a little breathing room in the morning.
"I rarely, unless I absolutely have to, book morning tee times," he says. "We always book golf after lunch. Around 1:30 or 2:00pm seems to work well for us."
The reason is simple. Mornings on an overseas golf trip can serve a purpose of their own.
People can sleep in, work out, get some work done, or simply take their time over breakfast.
The 9:00 a.m. tee time might be more efficient, but for his groups, there is more value in giving everyone a little room to ease into the day.
An afternoon start also takes care of the one person in every group who wants to squeeze in another 18. Nick is often that person himself. The early hours are wide open, as long as everyone is back when the group needs them.
"If you wanna go off and play extra golf, that's great," he says. "But you gotta be respectful for the rest of the group."
Which brings up a phrase Nick credits to H&B's own Sam Baker:
"The bus waits for no one."
An easy exception to Nick's afternoon tee time rule: this 7:30am start at The Old Course
4. Limit the Number of Hotels When You Can
Nick also pays close attention to how much time his groups spend moving from one place to another.
"One of the biggest things for me is limiting the number of hotel changes."
His general rule is to stay in one hotel whenever possible. If that isn't practical, he tries to limit the trip to two.
Every move has a cost that can't be quantified on the itinerary. Bags out, bags on the coach, bags into a new room. Just when the group was beginning to settle in, it's time to start over.
His couples trip to Surrey this past May is the model. One base for the entire week, the longest drive of about 40 minutes, and a stretch of Heathland golf that included Sunningdale, Swinley Forest, The Berkshire, and St George's Hill.
Of course, that isn't always possible. Some destinations simply require more movement.
Southwest Ireland, for example, is a place Nick enjoys but acknowledges can involve significant time on the road and multiple hotels. In those cases, he believes it's important to have the right group for that style of travel.
That's really the recurring theme in Nick's advice: there isn't one formula for every group.
The right itinerary is the one that fits the people enjoying it.
A stunning day at Old Head during Nick's 2019 Expedition to Southwest Ireland
5. Give Yourself Margin, and Know Which Journeys Are Worth It
Nick has also learned plenty about the less glamorous side of overseas golf travel: getting there.
One trip involving 11 people turned into a 28-hour journey after a delay caused them to miss a connection in London. But his past experiences have taught him to identify the alternatives in advance just in case something goes wrong.
"If you don't have a good relationship with an airline, start one because it really does make a difference," Nick says.
He's also become more deliberate about building extra time into his itineraries, recognizing that an extra hour in the airport might be the difference between making that first round of golf or not.
But there's a difference between friction you didn't plan for and effort you chose.
Nick once took a group to Askernish, on the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist. Getting there meant a flight to Benbecula, a rental van with the keys waiting under the sun visor, and a drive down a single track road. They carried their own bags. Cattle were being brought in across the opening holes as the group teed off.
"What makes some of those trips so great is just the journey required to get there."
The key is knowing when that extra effort will add to the experience and when it will simply leave everyone wondering why this course made the list.
At Royal Dornoch, where every mile of the journey is always worthwhile
6. Remember That the Golf Is Only Part of the Experience
Perhaps Nick's most telling observation came when he talked about the relationships he has built over years of traveling overseas.
When he brings a group to places where he has longstanding relationships, they aren't simply arriving as another group of travelers.
"It's like I get to take our folks to, for lack of a better term, my clubs."
And that changes the experience.
"It really feels like we're being looked after, like we are really guests and not just a bunch of tourists."
The same holds for the person behind the wheel. A good Driver-Host can lift the entire experience, and the best ones read a group before anyone has to explain it to them.
"There are some groups that really wanna get the full tour and get to know what every little stone wall or monument might be," Nick says, "and there are other groups that just wanna get from A to B."
Over the years, his drivers have become part of the trip rather than a service attached to it. Members look forward to seeing them. And his advice, offered against his own instincts to control the details, is to lean on them more than feels natural.
"They wanna do that job. They want you to enjoy yourself and to be a part of the experience. Don't be afraid to lean on them to recommend a restaurant or a place to go."
It's also something he credits H&B with getting right.
"That's one thing that H&B has always done a really great job with, is making sure that they've got the right folks behind the wheel."
That sense of connection is also why Nick believes the most memorable moments often happen away from the golf course.
"I say it's the golf that gets everybody on the airplane, it's the stuff between the golf that usually makes the trip that much more special."
It's a sentiment that anyone who has traveled overseas for golf will recognize.
The courses may be the reason you go. But the conversations over dinner, the unexpected stop along the way, the relationship with the person who shows you around, or simply the time spent with friends in a place you've never been before often become the stories you tell when you get home.
More on this advice → The Benefits of a Driver-Host on an Overseas Golf Trip
Prestwick Golf Club: Where the welcome is always like being a member for the day
Start with the Right Group
After more than two dozen Member trips, Nick is still learning from each one.
His approach isn't about creating the most ambitious itinerary possible. It's about understanding the people going, matching the experience to the group, and leaving enough room for the trip to actually be enjoyed.
None of which appears on an itinerary. All of it was learned firsthand.
And perhaps that's the best advice of all.
Before you start counting up the courses, start by thinking about the people sitting around the table when the day is done.
Because the right group can make almost any destination a great one.
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