What I look for when choosing a golf hotel

A beautiful bedroom is very nice.

A large swimming pool is very nice.

A perfectly folded towel waiting on the bed is also very nice.

But none of those things necessarily make a hotel good for golfers.

After a lifetime spent around golf and an increasing amount of time thinking about golf travel, I have become quite particular about what makes a hotel work on a golf trip.

And surprisingly little of it has to do with thread count.

Location beats luxury surprisingly often

Let us start with the obvious one.

Where is it?

You can stay in the finest hotel in the country, but if every round requires an hour and a half in a minibus, the shine begins to disappear fairly quickly.

Golfers already spend a considerable part of the day playing golf.

Four or five hours on the course.

Some practice beforehand.

A drink afterwards.

The last thing most people want is another three hours looking through a coach window.

That does not mean every hotel needs a golf course outside the bedroom.

But geography matters.

A good golf hotel puts you in the right place for the golf you have travelled to play.

Does the hotel understand golfers?

This is more important than it sounds.

Golfers have strange requirements.

We appear for breakfast earlier than normal holidaymakers.

We arrive back carrying large bags.

We may have wet shoes.

We need somewhere secure for clubs.

We care enormously about whether breakfast is available before an early tee time.

And we become surprisingly emotional if there is no coffee.

A hotel that regularly looks after golfers understands these rhythms.

That makes the entire trip easier.

And good travel, in my view, is often about making things easy.

Breakfast deserves its own section

Golfers talk about golf courses endlessly.

They rarely discuss breakfast when selecting a trip.

Then they arrive somewhere with an 8.00 am tee time and discover breakfast starts at 8.00 am.

Suddenly breakfast becomes the most important topic in European golf.

I want golfers to start the day properly.

You are going to be outside for several hours.

You may be walking a considerable distance.

You need time to eat rather than grabbing something while trying to put your shoes on.

It is a small detail.

Small details become very important when you have a group of people doing the same thing at the same time.

Somewhere comfortable afterwards matters too

The hotel has another job once we return.

It needs to allow the day to slow down.

I like a property where golfers can comfortably gather after the round without feeling that they are sitting in an airport departure lounge.

It might be a terrace.

A comfortable bar.

A restaurant.

A pool area.

Somewhere that naturally becomes the place you reconvene.

Because the conversation after golf is part of the golf holiday.

That is where the round is replayed.

The birdie improves with every telling.

The missed putt becomes shorter.

The unlucky bounce becomes considerably more unlucky.

And the person who won somehow forgets to mention the two six-foot putts they holed on the last three holes.

A spa is not compulsory, but I won't object

I may be a golf professional, but I have reached the age where I fully understand the appeal of a spa.

Golf is physical.

Several consecutive rounds can remind you of muscles you had forgotten existed.

A pool, spa or decent wellness facility can therefore be a real advantage.

Not everybody will use it.

Some people would rather spend the afternoon hitting another bucket of balls.

That is fine too.

A good resort gives people options.

Dining matters more on a group trip

Food is another area where the requirements change when you are travelling as a group.

You want quality, certainly.

But you also want flexibility.

Can we eat together?

Are there several options?

Can somebody find something simple if they do not want a formal dinner?

Is there somewhere else nearby if we want a change?

The best golf trips establish a rhythm.

Golf.

Relax.

Dinner.

Conversation.

Sleep.

Repeat.

The hotel plays a much bigger part in that rhythm than people realise.

Five-star does not automatically mean five-star for golfers

This is probably the key point.

Star ratings tell you about facilities and standards.

They do not tell you whether a hotel is right for a particular trip.

I would rather stay at an excellent four-star property that understands golfers and sits perfectly within the itinerary than choose a more luxurious hotel simply because it looks impressive in photographs.

What matters is how the whole trip fits together.

Golf travel is a collection of moving parts.

Courses.

Accommodation.

Transfers.

Food.

Flights.

Coaching.

Downtime.

Get them working together and everything feels effortless.

Get one badly wrong and everybody notices.

The best hotel almost disappears

That might sound like an odd compliment.

But I think the best golf hotel is the one you barely have to think about.

You sleep well.

Breakfast works.

Your clubs are safe.

The transfer arrives.

You enjoy coming back after golf.

Dinner is easy.

Nothing becomes a problem.

That gives you more time to concentrate on why you travelled in the first place.

Playing golf.

Enjoying yourself.

And wondering how on earth that putt on the 16th stayed out.

When I look at destinations for hosted trips, that is the standard I am trying to apply.

Not simply: "Is this a good hotel?"

But:

Is this a good hotel for this golf holiday?

There is a difference.