In February I did my first women’s coaching trip abroad to Spain. I thought it might be useful for me to let you in on my experience and to give you a short guide if golfing abroad is something you are considering.
- Taking your clubs abroad. On our trip we had a mixture of women flying with their own clubs as well as some ladies hiring some that were there waiting for them.
- Taking your own clubs gives you the benefit of knowing your own equipment (you know what you are getting) as well as the added extra of packing some more bits in this golf bag travel case to help reduce extra baggage.
- Hiring clubs- we used a local company that were very well priced (around £50 for 4 days hire) the girls were able to choose the brand of the clubs as well. The clubs were dropped off at the hotel the night before we arrived and collected the morning we left. This meant no stress having to navigate oversized bags around the airport.
- Buggies & trolley hire.
- Again, the girls did a mixture of walking with trollies and using buggies.
- I would recommend reaching the courses you will play first.. are there long walks between green and the next tee? How hot is it? How tricky is the course to navigate?
- These would be things to bear in mind, as there are added costs involved depending on what you opt for.
- Buggies, great for keeping up with pace of play if there are long gaps between holes. However, if sharing a buggy, be mindful of driving efficiently and parking a suitable distance away so you don’t have to keep walking a long way back to it.
- Pace of play.
- On a lot of resort courses, they tend to be very busy and will have starters driving round advising you to keep up with pace of play. When on our trip we had some small competitions which were all stableford based, so it gives a limit on how many shots to have and the option of picking up. This helped ensure the girls kept moving and if they felt they had lost ground, they picked up and walked a hole to catch up.
- Clothes.
- Bring layers! We were extremely lucky with our weather in February, but still needed layers. For the early morning starts a jacket was definitely required. When we played the Links course it was still lovely and warm, however as comes with being on a links course there was a cool breeze, so a lightweight zip jacket was just the ticket.
- Suitcase Essentials.
- Insect Spray
- Bite Cream & anti histamine tablets.
- Blister Plasters
- Suncream
- Sunglasses
- Bring snacks in your luggage for on the course
- Hydration tablets, great to have after a hot round in the sun.
- Cap/Visor
- A couple of golf gloves, just in case!
I hope this has helped for any future golfing trips you might have. I can’t wait for my next one!
Love Zoe x
PGA Pro Zoe North