A Hidden Benefit of The Off the Beaten track Golf Trip

Here at Golf Trip Addiction we're watching our pennies closely these days. Who isn't? Even when we were rolling in it and flush we were watching where, when, and how we spent our hard earned dollars. The economic meltdown has definitely done a reset on consumerism in general and the types of greens fees, hotels, booze, and food, most of us are willing to pay for.






Deserted Main Street, Anywhere USA

Picking a lesser known, or even "unknown" destination for your next golf trip can have some obvious benefits:

• lower costs across the board: greens fees, car rentals, rooms, food, booze, everything, etc.
• less crowded usually means easier & cheaper access to the highest quality courses, hotels, restaurants, etc etc
  
• potentially friendlier, more grateful, less snooty service culture
• the course construction boom of recent decades means there are usually a few great tracks near any reasonably sized town
• smaller airport is an easy in, easy out scenario. LOVE this part. don't love the likely connecting flight to get there but you can't have it all always.
• we pick offpeak times of year for ridiculous, exponential value
  
• we're sure there's more.... thoughts?
  

Obviously this strategy works best when the whole crew is more concentrated on playing golf at great courses than with hitting the bar scene later in the night. Although, some of the best times come when you have no expectations. Thats part of the fun of discovery.

I live in New York City in Manhattan. It's a fairly big town :) I grew up in Chicago, another one.

For me that means I occasionally love getting away from the hustle and bustle and experiencing something very different from my regular surroundings. It also means I don't need a ton of nightlife options when I go away on a golf trip. If wanted nightlife I'd choose to stay home! If I wanted the company of a hottie I would have brought my wife along.

On these trips it's about finding amazing golf and the hole in the wall bar with a great bartender serving killer drinks and amazing pulled pork BBQ sandwiches etc etc. Local flavor that I can't get at home.

So here's the moral of the story: the hidden benefit of the lowbrow, offpeak golf trip:

When you go to Maui or Kauai or "Famous Golf Resort X" on a luxury golf trip it can be truly fantastic. We love that luxury like the next guy. But when you're packing up to leave, you're bummed out. You don't want to go home. You want to find a way to stay there forever and ever.

When you go to away to Biloxi on a golf trip you can't wait to come home :)

You're so ready! Coming home never looked so good after 3 nights and 108 golf holes on a white trash adventure to the hill country with the boyz. :) You're so glad you did it, you'd do it again, but you're so glad its over as well.

Everything is relative. Pull out the map and plot your next trip to Duluth, Minnesota, The Quad Cities, or somewhere in Kansas. Try it. Your wife will think you cheated when you hug her tight upon your homecoming but your new found appreciation for home is a wonderful hidden benefit. :)

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(ps: the author's tongue is just a little in cheek and I actually love golf in Biloxi and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and would go back any day. In fact, I'm planning a trip for the fall now if i can swing it. A post on the Dixie Mob: Biloxi's Best Courses & Casinos is in the que now)