Every great golf trip starts the same way. Somebody drops a link in the group chat at 10:47 on a Tuesday night, and by morning, there are 41 unread messages, two competing spreadsheets, and one guy who's already bought a rain jacket.
Ask anybody who's been on a real buddies trip what they remember, and they'll tell you about the people. The 6 a.m. tee time nobody wanted. The putt your buddy still swears was good.
So we're starting with the people, then we'll get to where they should go.
Your foursome is already in your head
Read the headline again. A name came to mind before you finished it. Probably two. The fourth spot is where it gets interesting.
Golf's never had more people to pick from. The National Golf Foundation counted more than 29 million on-course golfers in the US in 2025, the eighth straight year of growth, and women now make up a record 28% of them. Your foursome might be college roommates, your sister-in-law who outdrives everyone, or three people from your Wednesday league who showed up once and never left.
Before the group chat gets serious, every foursome should be able to answer a few honest questions:
- Who's actually in? College friends, work friends, family, the league crew, or some glorious mix?
- Who plans the golf trip? If the answer is "nobody," that's why it hasn't happened yet.
- What's most likely to kill it? Cost, scheduling, PTO, or the one friend who always bails?
- If you won a trip for four tomorrow, how fast would you know your three?
If you answered that last one in under five seconds, you already know who you're calling first. If you'd need a bracket, that's a fun problem to have too.
The four people every golf trip needs
- The Planner: Books the tee times, builds the shared calendar, and sends the packing list nobody reads. Without this person, the trip stays a group chat fantasy forever.
- The Steady Hand: Shoots roughly the same number every round and keeps score honestly. They're the reason the betting game survives past the turn.
- The Wild Card: Could shoot 79. Could lose a dozen balls. You won't know until the second hole, and that's exactly why you invited them.
- The Closer: Picks the restaurant, orders for the table, and somehow makes the last night the best night.
Someone in your group is definitely the Wild Card, and if you can't tell who, we have some news for you.
Match the golf destination to the crew
Every foursome has a personality. Pick golf destinations that fit yours and the whole trip gets easier to plan.
The crew that wants volume
Myrtle Beach is the classic buddies trip for a reason. The Grand Strand has dozens of public golf courses within a short drive, cheap flights from most of the East Coast, and golf packages around every corner. You can play 36 a day and still find a seafood buffet open at 9 p.m.
Las Vegas brings the nightlife, and Mesquite, about 80 miles northeast in Nevada, brings lower green fees and quieter fairways. Plenty of groups split the trip: two days of golf in Mesquite, then a night on the Strip to lose whatever they saved.
The crew that walks
Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast is walking-only links golf, and it's the buddies trip by which every other gets measured. Bandon's five 18-hole courses are worth the long drive from anywhere.
Sand Valley in central Wisconsin pairs Coore and Crenshaw's original course with David McLay Kidd's Mammoth Dunes and Tom Doak's re-creation of the legendary Lido, which offers limited tee times to resort guests. Every course is walking-only, so pack comfortable shoes.
Gamble Sands in Brewster, Washington, has Kidd's original Sands course plus Scarecrow, which opened in August 2025. It's remote, and the Columbia River views are worth every hour in the car.
The crew that loves history
The Sandhills of North Carolina are where American golf grew up. Pinehurst is the anchor, with No. 2 fresh off the 2024 U.S. Open. Down the road in Southern Pines, Mid Pines and Pine Needles are classic Donald Ross designs with stay and play rates that make a group trip easy. Then there's Tobacco Road, Mike Strantz's wild, blind-shot playground in Sanford. Nobody leaves it without a story.
The crew that wants a road trip
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama is built for a car full of golfers. The RTJ Trail has 26 courses spread across 11 sites, so you can drive and play for a week without seeing the same hole twice.
The Great Lakes crew
Kohler, Wisconsin, is home to Whistling Straits, host of the 2021 Ryder Cup, and it's a few hours from Sand Valley if you want to double up.
Northern Michigan is the summer secret. Arcadia Bluffs sits high above Lake Michigan, and its South Course is a completely different, throwback-style test. Treetops in Gaylord stacks courses by Tom Fazio, Robert Trent Jones Sr., and Rick Smith. At Bay Harbor near Petoskey, the nine called The Quarry plays through an old shale quarry with stone walls on every side.
The crew that wants a showstopper
Payne's Valley at Big Cedar Lodge in the Missouri Ozarks is Tiger Woods' first public course design, and it ends with a bonus 19th hole to an island green under a waterfall. It's the best bet-settler in golf.
The Florida crew
Streamsong in central Florida has three courses carved out of old phosphate mining land. Cabot Citrus Farms, an hour north of Tampa, has the Karoo and Roost courses plus two short courses for the afternoon. Innisbrook near Tampa is home to the Copperhead course and the PGA Tour's Valspar Championship. And TPC Sawgrass has the island-green 17th, which your foursome will absolutely watch each other hit into the water.
The sunshine crew
Scottsdale and Palm Springs both deliver desert golf, warm winters, and a pool waiting after the round. Each makes a great golf getaway when the home course is under snow.
The coastal crew
Sea Island on the Georgia coast is a polished golf resort with Seaside and Plantation courses. The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup and two PGA Championships. And Pebble Beach is Pebble Beach.
Weekend getaway or full golf vacation?
A weekend getaway works for the drive-to golf destinations: Myrtle Beach, the Sandhills, or a stretch of the RTJ Trail. A full golf vacation makes more sense for the far-flung ones like Bandon, Gamble Sands, or Northern Michigan, where getting there eats a day on each end.
Whatever you choose, look at stay and play deals before booking tee times one by one. Golf packages usually bundle lodging with green fees, and the per-person math often beats booking each piece yourself. That's the cheapest golf travel tip we know.
The one we built for exactly four
That's why we built The Monterey Slam around a foursome from day one. It's five rounds across five Monterey Peninsula courses, including Pebble Beach, seven nights at The Inn at Spanish Bay, a full set of clubs, premium apparel, and $30,000 cash on top.
Four budgets and four PTO calendars are usually where these trips go to die. Here, it takes one entry and three names, and you've already got the names.
Entries for this round close November 14, 2026. Tap In, then go text your three.
No purchase necessary to enter or win. See Official Rules for eligibility and free entry details.
