Most of a golf trip runs to plan. The tee times are where you left them, the bus is outside the hotel at eight, and nobody in the group has to think about any of it.
Then a flight out of the States sits on the tarmac for five hours.
That’s usually the time you find out how good your tour operator is, and it’s the part of the job nobody puts on a website.
What happens on our end is a series of phone calls. We ring the courses ourselves, and because we’ve dealt with the same people for years, we’ll explore every realistic option…. a later time, a swap with another group, occasionally a different day altogether. Not always. Some mornings a course is full and that’s the end of it. But “we rang and asked” is a different service from an automated email telling you your booking is non-refundable.
If it’s one player rather than the whole group, the job changes. They land into Dublin on their own at four in the afternoon with the rest of the party already two hours down the road. On one recent trip, that meant organising a separate car on for the client at short notice. The client doesn’t have to stand at arrivals working out train times with their clubs beside them, and they’re at the hotel for dinner.
The same thinking covers the things that aren’t anyone’s fault. One group someone carrying an injury who didn’t fancy 36 holes in a day. The easy answer is to leave him in the clubhouse for the afternoon. Instead he spent it fly fishing, and by his own account got the better end of the deal.
None of that works without having a real person to call when plans change. There are six of us – Colm, Cian, Shane, Rory, Millena and Elaine – and we’re a small enough team that your trip never disappears into a call centre or ticketing system. The people answering the phone know the trip, know the suppliers and know what needs to happen next.
Lyons Links is one of 16 nominees for Ireland’s Best Inbound Golf Tour Operator 2026 at the World Golf Awards. Voting closes on 1 October, and if you’ve travelled with us, we’d be glad of yours.
Rory