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There's a lot on the line when you organize a buddies golf trip. But done right, the memories last forever. Matt Ginella/Golf Advisor As a group leader, make sure you don't schedule too much driving between rounds. It can be exhausting. Bradley S. Klein/Golf Advisor Every group has a dispersion of talent, so plan games and groups accordingly. Bradley S. Klein/Golf Advisor

By personality type I’m a certified, Type-A planner. That extends to golf travel, where I prefer to be driving the bus, so to speak, rather than riding along passively at the back.

I learned this back in the early 1990s when I gave in to a well-meaning, but overly ambitious marketing rep for golf in Northern Michigan who took me on a five-day trip to see 26 courses. Throughout the whirlwind I was variously furious, numb and overwhelmed. The upshot came when we saw two courses on the way to an Alister MacKenzie-Perry Maxwell gem, Crystal Downs Golf Club, where we teed off at 1 PM, then drove an hour back to Traverse City to play the Jack Nicklaus-designed Bear at Grand Traverse Resort. This being early July, we still had time for dinner in fading daylight.

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Flash forward to 2011, when on a professionally-organized bus tour through Northern Ireland and the West of Ireland, 24 of us endured rounds over 11 different courses in eight days while staying in five different hotels. It didn’t help that we all met in Dublin Airport in the morning after overnight flights, jumped on a bus for a three hour ride to Enniscrone and played that and the next two days through a steel-pellet rainstorm.

Too many groups run themselves ragged with overstuffed itineraries that include 36 holes a day and requires transport in between. Golf is fun. A forced march is not. Plan accordingly. Don't organize competitive golf for the first day you arrive. Let folks opt in or out on their own. The occasional, organized 36-hole is day is fine if played at the same or an adjoining property, but you’ll have more fun, get more out of the experience and feel more relaxed if the second round is a different format, ideally at the same facility. Play a two-man better ball in the morning, break for a relaxed lunch and play alternate shot that afternoon.

A surefire way to exhaust your group is to line up round after round of competitive stroke play. Every group has a certain dispersion of talent, and if you insist on such a format for your trip you’ll end up narrowing the participants by virtue of self-selection. Differ the formats. Include net and gross. Two-person better ball takes a lot of pressure off of people and still allows everyone to have fun. The same with alternate shot – ideal for the day’s second round, as is a two- or four-person scramble.

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For Streamsong, we will do three 18 hole competitions, a putting competition, and a shootout on the bye hole. If our destination has a short course, we always do a session there also. We award points and cash for every player in each session. Player with the most points at the end wins it all. Lots of variety, multiple chances to win, great competition and camaraderie.

There’s nothing wrong with the occasional open space on a schedule so that some folks can play tourist, others can sleep while some simply head out to pound more golf balls. That works well at multi-course facility like Bandon Dunes, where some people can’t get enough golf and others would prefer to tour the town or take a hike through the dunes.

And when you're traipsing through Scotland, there are going to be some people who want to divert around Loch Ness or Culloden Battlefield instead of playing Castle Stuart a second time. Even when you're traveling by bus, the availability of Uber gives the occasional golfer an easy out without disrupting travel for the others.

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Our group is 24. Been going for 20 years. Top shelf, but always best bang for buck. Best change we made over the years: one round per day starting late morning. Gives plenty of time before and after round for hitting balls, drinks, dinner and fun. Cheers!— Brad Bonner — Yellowstone Mediation (@bradbonnerYM) March 1, 2018

Anyone who has ever budgeted a project knows that you're better off being conservative (i.e. realistic) in cost estimates and come in higher at the outset rather than lower. It's much easier giving back money rather than trying to collect a second time from everyone. And don't ignore the little stuff, whether it's meals, tips, gas, caddie fees or the price differential between single rooms and doubles. With big groups it’s probably best to set one fee and collect it in advance. PayPal’s Venmo app is a very good mechanism for cost sharing.

With smaller groups it could make sense to let the captain take charge and collect later. That’s what Evan Loudin (@loud1 ) did:

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In 2015 I took 3 buddies to Cabot for my birthday. We actually played Cliffs a few days after it soft-opened. Things I did: I paid for everything and had everyone pay me their share afterwards. I was good at estimating and came in almost to the penny at $2k each which I had quoted as an estimate. IMO this made the trip way more enjoyable. No worrying about splitting everything all the time. One credit card, we'll figure it out later. One guy didn't drink so it took some figuring on my end after the fact to separate that out. But it was totally worth it.

A lot of places offer discounts or freebies to the event coordinator. My advice is don't hoard the benefit, but share it with everyone. A little selflessness here goes a long way toward creating goodwill and trust.

Create mobile phone text list. Use wisely. Use cloud based folder (Box, DropBox, Google Drive) for shared docs, schedules, maps, phone list, emergency contacts…) Ensure everyone knows how to access the folder via their phone.— Joe Kane (@GolfTilDeath) March 1, 2018

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A few quick points on equipment. Make sure everyone has their golf bag name-tagged (it’s amazing how many experienced golfers don’t have this). And limit them to three bag tags per – nobody is allowed to carry 17 heavy tags. Have pity on caddies; keep the golf bag on the light side – a walking bag ideally, but certainly not one of those heavy leather pro bags. Suggest they all wear golf shoes that they’ve already broken in, lest they end up with very sore feet. And for trips to Great Britain & Ireland (and Bandon Dunes) it’s more important to have a good two-piece waterproof outfit than an umbrella; if it’s raining it’s likely to be sideways, in which case an umbrella is useless.

Finally, every group has its Problem Guy. It might be your slowest drunk. Or the one whose faultless sensibility can’t be pleased. If he doesn’t have a sense of humor about himself you’ll really have your hands full. Of course there’s always this advice, from Greg Martin @gm_mdgolf

Veteran golf travel, history and architecture journalist, Bradley S. Klein has written more than 1, 500 feature articles on course architecture, resort travel, golf course development, golf history and the media for such other publications as Golfweek, Golf Digest, Financial Times, New York Times and Sports Illustrated. He has published seven books on golf architecture and history, including Discovering Donald Ross, winner of the USGA 2001 International Book Award. In 2015, Klein won the Donald Ross Award for lifetime achievement from the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Follow Brad on Twitter

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We are a group of 4 golfers and since 1990 we have played together at least once a year. Next friday we will celebrate my golf club number 1.000 in Lumine, Tarragona, Spain. I have played in 170 different countries and my friend has already 177 countries.

We have found useful to have a trophy for the winner and also something to the last one (leather jacket and drivers cap)... the looser will be driving...

Just back from our 25th annual Golf 'til You Drop (GTYD). We have played 119 courses across 8 states over the years. This year at Ventana Canyon in Tucson. 16 guys, we play an 8 round Ryder Cup-style matchplay tournament. $200 per guy in the prize pool with CTPs, prize money for teams and individual points. Building on previous comments...we now look for resorts where we don't have to drive between courses. Delegate-- I have a competiton committee, a hospitality committee (dinners and our suite), logistics committee (bags, airport rides). One bill for all meals and the hospitality suite--I bill back everyone. We have a simple website and a nightly email blast of results for 100+ friends/fans/family. Ping me if you'd like a copy of our rules and history. Pete

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I do a trip with 20 guys (year 15) I'd like to hear the rules you play with- if you have time email them to me.

Small groups are better. Nothing worse then 7:00 am