The dangers of holiday golf and the damage it can cause

But there's a cure. It's called a golfing holiday

By now a lucky few whose plans are not constrained by school terms may already be enjoying an early summer break. In Europe that often means heading to the Mediterranean where June is the best month for the Cote d’Azur because it’s not yet either too hot or too crowded. The dog days still lie in the future.

Nevertheless, playing golf while on holiday is risky for amateurs. The allure of blue skies, wide fairways, flat bunkers and the chance to try out unknown courses in spectacular surroundings is often hard to resist. What’s more, playing partners aren’t the usual ones whose idiosyncrasies are familiar, sometimes irritatingly so. Instead, there are family and friends, old and new, to play with and if occasionally the pace of play is too leisurely it doesn’t really seem to matter.

Therein lies the danger. I never agreed with Arthur Balfour, the only British Prime Minister who took golf seriously, when he asserted “Nothing matters very much and very few things matter at all.” It’s easier to think this if you are born extremely rich and both your uncle and your godfather are former Prime Ministers than if you’re a mere mortal like myself. But in any case it simply isn’t true. As all subscribers know, golf really does matter.

Let’s be clear about this. The handicap system makes it possible for players of differing ability, gender and age to play golf competitively against each other in a way that is impossible in most other sports and you don’t have to be brilliant at the game to win more often than you lose. But it does have to matter.

There are some golfers who win their weekend battles far more regularly than others. The ones who win the most are the ones who want to win the most. In this respect, as in so many others, golf resembles life. Except that true golf addicts know it’s actually the other way round.

I remember a long weekend in St Tropez staying in a friend’s comfortable villa, the kind where you never have to pour yourself a drink because there’s always someone waiting to do it for you. One morning my host suggested that we give up the pleasures of Pampelonne and lunch at Club 55 and instead drive over to Golf de Cannes Mougins. I readily acquiesced, having never played this course despite enjoying many holidays in the neighbourhood.

The day was full of promise. Although the sun was hot the mistral was very much in evidence, keeping the temperature agreeable and adding challenge to many shots. We were joined by the Club’s President and his son, an excellent golfer. On the way round, the President told me that in 1926 a group of well-connected English golfers became dissatisfied with some Russians who at the time dominated Mandelieu, until then the only golf club on the Cote d’Azur.

A new course designed by Harry Colt was laid out. The Club must have been at the cutting edge of modern technology because the 1932 Golfer’s Handbook lists its phone number as Mougins 4. Ownership later passed to the Majestic Hotel before the members acquired control in 1977 and modernised the course, enabling it to host the Cannes Open.

The day we played it was in first class shape and a perfect place to relax. It’s testing enough from the back tees for good players. At many holes the views are pretty and the Clubhouse is delightful. Remarkably, given the intense development that’s taken place in the area, buildings do not intrude on the golf. This is a happy contrast to many newer courses where the need to flog plots of land mean houses are visible from every fairway.

As we walked along I casually inquired about membership. The President explained that it was currently full before stopping and turning to face me. He then added quietly, “But we can always find room for one of our friends”. Well, this is the South of France, after all. It was the answer I was hoping for, but my day job was very demanding at the time and I couldn’t envisage spending enough time there to make it worthwhile.

The main match was between my host and myself. After a par at the sensibly friendly opening hole, a couple of pulled drives and two errant putts left me four down after eight holes. Through the turn I steadied and hauled the match back to all square, exactly the kind of situation in which the player surging back usually prevails.

Alas, the day was so pleasant and the company so congenial that the momentum which I had so painstakingly built up was frittered away. Only a single putt on the eighteenth turned a couple of presses in my favour and avoided the transfer of an unpleasantly large number of euros.

Normally such an outcome would leave me miserable for the rest of the day, blaming failure on borrowed clubs, lack of familiarity with the course, or overtraining the previous evening at an alfresco dinner. But instead I warmly congratulated my host on his superior play and when we got home told the rest of the party what a great day we’d had.

The truth was that the holiday mood had taken over and concentration wasn’t maintained. Out on the course I was simply having too good a time and it didn’t feel as though it mattered who won. Not even having to part with cash could spoil a perfect day. Such feeblemindedness is as disastrous in golf as it is in life. When it comes to holiday golf, be warned: too much of it can damage your game.

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Definitely not to be confused with holiday golf is the infinitely more serious matter of a golfing holiday. On these trips nothing which distracts attention from the golf itself is permitted. Very great care must be taken to ensure that all who take part understand what the priorities are.

Even now I cringe to recall asking someone who I’d never met in person and who was flying up from Texas to host us at Cypress Point if we could have an earlier starting time than the one which had been agreed several weeks previously, because one of my group needed to catch an earlier than expected flight out of San Francisco.

“No” was the justifiably curt answer from this gentlemen, who probably scarcely understood why I’d asked since his personal transport was a plane capable of flying the Atlantic, a fact of which I was unaware at the time.

A significant part of the pleasure of a golf trip lies in the planning. Once that’s been done the weeks of eager anticipation before the day of departure make even the dullest work meetings easier to endure.

The best trips are those where the accommodation is on site, of which there is an infinite variety. This does not have to be luxurious, though sometimes it is, or have a magnificent view, though sometimes it does. A comfortable bed, a quiet environment and world class showers are the only essentials. A comparison of what’s available on different continents will will be addressed in a later post.

One important consideration is numbers. Travel alone if time is tight and you’re often rewarded by making new friends quickly. Travel with one companion if you know them well enough to be certain about how they will react to hazards such as cancelled flights or lost luggage. Most of all, remember that trying to arrange a visit to clubs which are only accessible with the help of a member will often be easier with a group of three or six than with one of four.

Either way, a trip dedicated to golf is sure to swiftly cure any damage done to your game by too much holiday golf. Please tell me about any new or strange experiences you encounter on your travels.