If you're anything like me, you hit the road for business with some frequency. And when you do, you usually wonder beforehand if you have enough time to fit in a round or two of golf. Two problems come to mind:
- You have to find some place to play that's not a dog track;
- You have to lug your clubs, which is a pain, could cost money and weigh three times as much as your other luggage combined.
So, more often than not, unless I was traveling with an agenda that specifically includes playing golf, I typically haven't brought my clubs with me and I don't play. I say that using the past tense because I recently found a new service that takes care of both of those concerns, called ClubCorp Travel.
I was reading a travel blog I typically scope out when I saw a post that caught my eye, one describing ClubCorp Travel. As many of you probably know, ClubCorp owns and manages scores of private clubs around the country. ClubCorp customers can purchase a full membership that affords them access to not only their home club but also any ClubCorp-managed club around the country. Sounds pretty great, and I have a few buddies who enjoy the fruits of that.
ClubCorp Travel is a spin on that membership. For just $50 per month (and a one-year commitment, so you're in for $600 for the year), ClubCorp Travel members get access to any ClubCorp club around the U.S. that's at least 100 miles from their home. For that small fee, members can play any ClubCorp facility for free twice per month, per club with a tee time set for any time Monday-Friday and after 12 p.m. on weekends and holidays. Tee times can be set 21 days in advance.
Members also get complimentary TaylorMade club rentals on site. So, if you're hitting a bunch of different destinations in a month, you'll never worry about paying for green fees (though I'm told cart fees may apply for extra).
Further, members can access pools and tennis courts at these clubs. ClubCorp also runs some 50 business clubs around the country, and members can eat at each one twice per month and have a four-star meal. There are additional member benefits, like discounts on hotels and at Omni resorts and other places.
If you know the quid pro quo of golf, there are plenty of gratis things that I write about (and explain). ClubCorp Travel is not one of those things. I actually signed up for and am paying for this service every month. They're waiving the initiation fee, as best I can tell, in a lot of states, so this is a pretty killer deal if you're a regular traveling golfer who doesn't want to lug the sticks or scour a tee-time site to roll the dice on a last-minute rate.
I'm going to use the benefit for the first time in Las Vegas in a few weeks, and I'll report back with how it goes.
