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A lot of luxury tour operators offer lavish golf trips to exotic locales.
But how many offer the chance to meet and mingle with a golf legend?
Insider Expeditions, a travel company offering high-end experiences around the globe, has created the Gary Player South African Safari, an exclusive 12-day golf adventure this December.
We visited South Africa years ago and have always dreamed of returning. Mixing golf and safari brings outdoor exploration to the next level. This is Africa, after all, where the animals are truly wild.
The Gary Player South African Safari involves so many chances at once-in-a-lifetime memories - a VIP lunch with Gary Player during the DP World Tour's Nedbank Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club; golf and more hang time with Player at his fantastic design, the Links at Fancourt, host of the 2003 Presidents Cup; a "world-class" Rhino experience, a stay at a safari lodge inside the famed Kruger National Park, gourmet meals and more. When we toured Kruger, we witnessed up close a fascinating battle between a pride of lions and a few hyenas for a kill. It's moments like these that you realize how amazing South Africa can be.
This trip normally costs $21,500 per golfer, but we've secured a special promo code - "golf pass" - for our readers to save $1,000. With fewer than 40 participants, it's sure to be an intimate and memorable affair. For more information on the Gary Player South African Safari, click here.
More Secrets from the World of Golf Travel
Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge survives devastating wildfire
Our anxiety levels were high wondering if the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge had survived the devastating wildfire that wiped out sections of the charming mountain town of Jasper in Alberta, Canada. Thankfully, the resort's Instagram handle shared July 30 that most of the resort's oldest and most important structures did indeed make it.
There's no word yet on the condition of its treasured Stanley Thompson golf course, however. Likely, it's sustained tree and turf damage, altering its wonderful mountain backdrop forever. Jasper Park Lodge is currently closed for the foreseeable future for repairs. When it does reopen, be sure to show up and support the region's rebirth. This is one of our favorite remote golf outposts anywhere in the world.
How YOU can play one of Idaho's best private clubs
We recently had the pleasure of getting inside the gates at the Whitetail Club, one of Idaho's best private clubs. You can play it, too, if you stay at the nearby Shore Lodge in McCall, which offers stay-and-play access.
Whitetail, an Andy North design, delivered the best greens we've putted on this year. They were racing, which made for a fun, challenging test of golf. The routing dives left and right for doglegs through thick lines of trees or that skirt ponds and bunkers. Diehard golf travelers can book tee times at the 27-hole municipal McCall Golf Course, the public Jug Mountain Ranch (15 minutes away) and the newly revived Osprey Meadows at Tamarack Resort (35 minutes south) for one heck of a long weekend of Idaho mountain golf.
Tee up the Sweetens Cove Road Show
With the uber-popular nine-holer Sweetens Cove Golf Club in Tennessee closed all summer for renovations, its golf-and-bourbon show has gone on the road. For those who have never been, Sweetens Cove is owned by a superstar group headlined by Peyton Manning and Andy Roddick. To celebrate its tradition where golfers take a shot of whiskey on the first tee, Sweetens Cove released its own line of bourbon in 2020 that has been very popular.
With the repairs ongoing at home, Sweetens Cove General Manager Matt Adamski is traveling in a life-size replica of The Shed - Sweetens Cove’s makeshift aluminum-sided clubhouse - to visit various golf clubs in August to promote the course and its spirits. The Sweetens Cove Road Show will make stops at Pinehurst Resort (Aug. 12), Tobacco Road in Sanford, N.C. (Aug. 13), The Fields Golf Club (Aug. 16) in Lagrange, Ga.; Park Mammoth (Aug. 19) in Park City, Ky.; and Red Feather (Aug. 26-27) in Lubbock, Texas, for unique all-day golf events where players swing away on as many holes as they want until they drop.
For more information and to register to play, click here.
“We’re going to do a one-day takeover at these courses and run them like we run Sweetens Cove—that means unlimited loops to multiple pins, event swag, food, bourbon and a very memorable experience,” says Adamski.
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