Five courses, six days, eight golfers – AGS handled every inch of it.
We just returned from a week in the southwest of Ireland – Doonbeg, Waterville, Tralee, Ballybunion Old, and Old Head – arranged start to finish by *** Stanley and the team at AGS Golf Vacations. I have organized my share of group trips. This one ran better than any of them, and the difference was AGS.
Start with the routing. Eight guys, five of the best links courses in the world, and a schedule that never once felt rushed or backtracked. We landed at Shannon and were at Doonbeg inside seventy minutes. From there the trip moved logically – Doonbeg, three nights in Killarney with Waterville and Tralee off that base, then Ballybunion and on to Old Head for the finish, with a short run to Cork for the flight home. Nobody spent a day in a bus wondering why. Caddies were arranged at all five courses and were excellent throughout.
Our driver, *** Caffrey, deserves his own paragraph. He had us early everywhere, knew every road on the Ring of Kerry, and put up with eight Americans for six days with genuine good humor. He became part of the trip rather than a service attached to it.
The hotels were equally well judged – Trump International Doonbeg, the Killarney Park, and Old Head Suites all hit the mark.
Worth flagging the pre-trip support as well. I ran a full match-play competition across the week and needed official scorecards, ratings, and slopes ahead of time. *** produced them without hesitation, along with everything else I asked for.
I would use AGS again tomorrow and I have already told several friends the same. If you are putting a group together for Ireland, call *** and let him build it. He is very good at this.