Golf Outings

February is the heaviest month for sports requests we see, and the Phoenix Open is a big part of why. The tournament fills TPC Scottsdale and most north Scottsdale hotels for a week, and it sits in the middle of the Valley's best golf weather. A February buddy trip competes with tournament traffic for tee times and vehicles both. The tournament transportation page covers that week specifically.

Golf groups are usually two or three foursomes, and for ten or fewer, Sprinters are what we quote more than half the time. For golf we steer most groups to the executive version: a 12-passenger executive Sprinter carries eight golfers and their bags comfortably. Small groups here typically ask about three weeks out, but golfers should beat that in peak season, because the tee times at the good courses go first.

Summer is the Valley's golf bargain. Green fees at well-known courses drop hard, tee sheets open up, and vehicle choice is at its widest. The catch is the heat, which means a dawn tee time and being off the course by eleven.

A golf bag takes about the same floor space as a person, and that single fact decides the vehicle. Eight golfers in an eight-passenger vehicle doesn't work. The rule that holds up is a seat and a half per golfer when the clubs ride in the cabin.

• One foursome: any Sprinter, with room to spare.
• Two foursomes: a 12 or 14-passenger executive Sprinter.
• Three to five foursomes: a 24-passenger coach bus or larger, where bags stow and seats face forward.
• A full scramble field: usually several coaches running from one hotel.

Hard travel cases are bulkier than carry bags, so say which you have. If you're flying in and going straight to the course, luggage is aboard too, and the capacity checker takes both at once. A party bus works for a golf day that ends in Old Town, and the 18-passenger party bus suits two foursomes who want the ride home to be the nineteenth hole.

The Valley has around 200 courses, and the famous ones are nowhere near each other.

• North Scottsdale: TPC Scottsdale, Grayhawk and Troon North, twenty to thirty-five minutes north of Old Town hotels.
• Fort McDowell and Fountain Hills: We-Ko-Pa's two courses and SunRidge Canyon, east on Shea or SR-87. The Fountain Hills page covers pickups out that way.
• Salt River: Talking Stick Golf Club, ten minutes from Old Town and right beside the resort.
• Central: Papago and the Biltmore courses, close to the airport and downtown.
• South: Whirlwind at Wild Horse Pass, plus the Ahwatukee and Chandler clubs.
• West Valley: the Wigwam's three courses in Litchfield Park, Verrado, and the Surprise-area clubs.

A group staying in Old Town playing Troon North one day and the Wigwam the next is looking at a 35-minute drive and a 45-minute drive, both before sunrise. That's the use case in one sentence.

Work backward from the tee time and be honest about how slowly golfers move in the morning. Courses want you there 30 to 45 minutes early for check-in, range balls and cart assignments.

A round takes four and a half to five hours, plus warm-up and lunch. That's six hours where the vehicle is parked, and there are two honest ways to handle it.

Keep it for the day when the plan has more than two stops: hotel, course, lunch somewhere else, maybe a brewery, then dinner. Luggage and street clothes stay on board and the schedule can flex if the round runs long.

Book a morning drop and an afternoon pickup when the day is simply hotel to course and back. Ask whether that structure is available for your date and what minimums apply, because it's not the same answer every day of the week.

Either way, give us the expected finish, not just the tee time. A shotgun start finishes together, which is easy. Consecutive tee times mean the first group is done forty minutes before the last, so plan lunch at the clubhouse as the buffer. Compare the legs between hotel, course and dinner in the drive time calculator.

The annual buddy trip. Eight to sixteen guys, three or four rounds, a rental house or a block of resort rooms. The big win is one transportation plan for the whole trip instead of four rental cars and a nightly argument about who's driving to dinner. Mix it: an executive Sprinter for the course runs, something livelier for the night in Old Town.

The client round. The ride is part of the hospitality. Forward-facing leather, cold water and a quiet cabin let the conversation start before the first tee, and one vehicle covers golf and dinner. The corporate page covers invoicing and multi-vehicle programs.

The charity or company scramble. Seventy-two or 144 players, a shotgun start, and an open bar at the awards lunch. A shuttle from one or two hotels keeps impaired drivers off the road afterward, which is something event committees increasingly plan for rather than hope about. Large coaches for a spring Friday should be requested well ahead.