Adrienne and I have been back in Sydney for 3 weeks following nearly 2 weeks spent in Chicago and Northern Michigan testing out the local golf courses and attending the IAGTO Boyne Michigan International Golf Tour Operators Conference.  The golf tour operators conference allowed us to meet many new suppliers and renew contacts with existing suppliers.  We have more ideas for interesting new golf tours in calendar 2026 than we have time to run the tours.

We played both Merit Club and Harbourside Golf courses when in Chicago – courses scheduled to be played on our Great Lakes Cruise (17/30 August 2025) when it finishes in Chicago.  Both were outstanding courses.  Merit Club offered the course conditioning and general member/guest service that you would expect from an elite USA private country club.

Michigan is a state few of us would have visited.  Golf in Northern Michigan is generally played from mid April to mid October – yes a short season of only 6 months due to the harsh winters.   However, the golf resorts are absolutely staggering in their golf course offerings.   We stayed at 4 golf resorts and they offered a combined 15 golf courses – yes 3 of the golf courses offered 4 golf courses each.  All the golf courses are of stunning quality and present a great value product.

Adrienne wrote a fascinating article in the local newspaper on our visit to Chicago and Michigan (including to Mackinac Island – another place we will visit on our Great Lakes Cruise) and it can be read by clicking here.

Japan 2025 & No June 2024 Newsletter

We decided to not produce our June 2024 newsletter until we had finalised and released our 2025 Japan Golf Tour. We released the tour itinerary on 7 July 2024 to those that had expressed prior interest and it sold out inside 48 hours. This was after increasing the maximum number of golfers (including hosts) from 32 to 36. In order to even up numbers, we have one room remaining for either a single golfer or golfer/non golfer couple. This will allow us to even out at exactly 36 golfers. This final room (for one golfer) will be sold to the 1st guest that requests.

This is a stunning itinerary with Adrienne and I dealing direct with suppliers and is bespoke throughout which needs to be compared with probably all other Japan Golf Tours released by Australian golf tour operators which simply white label (ie add a margin and place their name to it) tours put together by Japanese tour operators.

We have timed our tour for October 2025 when temperatures should be warm and the golf courses presenting with attractive Autumn colours. We note with surprise that a number of other Japan golf tours are scheduled for late March/April. Apart from having an opportunity to see the cherry blossoms in bloom, this is not good timing for a golf tour as temperatures are cool and the golf courses will not have adequately recovered from the harsh Japanese winters.

You can view the itinerary  by clicking here.

We now look to schedule a follow up repeat Japan Golf Tour but only if sufficient guest interest.  Please advise if you would like to join a late calendar 2026 Trendsetter Travel Golf Tour to Japan.

 

Golf Trivia – HOW MANY GOLF COURSES ARE THERE IN THE WORLD?

The R&A’s Golf Around the World 2019 study revealed that 78% of the world’s supply of golf courses (a total of 38,900) are located in just 10 countries: the United States, Japan, Canada, England, Australia, Germany, France, Republic of Korea, Sweden and Scotland.  By size, the 7 largest are as follows with Australia in 6th place:

  • USA – 16,752
  • Japan – 3,169
  • Canada – 2,633
  • England – 2,270
  • Australia – 1,616
  • Germany – 1,050
  • France – 804

Golf Tours in 2024 and 2025

All remaining 3 golf tours for calendar 2024 are fully sold out and wait list only.

For our 2025 group golf tours, 3 of the 7 tours are sold out with availability on the remaining 4 tours.

Click to access the full tour itinerary for any tour in this summary list:

Golf Cruises & Tours – Most With Availability

All scheduled Trendsetter Travel Golf Tours can be found by clicking here.

For further information, please contact David Cooper on either david@trendsettertravel.com.au or + 61 (0) 413 010 638

We wish you good golfing.

Best Wishes
Adrienne Witteman and David Cooper