How Private Aviation Is Changing the Way Golfers Travel

For golfers planning a trip to destinations such as Bandon Dunes, Sand Hills or Arcadia Bluffs, securing tee times is often only half the battle. Reaching the course can require connecting flights, lengthy drives and a willingness to accept the possibility that weather or airline delays could disrupt an itinerary that took years to arrange.

Private aviation offers a different equation—particularly for groups of golfers, companies entertaining valuable clients and travelers who place a premium on recovering time.

Paul Kloet, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Jet Linx, recently joined the Chicago Golf Report Podcast to explain how private aviation can transform a golf trip. Based in the Chicago area and a golfer himself, Kloet understands both the appeal of America’s remote golf destinations and the challenges involved in reaching them.

“The unique thing about private aviation is there are a little over 5,000 airports in the country, and commercial airlines serve 500 of those,” Kloet said.

That difference gives private travelers access to smaller airports located much closer to many premier golf destinations.

Turning an Eight-Hour Drive Into a One-Hour Flight

Arcadia Bluffs in northern Michigan provides one of the clearest examples for Chicago-area golfers.

Driving from the Chicago suburbs to Arcadia can consume most of a day, particularly when traffic and construction complicate the trip around Lake Michigan. Kloet recalled one drive that took close to eight hours each way.

A private flight from Chicago Executive Airport can reach the area in approximately one hour.

“Let’s say conservatively it’s 14 hours,” Kloet said of the round-trip driving time. “I’ve given you back a full day effectively of golf—or, if you want to talk about it in golf terms, I’ve given you two rounds.”

The time savings could allow golfers to build a shorter trip around the same number of rounds. Depending on the schedule, a group could potentially visit northern Michigan without needing an overnight stay.

That may sound extravagant when evaluated strictly as transportation. But the calculation begins to change when four or more travelers share an aircraft, avoid a lengthy drive and recover an additional day.

Protecting a Bandon Dunes Trip

The stakes can be even higher when golfers travel to Bandon Dunes.

A Bandon trip may require extensive advance planning, and the resort’s growing popularity can make it difficult to reschedule a missed round. Commercial travelers from Chicago frequently connect through another city before completing the trip to Oregon, introducing another opportunity for delays or misplaced golf clubs.

Kloet experienced that problem himself.

He once lost approximately a day and a half of a Bandon trip because of commercial flight problems. The disruption cost him a scheduled round at Old Macdonald.

“I still regret that because of a flight delay,” Kloet said. “If you’ve got a four-day trip to Bandon, those four days or three days are just so valuable. You don’t want to have an instance where you’re not going to get back there for two years and you missed playing one of the courses.”

Private aviation cannot eliminate weather, but it can reduce connections, provide access to more airports and keep an entire group traveling together. It also removes one of the recurring anxieties of golf travel: whether every golfer—and every golf bag—will arrive at the same time.

Golf Destinations That Become More Accessible

Kloet identified several destinations where private aviation can substantially simplify a trip from Chicago:

• Arcadia Bluffs and other northern Michigan courses
• Bandon Dunes in Oregon
• Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri
• Sand Hills Golf Club and other Nebraska destinations
• Prairie Dunes Country Club in Kansas
• Florida golf destinations
• Cabot properties and other remote resorts

Big Cedar Lodge near Branson has generated particularly strong interest among Jet Linx customers during the past two years. Kloet said a group of four can reach the destination efficiently using a light jet, making it a realistic option for a business golf experience.

Sand Hills and Prairie Dunes represent a different advantage. Their locations contribute to their appeal, but they also make the courses difficult to reach through conventional airline service. Access to smaller airports can remove hours of ground transportation from either end of the trip.

The Business Case for Private Golf Travel

The value of private aviation is not limited to recreational golf groups.

Companies have long entertained clients in luxury suites, at private clubs and during major sporting events. A carefully designed private golf trip can elevate that concept by combining transportation, golf and hospitality into one shared experience.

Kloet offered the example of a company inviting 12 important customers or prospects on a golf trip. If each relationship could potentially produce $1 million in long-term business, the company has placed $12 million in potential revenue on the aircraft.

The trip remains a substantial investment, but the business can evaluate that expense against the potential value of the relationships being developed.

“You can attribute an ROI to that,” Kloet said. “Yes, you did spend the marketing dollars and made the investment in it, but look at what it got you.”

Private travel also creates more time for the participants to interact. Instead of arriving on six different commercial flights at different times, the group travels together in a private environment.

Golf is already considered a valuable relationship-building activity because participants spend four or five hours together. A shared flight can extend that experience by several more hours.

“There is such a bonding element that can happen during these flights,” Kloet said. “Relationships that didn’t exist or weren’t maybe as strong prior to something like this—you get people on this plane together for two hours, and coming off it, people are slapping each other’s backs and high-fiving.”

The concept could be particularly appealing to Chicago companies during the winter. Instead of hosting clients at a local indoor event, a business could potentially arrange a same-day or overnight golf experience in Florida.

More Than the Flight

Jet Linx operates two primary business divisions: aircraft management for private aircraft owners and its Jet Card membership program.

The company manages nearly 100 aircraft and has approximately 1,200 active Jet Card members across the United States. Members have access to light, midsize, super-midsize and heavy aircraft through the same program.

According to Kloet, the Jet Card provides guaranteed availability and established hourly rates. Members do not pay repositioning fees, and Jet Linx will locate another aircraft if the original plane cannot complete the trip.

The program can be accessed through an initial deposit or an annual fee with pay-as-you-go flight charges. Kloet described approximately 20 annual flight hours as a common fit for Jet Card membership, although some customers use the service for closer to 10 hours.

The company also operates 22 private terminals, including a Chicago-area location at Chicago Executive Airport. Jet Linx manages eight aircraft for Chicago-based owners and maintains a local staff that includes pilots, maintenance technicians and flight-concierge personnel.

That local presence supports a service extending beyond the aircraft itself.

For visitors traveling to a major event such as the Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club, Jet Linx can arrange ground transportation, catering, hotel recommendations and dinner reservations. A vehicle can be positioned feet from the aircraft when passengers arrive.

Some Presidents Cup visitors are even using private aviation to attend for a single day before returning home that evening.

“The customer base is truly looking at private aviation today as not necessarily a luxury item, but a financial and lifestyle choice,” Kloet said.

Calculating the Value of Time

Private aviation will never be an economical alternative for every golfer or every trip. The strongest use cases emerge when several factors come together:

• Multiple travelers can share the aircraft.
• The destination is difficult to reach commercially.
• The trip includes valuable clients or business prospects.
• The schedule is limited and missed time cannot easily be recovered.
• Commercial delays could jeopardize rare or difficult-to-replace tee times.
• The travelers place significant value on their time.

For a foursome visiting an accessible destination with reliable nonstop commercial service, private aviation may remain difficult to justify. But for a group trying to reach Bandon Dunes without sacrificing part of a tightly scheduled trip—or a company seeking a memorable experience for its most important relationships—the comparison is more complicated than the price of four airline tickets.

The true calculation includes transportation to and from major airports, parking, security lines, connections, ground travel, lost productivity and the risk that a delayed flight eliminates a round of golf.

Sometimes the most valuable part of the trip is not the aircraft. It is the day the aircraft gives back.

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