Clubstohire.com offers the drive of your life...

Golfers using the burgeoning ClubstoHire.com service at Dublin, Faro and Malaga airports are now able to try out golf’s most talked-about new driver: the TaylorMade R11, pictured above.

The R11 has been a major buzzword since it was launched in late 2010 with glowing praise from tour professionals and amateurs and strong recognition from the golf industry. There is plenty of substance and technology lurking beneath the driver’s stylish white crown with options for the player to adjust loft and face-angle for maximum flight control.

Accompanying the iconic driver, a full set of R11 Burner woods and irons – complete with pristine white R11 stand-bag – are available for hire at all locations for only €55 for a full week.

With ClubstoHire.com experiencing its busiest month to date in March, the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ is sure to be a popular draw.

Irish Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley is a partner in the company, which offers travelling golfers a massive saving on airline golf bag charges – and complete peace of mind.

In a further development, all stores will soon be stocking Wilson Golf equipment, giving consumers an increased choice of leading brands with Callaway and MD Golf sets also available. Rentals start from as little as €35 per set, per week.

Golfers are already voting with their feet with more than 7,000 hiring sets in the past six months at Dublin, Faro and Malaga – a combined saving of €200,000 – and the company is on course to be established in several more European golf destination hubs by the end of 2011.

■ Bookings for Dublin, Malaga and Faro can be made online at www.clubstohire.com.

Your Golf Travel.com launches new brochure

Europe’s largest golf travel company, Your Golf Travel.com, has introduced an increased range of worldwide destinations and additional savings in its new 2011 brochure.

With the company having booked services for more than 150,000 UK golfers last year and increased sales by 70 per cent, consumers have been eagerly awaiting their copy of the 2011 golf travel bible...

For full story see Golf International

McGinley backs Malaga's unique new service

A revolutionary new service for travelling golfers is coming to Malaga in March.

ClubstoHire.com is a unique concept which offers travelling golfers a massive saving on airline golf bag charges – and complete peace of mind.

More than 5,000 golfers have already taken advantage of the first ClubstoHire.com store at Faro airport, saving them an estimated £125,000 into the bargain.

Now, the service is set to expand with a shop opening at one of Europe’s busiest golfing hubs, Malaga airport, in March. It promises the very latest equipment from big-name manufacturers such as TaylorMade and Callaway with prices from as little as €35 per set per week.

With budget airlines charging up to £80 return for club transit, the service offers considerable savings and, what’s more, there is peace of mind that clubs won’t be stolen, lost or damaged and you won’t be left standing by the oversized baggage carousel unnecessarily.

Ryder Cup hero and recent vice captain Paul McGinley, who holed the winning putt at The Belfry in 2002, is a partner in the company.

“It just makes so much sense to use this service and our seamless online booking process. The airlines are pushing everybody – even me. I mean, I’m business class and I’m being charged to take my clubs,” smiled McGinley. “I think it’s a great idea.”

All clubs are available – left or right-handed, ladies and men’s – and hire is available from just one day to a full four weeks. The store has even attracted the attention of McGinley’s contemporaries on the professional circuit.

He added: “The reaction to the concept has been overwhelmingly positive. Quite often now people speak to me about ClubstoHire.com and how they have found it cuts out all the hassle and makes golf travel more appealing and cost-effective.

“All the guys on the European Tour are very positive about it as it provides the golfing public with an opportunity to try out the new clubs on the market in the best place possible: the golf course. What better way to see if a specific set of clubs suits your game?”

ClubstoHire.com is on course to be established in eight key European golf destination hubs by the end of 2011. The company’s own customer feedback indicates that rising carriage costs are likely to increase further the number of people flying without their own clubs and the concept surely has an outstanding future.

■ Bookings for Malaga and Faro can be made online at http://www.clubstohire.com/.

Yourgolftravel.com is London's - and golf's - fastest-growing business

Your Golf Travel.com, widely regarded as Europe’s fastest-growing golf travel company, has had its achievements officially recognised as London’s finest with a first-placed ranking in The Sunday Times Virgin 2010 Fast Track 100 guide.

Described by Sir Richard Branson as the ‘definitive barometer of private company growth’, The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s fastest-growing private companies, based on sales growth over three years and is compiled and published each December.

Your Golf Travel.com underlined its continued strong trading history by improving its position in the 2010 ranking to sixth (from 15th in 2009). Better-still, it was recognised as the capital’s number-one growing business.

Golf may be considered a niche sport but the table ranks Your Golf Travel.com above many High Street brands and household names, trading everyday consumer goods. Furthermore, the company is the golf industry’s only representative in the prestigious league table.

Founders Ross Marshall and Andrew Harding ‘maxed out’ their credit cards to fund the start-up of the company in 2005. Today, the business offers domestic, European and long-haul golf holiday packages to 3,000 courses in 20 countries and books more than 150,000 travellers each year.

“The momentum is well and truly with us.” said chief executive Ross Marshall.

“We are absolutely delighted to once again be recognised by The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 for our outstanding sales performance and to have improved our position again this year.

“While our customers come from across the UK, we are extremely proud of our London roots and being named the fastest-growing company in the capital is a great honour.

“2010 will see another significant rise in turnover and we look forward to continuing to grow the business in 2011.”

The performance of Your Golf Travel.com, since its inception in 2005, is remarkable and its lofty position in the prestigious guide is due to annual sales growth of 158 per cent over the past three years.

Sales increased to £16.4m from an annualised £541,000 in 2005.

The business also offers spa breaks through its sister company Spabreaks.com and recently launched fairwaytofurlong.com, a niche concept that combines golf and horse-racing breaks at the UK’s premier meetings.

Award-winning results for Azalea

International PR and marketing agency the Azalea Group is hoping two forthcoming client award nominations will add to what has been an outstanding run of accolades in 2010 for its burgeoning client portfolio.

Both the five-star Legend Golf & Safari Resort, in South Africa, and Dartmouth Golf & Country Club, in Devon, have been nominated for upcoming awards and, if successful, will take the total for Azalea’s stable of clients to eight in recent months.

Only this month the five-star Fairmont St Andrews, at the ‘Home of Golf’, was named Resort Hotel of the Year at Golf Tourism Scotland’s Gold Standard awards. It is the second time the resort has won the award, having also received it in 2008, and comes hot on the heels of being declared Scotland’s best golf resort and spa by the World Travel Awards.

And Fairmont St Andrews’ leisure sales executive, Angus Watson, was personally recognised as Young Industry Person of the Year.

Another client celebrating success in the World Travel Awards was Legend Golf & Safari Resort which was named Africa’s Leading Sports Resort and South Africa’s Leading Golf Resort, while its Signature Golf Course was named the Best Golf Course in Africa at the World Property Awards in association with Bloomberg.

The resort, based in the Limpopo province, is now in the running for the award for World’s Best Course at the International Commercial Property Awards, to be decided in London later this month.

The five-star La Manga Club, in Spain’s Murcia region – long regarded as one of the continent’s finest sports and lifestyle destination resorts – has recently received recognition for its outstanding corporate appeal after it scooped a silver honour in the Best Overseas Conference Hotel category at the 2010 C&IT Hot List awards, voted for by readers of Conference & Incentive Travel magazine.

Meanwhile, domestically, the South Devon Golf Tour’s success in attracting golfers to the south-west is on the shortlist for the South Devon Excellence Awards.

The tour – an initiative from Dartmouth Golf & Country Club – reached the final stages of the ‘Best Sales and Marketing Award’ category, testament to the work done in bringing together seven of the region’s top golf venues in order to attract travelling golfers.

And, still at home, Weston-Super-Mare-based Masters Golf – Europe’s most-purchased golf brand – was awarded the title of ‘most profitable supplier’ by members of the Foremost Golf group, the largest buyer and seller of golf product in the UK, managing more than £125m-worth of buying relationships for around 1,000 PGA pros.

Sean Noble, Azalea’s UK managing director, said: “We must congratulate many of our clients on their excellence over the past year. These awards are well-deserved recognition for expertise, enterprise and endeavour in their specialist fields and we have been delighted to play our part.”

Busy times at AT

"So what's happening at Azalea Towers at the moment?" I hear you ask.

Well obviously I didn't because we're not sat in the same room, but it's my intention to make this post seem as if it's forced on us by public demand. A bit like the letters and emails to Jon Holmes on Radio 4's The Now Show.

Well actually reader(s), quite a lot since you ask - and thanks for your interest.

We've recently taken on three new clients:

• Golf Mission (www.golf-mission.com)
• pro:fantastic Golf Challenge (www.profantasticgolf.com)
• World Sport Destination Expo (www.worldsportdestinationexpo.com)

Golf Mission is a UK-based product which is a "fun on-course game with serious benefits"; the pro:fantastic Golf Challenge is a unique Stableford event in which supporters of football clubs play for the right to represent their club in an overseas final in a team led by a club legend; and World Sport Destination Expo, in Johannesburg, in 2010, offers sports tourism leaders a platform to network and conduct business in a unique environment.

So we're expecting to be very busy over the next few months - all the pro:fantastic Golf Challenge regional events take place in September - particularly as we have one or two more potential clients 'bubbling under'.

But that doesn't give us an excuse to neglect our blog. If we do that please feel free to send us an email of ill-informed abuse at any time . . .

BUNKY