Two worries stop more buddy trips than any others, and neither is really about the destination. The first: “our handicaps are all over the place, will it work.” The second: “one or two of us don’t really play, or don’t play at all.” I hear both constantly, and both are easy to solve. Here is how each plays out in Lithuania.
When the handicaps are all over the place
A group of a scratch player, a couple of mid-handicappers and someone who plays twice a year is completely normal. The thing that makes or breaks the trip is the course rotation, and that is exactly the lever I control when I plan it.
Lithuania has a genuine spread across its five championship courses:
- Capitals Golf Club and European Centre Golf Club are the more forgiving, accessible layouts. Good for higher handicappers and for a relaxed round where nobody is losing a sleeve of balls a hole.
- The V Golf Club at Vilnius Grand Resort and National Golf Resort are demanding parkland tests that will satisfy the low handicappers who want a real challenge.
- Wolf Golf Club is a distinctive Scottish-style links, a different kind of test again and a talking point for everyone.
So I do not hand a mixed group one course and hope. I build a rotation that gives the better players their challenge and the casual players their fun, usually alternating so no single day is a slog for anyone. Match the courses to the group and a wide handicap spread stops being a problem and becomes part of the variety.
When some of the group are beginners
Total beginners are common and easy to accommodate. All five courses offer lessons, and several run green card certification, the basic Lithuanian golf licence. That opens up a nice option: a beginner can take a lesson or play a relaxed few holes while the rest of the group does the full round, and by the end of the trip they have actually started playing rather than just carried a bag.
For groups with a genuine newcomer, I have folded in everything from a single taster lesson to a full green card over a few days. Mention it on the brief and I will build the right version in.
When partners don’t play at all
This is the other big one, and it is where Lithuania is genuinely well set up. Two of the courses are attached to proper 4-star hotels with spa facilities on site: The V Golf Club at Vilnius Grand Resort, 25 minutes from Vilnius, and National Golf Resort on the Baltic coast. So a non-golfing partner has somewhere to be while the group plays: spa treatments, the pool, a slow morning, no obligation to trail round 18 holes in the cold.
Off the course, the non-golf side of Lithuania is a real draw, not a consolation. Vilnius Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site about 20 minutes from two of the courses, with genuinely good Baltic food, a serious craft-beer scene, and easy day trips. Non-golfers tend to come back having had their own good trip rather than having waited out everyone else’s.
The format built for this
If your group leans heavily mixed, the Lithuania Golf and Spa Break is the format designed around it: championship rounds for the golfers paired with spa days at the on-site resorts for everyone else. The standard Lithuania Golf Weekend flexes the same way, it just leans a little more golf-first.
A few practical notes
- Walk or ride. The courses are walkable, and buggies are available. For a group where fitness varies, some walk and some ride, and I sort it in the booking.
- One round a day. The standard pace is a single round a day, which leaves the afternoon and evening free. That rhythm suits mixed groups far better than trying to cram 36 holes and leaving the casual players wrecked.
- Non-golf evenings. Every trip I run includes at least one organised evening the whole group does together, golfer or not, so the trip is not two separate holidays running in parallel.
The short version
A wide handicap range and a couple of non-golfers do not sink a buddy trip to Lithuania, they just shape how I plan it. The five courses cover easy to hard, so the rotation flatters everyone. Beginners can take lessons or earn a green card. Non-golfing partners get spa hotels on site and a UNESCO Old Town twenty minutes away. Nobody in the group has a bad trip, which is the whole point.
Tell me about your group on the trip brief, the handicap range, who is a beginner, who is not playing, and I will build a trip that works for all of them. The Golf in Lithuania guide has the full course and format detail if you want to read up first.