My name is Jason Kauflin and I am a professional golf tour operator. There aren’t many tour operators out there that can say what I can…..That I got into the business by starting out as a simple group leader, planning an annual trip for friends and family. The Kauflin Invitational went from a simple foursome to groups over 40 players and I got extremely good at all aspects of booking a successful golf trip. When I saw the opportunity to turn my passion into a business in my home state of Wisconsin years ago, I went for it. Wisconsin Golf Trips is now one of the most successful inbound tour operator services anywhere out there. The only negatives of Wisconsin are the short season and the limited availability, so as the company has grown, so has the need for adding more and more outbound destinations for our clients.

Wisconsin Golf Trips regularly books packages to Michigan, Michigan and Nevada for groups and operates websites for each to promote those destinations. But the story behind ScottishGolfTrips.com started in 2019. That is when the staff at The Old Course Hotel in St Andrews found out about me and how much business I was brining to Kohler, Wisconsin (Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run, etc). Many people are unaware that the most famous golf hotel in the world (Yes, the one you have to hit over on the 17th Road Hole of the Old Course) is owned by the Kohler corporation. I was invited over by the sales team at The Old Course Hotel to learn about how their packages work with the intent of promoting them to my customer base. Thus began a love affair with Scotland that has only become more passionate as the years go by.

After dabbling in Scotland talk and talking to more and more clients about the things I was learning, I found a way to get invited to my first Scottish Golf Tourism Week in 2023. SGTW is one of the best industry events anywhere, combining two days of non-stop meetings and networking opportunities with pre-SGTW FAM Trips (familiarization trips) which expose tour operators to a specific region of Scotland for a few days. One of my true gifts in this life is proper networking and creating meaningful relationships in a very small amount of time. I not only have made good contacts all over Scotland, but good friends as well. And all my emails, texts, Zoom calls, and thank you notes have paid dividends for how my groups traveling to Scotland are treated when they get there.

Attending Scottish Golf Tourism Week every year has been amazingly helpful, but it is not nearly enough to become as proficient as I want to be in booking Scotland golf packages. Not only have I been staying in country an extra week after SGTW to plan my own personal FAM trips, but I have planned multiple other excursions for both personal and professional use. In 2023, I even played in the World Hickory Open which was held on the west coast of Scotland. To be honest with you, I don’t feel comfortable playing courses designed over 100 years ago with modern clubs. After numerous weeks spent in Scotland every year, I can safely say that I have either played, visited, or connected with just about every course in Scotland that a group would hope to consider adding to their itinerary.

I have gone into every region of Scotland with a 3-star/4-star/5-star mindset for both lodging and golf. If you want to focus on only Top-25 courses and stay at the nicest hotel in any given town, that’s great. But I created ScottishGolfTrips.com to be able to offer much, much more than that. There are 2 big myths that I am intent on breaking down: 1. That you need to spend a fortune to book a golf trip to Scotland and 2. That a Scotland golf trips should be considered a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. Let me share what I have learned over the years with you and maybe introduce you to some courses, areas, people, etc. that I have grown to love and cherish. Jason