With golf popularity reaching unprecedented levels, the market has become extremely competitive for those providing destination experiences.
So, when Fairways to Heaven Golf Travel Managing Partner Michael O’Toole started kicking around the idea of launching a father-son golf tournament a few years ago, he wanted to create something unique, personal and at a five-star level across multiple venues.
For starters — with a last name like O’Toole — where else would he start but Ireland?
After selling out 30 teams in May's inaugural four-round tournament at Lahinch Golf Club, consistently rated a world top-50 course, and Trump International Golf Links, on the list of must-play layouts, the second annual Father-Son International Golf Tournament will return to the same venues May 16–21, 2027. The two award-winning layouts recently hosted the Walker Cup and Irish Open.
“We're talking about our father-son tournament now, which is a little serendipitous with both of our venues recently on full display for folks to see,” O’Toole says. “It's hard to beat the venues we have teed up for the event.”
And there are few better aficionados of Irish links golf than O’Toole, who once played golf for 10 straight weeks on the island, logging 59 rounds in a span of 66 days.
“It was an obscene amount of golf,” recalls O’Toole, who met the original founder of Fairways to Heaven while planning the trip and began consulting with the travel company before he and current partner David Reid purchased the Connecticut-based firm in 2017. “I got to the point professionally where I didn't love what I was doing. I was recently married with no kids, and I remember asking my wife, ‘Hey, what do you think if I quit my job and go play every links golf course in Ireland next summer? You know, without you?’ She agreed to it, and I still haven't figured out how I pulled that off.”
O’Toole and his wife, Jennifer, now have two kids in high school — their daughter has played varsity golf for three years, and their freshman son also made the boys' golf team this year.
“We feel we've got a good formula to maybe recreate this with a father-daughter format,” O’Toole says. “It’s something we’re thinking of getting on the calendar.”
“The highlight of the father-son event is the time they get to spend together, especially as folks get older and their kids graduate from college and become professionals,” O’Toole says. “When that happens, the time they get to spend together seems to be less and less. So, when you can get five to six consecutive days with your son or even your son-in-law, that really is the biggest draw—along with the venue.”
Home base for the 60 players is the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in the small coastal village of Doonbeg (population roughly 300), along the sand dunes of the Atlantic Ocean. Package pricing for the tournament is $5,195 per golfer for double occupancy and $6,195 per golfer for single occupancy.
“This tournament is really meant for players who are 18 to 80,” O’Toole says. “If you are good enough to get around the golf course, then these places are for you. A lot of these dads and sons don't get five or six days in a whole year together, so it’s a special time.”
With the event selling out in 2026, the natural instinct might have been to expand the field. But O’Toole and Reid quickly put the brakes on that idea.
“We felt it was really good that everybody in the tournament at some point crossed paths,” O’Toole says. “If you start growing a field to 100 or 120, it becomes a little less personal, a little less intimate. We liked how it felt.”
O’Toole said many playing in the father-son tournament have never experienced a true links course, which makes the event a special introduction to the game of golf played in a completely foreign way.
“Links golf itself — tee to green — is a different game,” O’Toole says. “It’s not target golf, and weather plays a huge factor. You can be 80 yards out and you can hit the shot six different ways. You can putt the ball; you can flop it; you can bump and run it. You can do all sorts of things depending on where your skill levels lie or don't lie. I think it's a much more fun, creative way to play golf. So the on-the-course part is unique and different in that regard. And then being in Ireland, the off-the-course experience is second to none. There's nobody more welcoming than the Irish.”
To register for the 2027 tournament, click here. For more information, call Fairways to Heaven at 888-272-3179 or email info@f2hgolf.com.
