Sean Benville
Trip Planning Manager
Experience
Seán worked in banking before finding his calling in golf travel. Passionately Irish, deeply knowledgeable across Ireland, Scotland and England, he's the per...
Areas of expertise
Our team combines destination knowledge with the kind of judgement that only comes from experience.
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Our team combines destination knowledge with the kind of judgement that only comes from experience.
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Our team combines destination knowledge with the kind of judgement that only comes from experience.
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We’ve been helping discerning golf travellers for decades, and know the golfing landscape like nobody else. Our deep connections in golf ensure access to the most legendary courses, and help you find the most elusive hidden gems. Here you can get to know the people planning and delivering your next great golf journey.
Our trip planning experts help you curate your bespoke golf journey.
Trip Planning Manager
Experience
Seán worked in banking before finding his calling in golf travel. Passionately Irish, deeply knowledgeable across Ireland, Scotland and England, he's the per...
Areas of expertise
Experience
Seán worked in banking before finding his calling in golf travel. Passionately Irish, deeply knowledgeable across Ireland, Scotland and England, he's the per...
Areas of expertise
Trip Planning Manager
Seán worked in banking before finding his calling in golf travel. Passionately Irish, deeply knowledgeable across Ireland, Scotland and England, he's the person who makes sure your trip flows as well as it looks on paper.
There's a particular kind of precision that comes from a career in banking, an eye for the detail that others skim over, an instinct for where things can go wrong, and a habit of planning for it before it does. Seán brought all of that when he moved into golf tourism, and it shows in how he thinks about a trip.
Ireland is his passion. Not just the courses, and there are plenty he's devoted to, but the culture, the people, the atmosphere of a country that does golf travel unlike anywhere else in the world. He knows the island intimately and is evangelical about sharing it with clients who've never experienced it properly, or who think they have and haven't scratched the surface.
One of the things Seán notices that others often miss: timings. Countries may look compact on a map, but hotels and tee times need to be strategically planned to allow a trip to breathe. Get that right and everything else feels seamless. Get it wrong and even the best courses can feel rushed.
A championship links followed by a luxury hotel near a great Irish pub that serves food, that's his ideal day. Turnberry and Donegal are the dream destinations still waiting. Early tee time, pint in hand, links all the way.
Trip Planning Executive
Experience
Gareth lives for great golf. Two and a half years into his career with Carr Golf, he's become a trusted guide to Ireland's Southwest and Northern Ireland — w...
Areas of expertise
Experience
Gareth lives for great golf. Two and a half years into his career with Carr Golf, he's become a trusted guide to Ireland's Southwest and Northern Ireland — w...
Areas of expertise
Trip Planning Executive
Gareth lives for great golf. Two and a half years into his career with Carr Golf, he's become a trusted guide to Ireland's Southwest and Northern Ireland — with an instinct for finding the courses that define a trip.
Ask Gareth what makes a great golf trip and he'll cut straight to it: the courses. Not just any courses — the ones that stop you mid-swing, make you want to linger on the 18th, and leave you talking about the round for years. It's what drives him in every conversation with clients.
Based in Ireland and with a deep knowledge of the Southwest and Northern Ireland, Gareth has a talent for putting together itineraries where every tee time feels special. He's energetic, naturally curious, and has a knack for reading what a group needs — whether that's a selection of iconic links or a route that balances big names with something unexpected.
He's always the person who gets genuinely excited talking about golf travel — and that enthusiasm is contagious. Gareth leans parkland when the mood takes him, always prefers an early tee time, and will always have a pint waiting on the 19th hole. Scotland is always top of the list for his next big adventure, and if you're thinking about going, he's already got a route in mind.
Trip Planning Executive
Experience
Gavin has a gift for listening, with 2.5 years specialising in Ireland’s Southwest and Northern Ireland. A scratch golfer, he understands what discerning gol...
Areas of expertise
Experience
Gavin has a gift for listening, with 2.5 years specialising in Ireland’s Southwest and Northern Ireland. A scratch golfer, he understands what discerning gol...
Areas of expertise
Trip Planning Executive
Gavin has a gift for listening, with 2.5 years specialising in Ireland’s Southwest and Northern Ireland. A scratch golfer, he understands what discerning golfers value and creates tailored trips with exceptional service and memorable experiences.
For Gavin, the best golf trips start with a conversation. Not a checklist, not a brochure — a real phone call where he can get to know who he's building a trip for. Understanding the client, he'll tell you, is the most important thing. Everything else follows from there.
That approach has made him one of the team's most trusted voices on Ireland's Southwest and Northern Ireland — particularly when it comes to the hidden links gems that don't always make the headlines but define a trip once you've played them. He's calm under pressure, outgoing by nature, and straight-talking when it matters: if something won't work, he'll say so and find something better.
Off the course, Gavin's other passion is cooking — and after a long day in the office, there's nowhere he'd rather be than in the kitchen. It's the same instinct, really: taking good ingredients, combining them thoughtfully, and making something worth savouring.
A pint person and committed links devotee, Gavin has Old Head of Kinsale near the top of his must-play list — which, given how well he knows Ireland's coastline.
Commercial Product Development Manager
Experience
Martin has 11 years’ experience in travel and a passport stamped in Mongolia, Nepal, Azerbaijan and Lesotho — with a vision for where golf travel goes next. ...
Areas of expertise
Experience
Martin has 11 years’ experience in travel and a passport stamped in Mongolia, Nepal, Azerbaijan and Lesotho — with a vision for where golf travel goes next. ...
Areas of expertise
Commercial Product Development Manager
Martin has 11 years’ experience in travel and a passport stamped in Mongolia, Nepal, Azerbaijan and Lesotho — with a vision for where golf travel goes next. New Zealand and Australia are his speciality; the world is his brief.
Martin has been to places most travellers haven't heard of including Mongolia, Lesotho, Nepal, Azerbaijan; giving him a perspective on what genuine travel means which goes well beyond itineraries and golf courses. He's someone who gets up early to explore a new destination before the world awakes, because that's when you see it properly.
Nearly two years into his role at Carr Golf, and with eleven years in travel and four in events before that, Martin is focused on where the product goes next. Developing routes and experiences for New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, and Spain that feel as considered and refined as anything Carr Golf offers closer to home. He's calm under pressure, direct, and has a nose for the details that makes a trip hold together, including the one everyone underestimates: transfer times.
His dream destination is Lofoten Links in Norway, a remote, dramatic course that sits at the edge of the world and asks something of you before you even tee off. That tells you everything about what he values in travel.
Martin thinks the world is full of great golf and he's intent on proving it.
Our client experience team are here right the way through.
Client Experience Executive
Experience
From FIFA World Cups to fairways, Daragh brings a rare eye for detail to golf travel. He knows Southwest Ireland and Dublin's links inside out — and exactly ...
Experience
From FIFA World Cups to fairways, Daragh brings a rare eye for detail to golf travel. He knows Southwest Ireland and Dublin's links inside out — and exactly ...
Client Experience Executive
From FIFA World Cups to fairways, Daragh brings a rare eye for detail to golf travel. He knows Southwest Ireland and Dublin's links inside out — and exactly what makes an itinerary truly click.
Daragh spent over eight years coordinating travel logistics for some of the world's biggest sporting events — FIFA World Cups, the Olympics, Rugby World Cups. So when he says he's comfortable handling complex, high-pressure trips, he really means it.
That background has given him something invaluable in golf travel: an instinct for quality and consistency. Daragh is the person who looks at an itinerary and immediately notices if something doesn't belong — not just in terms of quality, but in terms of fit. Does everything sit at the same standard? Does the sequence make sense? Does it feel cohesive? If not, he'll find something better.
His expertise is rooted in Southwest Ireland and Dublin, with a particular love for the great links courses — and the restaurants and pubs that complete the experience around them. He's calm under pressure, meticulously organised, and detail-focused in the way that only someone who's coordinated global sporting logistics can be.
Whether you're looking for the iconic or the hidden, Daragh will find the right balance — and make sure every part of it is worthy of the trip.
Client Experience Executive
Experience
Six years in the travel industry and six years living across Spain, Andorra, Italy and New York. Jon brings a worldly perspective to Ireland and Scotland tri...
Experience
Six years in the travel industry and six years living across Spain, Andorra, Italy and New York. Jon brings a worldly perspective to Ireland and Scotland tri...
Client Experience Executive
Six years in the travel industry and six years living across Spain, Andorra, Italy and New York. Jon brings a worldly perspective to Ireland and Scotland trips — with a rare instinct for the details that truly make the difference.
Jon has lived a lot of life for someone in their career. Six years abroad — Spain, Andorra, Italy, New York — before joining Carr Golf, and those experiences have shaped how he thinks about travel in a way that's hard to replicate. He knows what it's like to arrive somewhere new and want things to feel easy, unhurried, and worth the journey. And he knows what happens when they don't.
That instinct for the traveller's experience is central to what he does. Jon specialises in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, with a particular passion for first-time Ireland trips and St Andrews experiences. He's the person who asks the question most planners forget: does this day feel easy and enjoyable, or rushed from one thing to the next? If it's the latter, he fixes it.
Completely bespoke is where he's most at home — building trips that feel like they were made for exactly the person taking them, because they were. Old Head or Ballybunion followed by great seafood and a pint of Guinness in a good pub is his idea of a perfect day, and honestly, it's hard to argue with.
Travel Operations Administrator
Experience
Maria keeps the moving parts moving. With three years in golf travel and a background as a professional translator, she brings meticulous attention to detail...
Experience
Maria keeps the moving parts moving. With three years in golf travel and a background as a professional translator, she brings meticulous attention to detail...
Travel Operations Administrator
Maria keeps the moving parts moving. With three years in golf travel and a background as a professional translator, she brings meticulous attention to detail and a genuine love of Ireland to everything she does.
Before Maria moved into tourism and travel, she worked as a translator — someone trained to be precise, attentive, and absolutely clear that the meaning is never lost in transit. It's a background that shows. Maria has a natural ability to understand what's needed, communicate it clearly, and make sure everything lands exactly as it should.
At Carr Golf, she specialises in Ireland — and her passion for the country is genuine. Her ideal travel experience is exploring Ireland's wild coastline, and that love feeds directly into the experiences she helps to create for clients. She's detail-focused, organised, and deeply curious, with a talent for understanding the importance of supplier relationships and the role they play in making a trip truly exceptional.
Maria is also someone who quietly notices the things that others might overlook — particularly the value of strong partnerships on the ground, and how much that determines the quality of an experience for the traveller.
Travel Operations Administrator
Experience
Nicole makes sure every trip lands perfectly — from tee times to hotel check-in. With four years in travel industry experience and a sharp eye for the detail...
Experience
Nicole makes sure every trip lands perfectly — from tee times to hotel check-in. With four years in travel industry experience and a sharp eye for the detail...
Travel Operations Administrator
Nicole makes sure every trip lands perfectly — from tee times to hotel check-in. With four years in travel industry experience and a sharp eye for the details that matter, she's the quiet confidence behind the scenes.
Nicole has a gift for the small things, and in golf travel, it's the small things that make the difference. Tee times confirmed. Hotel arrangements aligned. Dates checked twice. She's the kind of person who catches what others miss, quietly and without fuss, and makes sure everything runs as smoothly as planned.
Four years into her travel career, Nicole specialises in Ireland and has a particular talent for first-time Ireland trips, understanding that for someone experiencing it for the first time, every detail carries extra weight.
Off the clock, Nicole spends her summer weekends camping with her dog — as long as it isn't raining, which in Ireland is always something of a gamble. It's a side of her that tells you she appreciates the simple pleasures: fresh air, good company, and not overthinking it.
Travel Operations Administrator
Experience
Vivienne is new to golf travel but not to caring about the detail. Organised, warm, and with a keen eye for what's happening behind the scenes, she's the per...
Experience
Vivienne is new to golf travel but not to caring about the detail. Organised, warm, and with a keen eye for what's happening behind the scenes, she's the per...
Travel Operations Administrator
Vivienne is new to golf travel but not to caring about the detail. Organised, warm, and with a keen eye for what's happening behind the scenes, she's the person making sure everything runs exactly as it should.
Before Maria moved into tourism and travel, she worked as a translator — someone trained to be precise, attentive, and absolutely clear that the meaning is never lost in transit. It's a background that shows. Maria has a natural ability to understand what's needed, communicate it clearly, and make sure everything lands exactly as it should.
At Carr Golf, she specialises in Ireland — and her passion for the country is genuine. Her ideal travel experience is exploring Ireland's wild coastline, and that love feeds directly into the experiences she helps to create for clients. She's detail-focused, organised, and deeply curious, with a talent for understanding the importance of supplier relationships and the role they play in making a trip truly exceptional.
Maria is also someone who quietly notices the things that others might overlook — particularly the value of strong partnerships on the ground, and how much that determines the quality of an experience for the traveller.
Looking after large group travel and our signature tournament experiences.
Events Manager
Experience
Alison has 11 years of events experience and a gift for the detail that quietly makes everything feel effortless. From our Father & Son tournament to other l...
Areas of expertise
Experience
Alison has 11 years of events experience and a gift for the detail that quietly makes everything feel effortless. From our Father & Son tournament to other l...
Areas of expertise
Events Manager
Alison has 11 years of events experience and a gift for the detail that quietly makes everything feel effortless. From our Father & Son tournament to other large-scale golf events, she builds experiences people talk about long after the last putt.
Ask Alison what she loves about events work and she'll tell you it's the behind-the-scenes part — the planning, the sequencing, the dozens of small decisions that nobody at the event will ever know were made. That's how she wants it. The best events feel inevitable, and that feeling doesn't happen by accident.
Eleven years in, she's developed a particular skill for the moments that turn a well-organised event into an unforgettable one: the timing that feels natural rather than managed, the detail in the guest experience that guests can't quite articulate but definitely feel, the flow of a day that leaves people relaxed rather than rattled. She works across Ireland and Scotland, with a focus on seamless group events and itineraries that blend world-class golf with the kind of off-course moments that give a trip its character.
On Father & Son and Father & Daughter events, Alison has a clear philosophy: it's about meaningful time together — being present, doing something shared, making each other feel valued. The golf is the occasion; the connection is the point.
Away from the office, Alison enjoys the event itself just as much as the planning — which is rarer than you'd think, and exactly why she's so good at both. Australia is the dream destination still waiting.
Events Executive
Experience
Lucy brings four years of events experience and a natural gift for making people feel at ease. Energetic, detail-focused and fiercely passionate about Irelan...
Areas of expertise
Experience
Lucy brings four years of events experience and a natural gift for making people feel at ease. Energetic, detail-focused and fiercely passionate about Irelan...
Areas of expertise
Events Executive
Lucy brings four years of events experience and a natural gift for making people feel at ease. Energetic, detail-focused and fiercely passionate about Ireland, she builds golf events that feel high-touch from start to finish.
When Lucy pictures the perfect end to a day in Ireland, it involves a coastal drive, a crowded pub, live music, and laughter — which tells you everything about how she approaches her work. Events, for Lucy, aren't just logistics. They're experiences built for people, and people deserve to feel the difference.
Four years into her events career, she has developed a sharp instinct for the subtle touches that guests carry home with them: the right music at exactly the right moment, the detail in the service that makes everyone feel welcome without quite knowing why. Her focus is Ireland, and her passion for it shows — she's genuinely proud of what the country offers, and that enthusiasm is the kind that's contagious in a group setting.
Lucy specialises in standout golf events and seamless group experiences: high-touch itineraries where nothing is left to chance, but nothing feels over-managed either. She's outgoing and energetic, the kind of person who brings energy to a room, and deeply detail-focused underneath it — a combination that's exactly what you want running an event.
Away from work, Lucy follows Drogheda United FC around the country with the devotion of a true supporter. It's the same instinct, really — turning up, caring about the result, and being part of something.
Our experts our here to help
Executive Chairman
Experience
37 years in golf travel, 27 of the world's top 30 courses played, and still the most enthusiastic person in the room. Marty built Carr Golf on the belief tha...
Executive Chairman
Experience
37 years in golf travel, 27 of the world's top 30 courses played, and still the most enthusiastic person in the room. Marty built Carr Golf on the belief tha...
Executive Chairman
Executive Chairman
37 years in golf travel, 27 of the world's top 30 courses played, and still the most enthusiastic person in the room. Marty built Carr Golf on the belief that great trips are about people as much as places.
Marty Carr doesn't need much of an introduction — but he'd be the first to insist on a proper conversation over a pint rather than a formal bio. Thirty-seven years in golf travel. A career built on the belief that the best experiences come from understanding people, not just destinations. And a name, as he'll cheerfully point out, that far outranks his handicap.
Marty's expertise is rooted in Kerry, Dublin, and more recently New Zealand and Australia — but his real speciality is first-timers. The people who've dreamed about playing links golf for years and finally arrived. Getting that right, for those clients, is something he takes personally.
He's played 27 of the world's top 30 courses. The three that remain — Fishers Island, Prairie Dunes, and North Berwick — are the ones keeping the bucket list alive. He'll also tell you that the driver is the most underrated part of any golf travel experience, and that over-programming is one of the greatest sins in the industry. Both of those things are true.
Straight-talking, warm, and with a story for every great course he's ever played — which is most of them — Marty is exactly the kind of person you want planning your trip. Or sitting across from you in the 19th.
Chief Executive Office
Experience
Stephen has been part of Carr Golf from the early days — and has spent 22 years making sure what clients experience matches what the company promises. Excell...
Chief Executive Office
Experience
Stephen has been part of Carr Golf from the early days — and has spent 22 years making sure what clients experience matches what the company promises. Excell...
Chief Executive Office
Chief Executive Office
Stephen has been part of Carr Golf from the early days — and has spent 22 years making sure what clients experience matches what the company promises. Excellence is not an aspiration for him. It is a standard.
Stephen joined Carr Golf as Chief Financial Officer. That kind of clarity tends to shape you, and it has shaped how Stephen thinks about everything: clients, standards, the gap between what a business promises and what it delivers.
Over 22 years, he has been instrumental in building Carr Golf into one of the most respected names in golf travel. Moving from CFO to CEO is not a common trajectory, and it is not a coincidence that it happened here. Stephen understands the business from the inside out — the commercial reality and the client experience — and he holds both to the same standard.
That standard is the thing he is most focused on. Not growth for its own sake, but the kind of reputation that comes from doing things properly, year after year, for clients who expect to be looked after and return because they were. He is a Dubliner, proud of where he comes from, and straightforward in how he operates. He does not overcomplicate things that should be simple, and he does not accept mediocrity dressed up as good enough.
An avid golfer with a love of links courses, Stephen prefers a late afternoon round when the light is low and the course is quiet. A pint to finish, always. New Zealand is the destination still on the list — and given how long he's spent building a company that gets people there in style, it seems only right.
Chief Commercial Officer
Experience
Alex is the person deciding where Carr Golf goes next — from the Ryder Cup to Quinta do Lago. 15 years in sports marketing, with an eye for opportunity, and ...
Chief Commercial Officer
Experience
Alex is the person deciding where Carr Golf goes next — from the Ryder Cup to Quinta do Lago. 15 years in sports marketing, with an eye for opportunity, and ...
Chief Commercial Officer
Chief Commercial Officer
Alex is the person deciding where Carr Golf goes next — from the Ryder Cup to Quinta do Lago. 15 years in sports marketing, with an eye for opportunity, and a house that once belonged to Christy O'Connor. The man has range.
Alex lives in Christy O'Connor's old house. That detail tells you something about the kind of person he is, someone who gravitates toward places with history, with meaning, with a story worth knowing. You're already starting to understand how he approaches his work.
As Chief Commercial Officer, Alex is responsible for the commercial and growth strategies across the Carr Golf Group. That means new destinations, new product lines, new possibilities — including the Ryder Cup, which takes a particular kind of experience and ambition to deliver well. He joined Carr Golf with 15 years of sports marketing behind him, working with rights holders, governing bodies, and teams at the highest level. That background gives him something rare: an understanding of how sport and travel intersect, and how to build products that do justice to both.
Away from the office, he's a keen golfer with Portmarnock essentially on his doorstep. His other passion as a fly fisherman, requires exactly the kind of patience, attention, and willingness to be somewhere beautiful for a long time that characterises everything else about him.
Chief Operating Officer
Experience
15 years in golf travel, a trained classical ballet dancer, and the person who quietly makes sure everything at Carr Golf works. Susan brings rare operationa...
Chief Operating Officer
Experience
15 years in golf travel, a trained classical ballet dancer, and the person who quietly makes sure everything at Carr Golf works. Susan brings rare operationa...
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Operating Officer
15 years in golf travel, a trained classical ballet dancer, and the person who quietly makes sure everything at Carr Golf works. Susan brings rare operational precision to Ireland and Scotland trips that clients feel but rarely see.
Susan trained in classical ballet for over 20 years and taught for more than 15 — and if that surprises you, it probably shouldn't. The discipline, the attention to form, the understanding that execution is everything: those are exactly the qualities she has applied to 15 years in golf travel. She doesn't miss much.
What she notices above all else is travel time. Ireland and Scotland take longer than people expect — and that gap between expectation and reality is where trips quietly unravel. Susan puts herself in the client's shoes for every itinerary: would she be happy with these timings? If not, something changes — a tee time, a hotel, a dinner reservation — until the answer is yes. Clients tend not to notice when it's working well, but they always notice when it isn't.
Her speciality is the less-travelled regions of Ireland and Scotland — places with world-class golf that don't appear on every itinerary, and which reward the traveller who gets there. She builds seamless, bespoke trips where nothing is left unexamined and nothing feels accidental.
Away from golf travel, Susan still loves live performance — particularly contemporary takes on the classics. Her favourites: Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake and Akram Khan's Giselle. New Zealand is the dream destination on the horizon.
Plan with our team
From the first tee to the final craic at the 19th hole and beyond, let our expert planners curate your perfect journey. Backed by decades of family tradition, we handle every detail so you can focus on the game.
Plan with our team
From the first tee to the final craic at the 19th hole and beyond, let our expert planners curate your perfect journey. Backed by decades of family tradition, we handle every detail so you can focus on the game.
Alison Duffin
Events Manager
Sean Benville
Trip Planning Manager
Susan McCann
Chief Operating Officer