The best excuses to help you sneak off to the golf course

Trying to organise a round of golf around your busy lifestyle is an impossible task when taking the kids from where they want to go on the weekend, you’ll often find when you finally do have some time to yourself it will be spent glaring at the weather forecast hoping it will change to something sunnier. Wouldn’t it be grand if there was a way we could capitalise on the sunny midweek scorchers that tease us while we’re in work?

Well there is, if you’re willing to be a little dishonest and come up with an excuse to ditch work for the day. We wouldn’t normally recommend this, but if you’re at wits end and you haven’t had some downtime in what feels like months, then you deserve a day off every once in a blue moon. If you wake up one day and the sun’s cracking the flags it would be an awful shame to waste it… so here are some of the most airtight excuses we can think of for getting you out of work and onto the green.

PULL A SICKIE
Tried and tested by many, a good sickie will get you out of work easily for the day – but you’ll need to be canny about how you play it. Any veteran sick-day expert will tell you that you need to sow the seeds of illness a bit earlier in the week, minor grumbling about how you “don’t feel well” and possibly clutching your head as if you have migraines. It will seem more believable rather than you just not turning up one day out the blue – and people in work might even back up your story since they’ve seen you looking ill first hand!

WORKING FROM HOME
This is particularly effective if you have the kind of job that allows for this kind of scenario. Often jobs will allow you to work from home every once in a while, so why not take advantage of this and go the golf course with no questions asked! Try not to arouse suspicion about the work you have completed by doing the next day’s work the night before and respond to emails through your smartphone while you’re out – that way everybody wins!

HAVE YOUR DAY IN COURT
No, don’t say you’ve been arrested – tell your boss that you’ve been called up for jury duty. The beauty of this one is that people at work won’t expect you to be answering your emails that day, so you’ll be completely annoyance free. The downside? You’ll probably have to answer loads of questions about trial details – make sure you make the faux trial as boring as possible to keep the quizzing to a minimum.

MAKE AN IDIOT OF YOURSELF
Claim that you’ve managed to lose your car keys or accidentally fell down the stairs and your boss will just roll their eyes and tell you to come in tomorrow. The beauty of this one is that nobody would think you’d lie to make yourself look a fool. The downside is that people will probably respect you a whole lot less for being the ditz of the workplace.

Make sure you’re dressed for the part when you arrive at the green, wear your best golf sweater so you don’t catch a cold – the last thing you want to do is come back to work with an actual illness!