It hardly feels like golf. At least not normal golf, where you're loading all your junk into a worn-out bag, grimacing at that mud-caked 5-iron and getting in the car at 7am to make the tee time. Actually, make that 6am if you're a bucket-list golfer and you've paid the hundreds of dollars to play at a famous championship course. Public tee times at many of Australia's best courses coincide with the sun coming up – if they even have public tee times.

So here I am, emerging from the foyer of the QT Hotel in Bondi Beach at a very dignified 9.15am, to be greeted by a black Porsche Cayenne. All I am carrying are my golf shoes because in the back of that Porsche with my name on them is a set of Callaway Legacy Collection clubs – sort of the McLaren supercar of golf gear.

I'm greeted by Travis Bruinsma, the founder and owner of LuxGolf, and our destination is the Coast Golf Club. Coast shares an awesome stretch of golfing real estate – 10 kilometres of coastline between Malabar and La Perouse that is home to four adjacent golf clubs, Randwick Golf Club, Coast, St Michael's and New South Wales.

They span postcard-like headlands and cliffs and in the middle of them is Coast Golf Club at Little Bay. One of those holes tees off over an inlet and the entire course has the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop. It's exhilarating just getting out of the car.

When you go golfing with LuxGolf you're provided a bag of Callaway Legacys and they throw in a courtesy pack including balls, glove, tees, divot tool and a towel. You have a cart and refreshments and a LuxGolf representative will play the round with you, talking you through the holes and politely recommending a lay-up instead of going for gold.

But the main advantage of such a service – and the reason we'd pay between $199 and $699 for a day on the links – is the instant access it gives you to the best golf courses in Australia and New Zealand, including all 11 Australasian courses in the World 100. These include New South Wales, The Lakes, St Michael's, The National, the two Barnbougles, Ocean Dunes and GolCape Wickham. In New Zealand LuxGolf has access to Kauri Cliffs, Jack's Point and Cape Kidnappers, which – at No.16 – is Australasia's second-highest ranked course in Golf Digest's World 100.

Australia, as we've been reminded with the Emirates Australian Open under way at Royal Sydney, is home to some awesome and exclusive golf courses. The 72 holes played over four days at Royal Sydney will be ogled by an audience of golfers who know the closest they'll get to those lush fairways between Bondi and Rose Bay will be watching the pros. Royal Sydney is one of the jewels of Aussie golf, befitting of its 15 Opens, but few non-members will hit a ball there unless they play in a championship or as a guest.

The exclusivity of Australian golf is a conundrum that has perplexed Bruinsma since he arrived here from Canada 12 years ago. He fell in love with Australia and its riches of beautiful golf courses, but he was puzzled by the limited access.

"An unprecedented number of Australian golf courses are now in the world top 100," he says. "But it's hard for golfers – foreign travellers especially – to secure rounds at the private and member-only courses.

"It's expensive and you get poor tee times. If you're travelling with your family a 6.45am tee time doesn't really feel like a holiday."

That's a pity, says Bruinsma, because golfers are like skiers: they combine sport with their travel, they have bucket lists they want to tick off, and they're willing to spend money to do it. Global golf tourism was worth more than $25 billion in 2013, the Australian Golf Industry Council found in its report The Value of Golf Tourism to Australia. Australia's take was a little over $1 billion, with 20 per cent coming from inbound tourism.

So Bruinsma founded LuxGolf almost five years ago, not as a golfers' tour agent but as a luxury tourism experience for golfers. You're picked up from your hotel in a Porsche, taken to a Group One golf course, hit the first tee at 10am and get driven back to your hotel when you're done. Everything is organised for you, down to refreshments in the cart.

Bruinsma says the company has been on a growth curve as golfers make the most of their stays in this part of the world. The business covers NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand. It is launching on the Gold Coast this summer and will offer stay-and-play trips to Hawaii and Thailand in winter 2017.

A big part of the business is corporate bookings. "We have a lot of corporate clients," says Bruinsma. "They use LuxGolf as VIP gifts and activity options during conferences. We have a lot of bookings where executives socialise with a round of golf."

The company has created a Tasmanian tour that flies out of Melbourne on a private eight-seater jet, staying at Lost Farm Lodge and playing both Lost Farm and Barnbougle Dunes. Another tour takes golfers to either Cyprus Lakes or The Vintage in the Hunter Valley, with overnight stays and good tables at top restaurants.

"Golf is the centrepiece," says Bruinsma, "but there's a lot of leisure it. Spouses may not be interested in the golf, so we put together shopping tours, sightseeing and trips to the wineries."

A revelation has been the encouragement of the clubs.

"We've been very successful in getting good tee times," he says. "The clubs have their own cultures and traditions. We respect that and take responsibility for how our clients are presented."

They sure do: the clothing list I'm handed is quite exhaustive, right down to my socks should I opt for "tailored shorts", and a reminder about the "hat policy" in many clubhouses (that is, don't even think about it).

Nothing messes with LuxGolf's relationships with those top courses, although Bruinsma acknowledges his business straddles generational change that many golf clubs have not yet embraced.

Golfers, for instance, have become as time-pressed as anyone, so do not need the hassle of booking rounds and then being given bad tee times. Also, club membership has been dropping in Australia for 15 years, even as the average age of members rises – it's now 55. Golf tourism, meanwhile, is on the rise. Our five biggest golf tourism markets for international visitors grew by 50 per cent in the five years to 2013, according to Tourism Research Australia.

Bruinsma grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, in a sporty milieu of golf, hockey and skiing. He remembers his golfer parents trying to organise family trips around the game, with disappointing results

"It would be awful hire clubs, or bad tee times or a rattly old minibus that turned up at the hotel. I always wanted to do something really good around golf and tourism," he says. "When I arrived in Sydney I realised it was perfect. Great weather, fantastic golf courses and this constant arrival of tourists, looking for something to do. It was a case of, I couldn't find the service I wanted, so I built it here."

The writer was a guest of LuxGolf.

Emirates Australian Open

When November 17-20; Where Royal Sydney Golf Club; See ausopengolf.com