Golf Talk With Greg Holman – #68

Today, as I am writing this, is officially the first day of golf season in Missouri. I always looked forward to March 1st, the first day of organized high school golf. Now that golf season is here, it’s time to book your company or non-profit organization’s golf tournament.

I’ve been involved in organizing several golf tournaments. Some were successful, some were less than successful, but I guess you learn from your mistakes, so if you are doing this for the first time or have not had any luck making money on your tournaments I have some suggestions.

First don’t try to do everything yourself. Form a committee. Two people are needed to handle logistics, three or four people should work on the food and beverage sub-committee. You’ll need at least two for registration. They can also handle publicity. A group of five is a nice number for recruiting. Then you’ll need about four for the grunt work to set up the course and clean up. That’s a total of 17 people. Chances are you won’t have that many people available so some can wear more than one hat.

First you’ll want to set up a team meeting and set a goal of how much money you would like to raise. $5,000 is a realistic goal for the first year. Next, find a venue and get a price. They’ll want to know how many carts you’ll need and if you plan to serve food. An 18-hole course can accommodate 36 teams. 18 teams would be a good goal for a first year tournament. A team of four is popular, also known as a four-man scramble. So each team needs two carts, that’s 36. Many courses don’t have that many on hand, so they will have to rent extra. You can give them an estimate in your first meeting and then give them a firm number a week before the tournament.

If I was planning a tournament in Missouri, I would see what was available in June, July or August. The weather is just too unpredictable before and after that. As far as food is concerned, keep it simple. I was in a tournament that served hamburgers or brats for 100. Only four people chose the brats so we ran out of hamburgers and were stuck with 46 brats. Everybody likes cheeseburgers. Don’t mess with french fries, just serve chips and a dessert. Brownies make good finger foods, or cookies, and they are portable. Most people can live without lettuce, tomato, onions and pickle. Just provide mustard and ketchup.

So you take the bids from three courses to the committee and if your logistics committee has experience you can give them autonomy. You probably want beer, soda and water. Making it complimentary is a nice touch, but most people would be ok with paying for that. The club might sell it for you and even offer a courtesy cart. That can be negotiated.

Remember you can make money in other ways than just signing up 18 teams at $120 per team. That’s $2,160. Sounds pretty good but remember your overhead… The cost to rent the course, food, and extra carts. Try to get as much donated as possible. Would a company pay for the carts if you put their name on the carts and mentioned them in your flyer? Now once you have the course procured and the date and time set in stone, your publicity team goes to work.

Most golf courses will let you put a flyer on their bulletin board. Mail flyers or drop them off in person to businesses and companies in town. Make sure you not only invite them to have a team but that they should have the opportunity to be a hole sponsor. That’s a metal sign like real estate agents use to stick in the ground at one of the tees. Two sponsors per tee should be the goal at $100 apiece. That’s another $3,600. I’ve seen tees littered with all sorts of sponsors but that really is unfair to the paying customer. Two per hole is good.

You may want to have a hole-in-one and long drive contest… maybe putting contest. You’ll want to get insurance if you hold a hole-in-one contest. Insurance on $10,000 for an ace is not that expensive, because it probably won’t happen. Give away a putter (that has been donated) for the winner of the putting contest and a new driver (donated) for the winner of the long drive contest. You get the idea.

Most teams are also used to buying mulligans. That’s a do-over shot for $5. Don’t go crazy with these. You want the best team to win. I think one per person or $20 per team is a good number. Playing skirts is a fun game. That’s where everyone gets to tee off the ladies tee once per round for another $5. I played a tournament one time that allowed you to throw your ball once per person. I’m not a fan.

If you decide to start the tournament at 9am, make sure your committee is there at least by 8 to set the sponsor signs out. Getting those signs printed will be an extra expense the first year but you can use them over and over.

Now let’s see how much money we made.

$2,160 for 18 teams plus half of them will do mulligans, that’s another $180 + $180 for skirts and $3,600 for signage = $6,120. If you can get the food donated and the extra carts payed for then all you are left to pay for is the cost of the course and insurance. Figure $2,500. That’s $3,620 profit assuming someone will pick up the cost of the printing and mailing. That’s not quite $5,000 but your overhead will be a little more the first year and grow each year.

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