A great way to host a fundraising event or corporate clients is with a golf tournament. Running a successful golf tournament requires working closely with the golf course of your choice on all the important details for your tournament. Here are some tips for running a successful golf tournament and how to make sure things go smoothly.
First schedule a tentative date with the golf course to hold your event. It’s a good idea to select a secondary date in case it rains the day of the event and golfers cannot play. Once you’ve scheduled a tentative date and selected a secondary date, be sure to schedule a final registration date that allows you enough time to commit to other planning details like food suppliers, prizes, etc.
An essential part of running a successful golf tournament is having a tournament planning folder to keep you organized. Sections for accounting, participants, sponsors, food vending and prizes will help you keep track of all the details that go into planning. To streamline the process, consider your budget, the tournament format you’d like to see, any handicapping systems you’d like to put in place to help equalize players’ abilities, a plan for an easy signup process and how you’d like the registration table and invitations to look.
Trophy and tournament memorabilia say a lot about your golf tournament. It’s the token participants will keep long after the tournament’s over and what they’ll talk about. This is why so many event planners turn to ASAP Awards for golf trophies. Our solid crystal golf award with a stainless steel finish base is the perfect way to make your golf tournament one to remember. You can upload or email the message and logo you’d like on the base of the trophy and we will personalize it just for you with our expert engraving. Custom trophies require planning and ordering. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get the golf trophies your participants deserve.
You’ll also want to determine the fee to charge participants and sponsors. This fee should cover charges for using the course, food and money you’re raising for the event’s cause or charity. Much of the money raised comes from sponsors. This is why it’s a good idea to assemble sponsor packets you can send to area businesses. Whether your sponsors are companies or individuals donating money or items to your fundraising event, you’ll want to advertise the company or sponsors’ names on a banner or marker at one of the golf holes. Be sure they know you are using their logos so you don’t have any copyright issues.
Key to the success of any golf tournament is promotion. Design a media kit and send it to local radio, television and newspaper outlets. Don’t forget the power of social media either. Facebook, Twitter and other niche social networks are another fantastic way to promote your golf tournament. For charity golf events, organizers should use Kickstarter. Friends and family can also spread the word by dispersing fliers and forms at work, their schools and neighborhoods.
Once you have your final registration date numbers, you can finalize your order for trophies, prizes and memorabilia and contact food vendors. Golf tournaments usually conclude with a meal and ceremony.
Two weeks prior to the tournament event date you’ll want to tie up the following loose ends. If you plan to have a Shotgun Start, where everyone starts play at the same time with a team on each of the 18 holes, you’ll want to assign starting positions. If you plan to have an auction at your golf tournament, now is the time to collect the items from sponsors. Be sure to buy a large roll of raffle tickets for participants to buy for the auction or any raffle items. Typically, a raffle divides the money from ticket sales with 50% going toward the event and the remainder going to the raffle winner.
The week before the event be sure to finalize arrangements made with the golf course and food vendor.
On the day of the event setup a registration table for participant sign in, another table for ticket purchases and separate tables for any auction items.