Hosting a charity golf fundraiser may seem like a daunting task, but it is a type of event that you don’t have to worry too much about. The primary purpose of the tournament is to bring people together and raise money for a certain cause.
Preparing For A Charity Golf Fundraiser
There are three basic steps when preparing for any event. It is to plan, prepare, and execute. Plan and lay out all your plans, prepare all the things you need to make the event happen, and execute and do all the things necessary during and after the event.
Plan
Tournament planning involves preparing for the game itself, a fellowship gathering, and an awarding ceremony at the end of everybody’s round. Most of the preparation efforts will fall into the awarding where you must have the venue dressed up to accommodate all the participants and guests.
This involves collecting sponsors by sending out multiple sponsorship letters to businesses, collecting awards, trophies, and possibly items for a raffle, and setting up the venue itself. Gather and collect commitments from potential sponsors and participants so you can gauge and plan further how many people will be attending.
Part of planning your tournament is thinking about how you would market your event. Golfers will enjoy playing regardless if it’s a tournament or a regular round with friends and family. Inviting players through word of mouth should be a great tool to encourage people to join.
To get more people involved, you can approach local golf clubs and invite their groups to join your tournament. Else, use social media and other platforms to promote your tournament and invite more people to join.
Lastly, pick a format of golf game your participants would play. Not all amateur and hobby players have the same handicap and enforcing a system 36 will be fair for all players especially if you don’t know how each player plays.
Prepare
Your venue should be presentable and fun so that everyone can enjoy their time after a few hours of playing in the course. Set up a stage, rent out a sound system, dress up tables, prepare food and drinks for guests, and organize a program.
As a tip, don’t forget about the small details when setting up your venue to make it more pleasing to your guests. For example, you can use gingham tablecloths on your tables and dress up your chairs with covers for folding chairs to give out a country club vibe.
For the meals, make them look more elegant by providing silver charger plates. On the other hand, if you want to pull off a more relaxed and simple gathering, you can always try using plastic plates and disposable plastic dinnerware for easier setup and cleanup.
Execute
On the day of the event, make sure that the flights of all players are properly organized, the venue is set to accommodate all the guests, and the program has a great flow for everyone to enjoy. You can consider having a raffle during the reception to give something everyone will be excited about after playing a round of golf.
Golf Fundraising Ideas
In addition to the preparation process, you also need to have golf event ideas to make all the golfers more excited about the event. Here are some ideas you might want to consider to make your tournament more interesting.
1. Nearest To The Pin
Have a nearest to the pin contest on every par three holes. Use a small flag pinned on the green and include a pencil. The first player to hit the green will write his/her name on the list on the flag and if another player hits a ball closer to the pin than the previous player, he/she will write their name as well.
Collect the flag after the last group and the last player listed is the closest to the pin.
Games like these will give interest to more players to join your golf event.
2. Sell Mulligans
Everyone would want a retry after a terrible shot or to save their score when their ball goes out of bounds or falls in the water. Selling mulligans doesn’t really affect the pace of play much, but will help a lot in raising funds for your cause.
3. Hole-In-One Prize
Event marketing is important when hosting a sporting event like this. Ideas like multi-channel promotion and advertising can help boost attendance. This way, you can calculate and estimate how many players will join and possibly attract sponsors to fund your event.
The odds of sinking your ball in your first shot is 12,500 to one. A hole-in-one is a one-of-a-kind and very hard feat that may require more luck than skill.
That said, just like other tournaments, you can ask your sponsors to give away a grand prize for someone who may hit an ace in your event.
This way, you can attract more golfers to come and join your charity event.
4. Best Drive
Have a “longest drive” event on the longest par 5 of the course you’re hosting at. Just like the nearest to the pin contest, you can also add a flag in the middle of the fairway and let people write their names if they hit the longest. This will allow a more competitive round for everyone allowing them to try to outdrive each other.
5. Mini Putt Tournament
Hosting a mini putt tournament will encourage more people to join your event. This can encourage other people who are new to golf or inexperienced to join a competitive event.
Although most golf courses don’t have a mini-putt course, you can pick a different venue for that on the same date and have all the participants join the fellowship after their round.
Pulling off a charity golf fundraiser should spark interest in different golfers. They get to play the sport they love, enjoy their day, and be a part of a cause that will help other people. Just remember to plan, organize and execute properly so that the day will go smoothly and everyone will have the time of their lives.
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