Articles
9 February 2012

Planning to the Tee

Make Your Golf Tournament a Swinging Success

by Linda Kennedy

09 February 2012—

 The best way to learn to golf is from the pros, and the same goes for those learning how to stage a top-rate golf tournament. Chris Newman, head golf professional, PGA, at Soldier Hollow Golf Course in Midway, and Andre Carrier, chief operations officer at Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite, Nev., see a lot of corporate golf tournaments. 

“Our resort hosts dozens and dozens of corporate and social organiza-tion tournaments,” says Carrier. 

Newman facilitates about 40 tournaments a year. “I have never been on the other side of the table—approaching a tournament from the corporate side of things that is,” he says. “But I see different groups come through all the time

having different

degrees of 

success.” 

Newman

says planning

a successful

tournament is

not as easy as many

companies think; just as a golfer needs to give the back nine careful thought, a corporate tournament will fall flat without strategic planning. Follow these nine steps carefully to ensure your tournament will be a swinging success. 

 

1) Appoint a golfer to plan the tournament. 

“Most often, the CEO, who is a golfer, appoints their assistant to start calling places and so we receive calls from people who are not golfers and we ask them fairly standard questions about what they are looking for and they can’t help—they don’t know what we are talking about,” says Newman.  

2) Set a budget and collect money up front. 

“This should be considered on a total and per person basis, so it is important to have a good idea of how many people are included in the outing,” says Carrier. 

Newman adds that whether you are collecting from players or sponsors, register your team early and pay up front. And offering discounts and other incentives can help, he says. “Those that don’t get money up front always regret it, especially when it comes to food guarantees.”

3) Plan ahead. 

Newman and Carrier say golf courses, particularly good ones, have limited dates they will consider for tournaments. If you want your event on a premium date, start planning at least one year in advance. Knowing your budget in advance will help you quickly rule out certain dates, courses or destinations.

 

3) Determine the tournament’s objective. 

Decide whether your tournament is for networking, an incentive-based reward or a philanthropic effort. Either way, your mission needs to mesh with the facility you contact, says Newman. “For instance, if you are raising money, that means you are going to charge money which means you need to provide more of an upscale experience.”

 

5) Dare to be a copycat. 

“If there is a tournament you have been to in the past and liked, contact the organizer to gain an understanding of their budget, how many months in advance they started planning, and the contact name at their golf course and ask them about what they were like to work with,” says Carrier.

 

6) Build relationships with golf pros. 

“Relationships matter,” says Carrier. “Establish a short list of courses and meet with the professionals at each of the courses. A good course professional will be familiar with the hundreds of little things that make for a good nuts and bolts tournament.”

 

7) Strike a deal.

 Newman advises planners to grill the golf professional coordinator they are working with about course schedules and ask for arrangements that might provide a deal. For instance, will using the on-site concessionaire give you a cost break?

 

8) Make it memorable.

Carrier says the common mistakes companies make include failing to incorporate a unique twist to make the event memorable, and failing to meet the objective by not providing sufficient time to network or build morale. Also make sure to begin the tournament on time, end on time and have an organized schedule.    

 

9) Sit this game out. 

“The best planners don’t play in their own event,” says Newman. “In my experience, it is very rare that the person can run the event, be the contact person and then also shut it down and then go play and enjoy themselves. A successful event is a lot of work, and I rarely see [the planner] also golf in the tournament.” 

 


Built by Crowell