3 Great Improvements For Your Next Charity Golf Tournament

Posted on February 10th, 2014 | Author: | Category: National

Maybe you've planned a successful tournament – one with a decent turnout, nice prizes, good food, and helpful feedback. The next year rolls around and as you begin to plan the tournament again, is there any way to improve? Of course! This article suggests three areas to focus on while planning your next tournament. Improve upon these and your next tournament is sure to be a (bigger) success!

1. Welcoming Your Guests

Every run of the mill event starts with the same scenario for every golfer. You arrive at the golf course, maneuver for a good parking spot, unload your gear, and try to find out where you need to go. Do you register inside the Clubhouse or around back by the Pro Shop? Do you use the bag drop or lug your clubs from the parking lot? Are there range balls for use or do you need to provide your own?

An incredibly inexpensive way to set the right tone for the day while answering these questions is by investing in a few well-placed signs. Create a sign for "Guest Parking" with an additional note, such as "Thank you for coming out today!" Add a few signs leading from the parking lot to the registration area, and then direct them to the practice area with a sign that says, "Range balls provided for you, ready for your warm up!"

Also, one of my best groups has the CEO out at the bag drop, welcoming the guests and helping to unload clubs from the player's car. This small gesture always goes a long way and the CEO also gets the opportunity to personally welcome every guest that he might otherwise miss seeing during the tournament.

2. Beverage Planning

Beverage planning and organization is incredibly important because once your guests head out onto the course, this is one of the major conveniences they remember. If you're planning on providing beverages on a beverage cart, you need to ensure that you request a dedicated cart just for your event. Sometimes if your event doesn't have a full course buyout, you risk sharing a beverage cart with the entire course. Paying a small additional fee to guarantee that your guests are fully attended to while on the course is one of the smartest details you can plan for ahead of time. This minimal upcharge to you helps provide a great experience for your players and will go a long way in convincing them to be returning guests.

3. The Goodie Bag

Over the past 20+ years, the old-fashioned "goodie bag" has run its course. The time and effort spent procuring donated items, picking them up, stuffing bags, and distributing them is counter-productive to the tournament planning process and honestly equates to a very small impact to the guest. A player looks into the bag, grabs the Snickers bar and bag of tees from the local bank, and then tosses the bag into the back of the cart, forgotten. My personal opinion is to either offer one or two items your guests can immediately use (food, tees, balls, etc.) or provide one very nice tee gift. Either the goodie bag should be the best your guests have ever received, or you should skip it and concentrate on more important areas.

If you concentrate on these three areas: Welcoming Your Guests; Beverage Planning; and The Goodie Bag, you can continue to improve your tournament and impress your guests. If you have any questions about this advice or you would like more assistance on planning your tournament in the Atlanta area, feel free to contact me at (404) 788-4425 or atlantatournamentsales@americangolf.com.

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