11 Tips for Planning a Successful Corporate Golf Tournament

Following our last post about the benefits of golf for business networking, we thought we’d highlight one of the best ways for your company to network and promote itself on the course, which is by hosting your own golf tournament.

While that might sound like a huge undertaking, especially if your company has never hosted a golfing event before, with the right planning and help, you can have a successful tournament and a great new way to promote your business.

How to Plan and Execute a Successful Corporate Golf Tournament

1. Set up a Committee

Planning and running a golf tournament can be a full-time job for even experienced tournament planners. It’s best to make someone the tournament director, and put together a team to help make it all happen. While the members and responsibilities of the planning committee will be up to your particular resources and requirements, think about putting someone in charge of some of the particular points below

2. Pick a Date

This is the date all of your other planning revolves around. Make sure it’s far enough in the future – at least six months – so those you invite have time to make arrangements to be there. It will also help if you pick and arrange for a rain date.

3. Find a Course

It’s important to find and contract a course as early as possible in your planning process. The best golf clubs for corporate tournaments will also be one of your best resources for help with many other parts of your planning. In addition to the course and other golf-related amenities, the club will usually also help with food and beverage services before, during and after the tournament; registrations, and organizing post-tournament awards ceremonies.

4. Choose a Theme

Having a theme helps set your tournament apart from all the others. You can choose a theme on a format, celebrity guest or corporate event, like a product launch. Think about supporting a favorite charity or local community organization and making that the theme for the tournament.

5. Set a Budget

Like everything else you do in business, setting and adhering to a budget will help guide your planning. In addition to any promotional budget you have, you may also have any fees you decide to charge for playing in the tournament, and any sponsorship funds. Costs can include everything from the basics, like greens fees and cart rentals, to whether you want to invest in the insurance to include high-profile, big-jackpot hole-in-one competitions. Most tournaments include a post-round meal in the clubhouse that includes drinks and food.

6. Get Some Sponsorship Help

The more companies and organizations you find to help sponsor the tournament, whether through donating services or products you need, or by supplying prizes, or by hosting side-competitions, the more appealing the tournament will be and the less costly it might be for your company.

7. Choose a Format

The golfing format you choose for the tournament will go a long way to determining how much your invitees will enjoy the outing. If you’ll have lots of experienced golfers, then a shotgun tournament, where your participants each start from a different hole on the course and play their rounds simultaneously, will ensure you have a maximum number of golfers playing in the shortest amount of time. If you’ll have participants of varying degrees of golfing ability, a popular choice is the Scramble, or Best Ball format, where all golfers tee off and take their subsequent shots from the point where the best previous shot landed.

8. Decide on Contests &/or Events

There are a number of contests and events, both on the course and off, that can make your tournament more fun and engaging for everyone. From ‘closest-to-the-hole’ competitions to selling mulligans and silent auctions to raise money for charities, there are lots of great ways to make things more interesting.

9. Set an Invitation List

The numbers of people you can include in your tournament might depend on the tournament format. A shotgun tournament where there is only one tee-off time means you can invite 72 golfers (one foursome on each of 18 holes).

10. Have a Marketing/Communications Plan

In addition to sending out invitations, you may want to keep in touch with attendees through email or regular mail. You can pump-up interest in the tournament by announcing new prizes, sponsorships, events, etc., as they happen.

11. Plan the Logistics for the Day

From registrations in the mornings to planning prize tables, featured speakers and awards ceremonies, later on, you will most likely need to make at least one person responsible for making sure everything runs smoothly on tournament day.

As we said, the course you choose can make a big difference in all the planning that needs to happen for your tournament to run smoothly and be enjoyable for your guests. We’ve been hosting corporate and charity golf tournaments for over 50 years here at the Royal Ashburn Golf Club. Just give us a call and let our professional tournament staff show you just how we can help you make your tournament the best it can be.