Get meeting, event, conference, and party planning resources, all at your fingertips

Planning a Golf Tournament

Q. What are some need-to-know tips for planning a golf tournament?

A. Golf tournaments are a great summer event that everyone seems to look forward to, whether they are experienced players or not. Golf offers an opportunity for your guests to have some fun, enjoy the beauty of the course and just “escape” from the norm for the day. The keys to a successful tournament are planning far enough in advance and working closely with the course management on all the details.

Choosing a Course
Obviously, scheduling a course for your tournament is the most important part of your planning. You will want to book your tournament at least 6 months in advance, sometimes even a year in advance if you are set on a specific date.

When you select a course, consider where most of your guests are coming from and what the traffic will be like at the time of day the players will need to arrive at the course. Make sure you have enough time allotted for the golf event.

Talk to the courses you are considering about how they can help with the event management. We will park all the carts, put name plates and starting holes on the carts, score the event, lead all players to the starting hole, place all sponsor signs on the tee box and pick up at the end of the outing, place all event flags and record all winners, record and distribute event winner gift certificates and help event coordinator take volunteers on the course and pick up at the end of the day. We hope that with our help that even the event coordinators can have a great time on the day of the tournament.

Once you have selected a course, continue to work closely with their staff as you plan the details. Provide the course with your agenda, contests and all other arrangements in writing so there are no surprises the day of the event.

Tournament Play
There are a number different styles of tournament play for you to choose from and the pros at the golf course you choose can help you select the best type for your group depending on the number of players you plan to have and the skill level of the players. The types of tournament play include:

• Individual Stroke Play – Everyone plays their own ball. This is best suited for a smaller and more experienced group.
• Best Ball or Best Score – All players play each hole with their own ball and the group writes down the lowest score.
• Scramble or Best Shot (sometimes called Best Ball) – All players tee off then they pick the best placement and they all play their next shot from that one location. This is the least stressful for less experienced golfers and is probably the most popular type of tournament play.

Typically a tournament is played with a shotgun start, meaning that players start on all 18 or nine holes at the same time. A good number of players for an 18-hole tournament are 120 to 130. This will help the flow or speed of play. Most courses would like you to have at least 100 players for an 18-hole shotgun. Some will allow you to have 72 players and have a 9-hole shotgun start. The max number of players would be 144.

Early Registration
The earlier you can have your golfers committed or have your event full the better. Because players will need to commit an entire day to the event – and often take the day off work – you will want to give them plenty of notice.

It often works best if you ask your guests to sign-up in foursomes, so you have less to coordinate on your end. Plus, guests will want to play with their friends.

Sponsors and Contests
Most golf tournaments involve sponsorships that help fund the tournament and provide many of the extras, such as swag bags and contest prizes. Sponsors can also be a good source of event-day volunteers because they will want to have their people on the course interacting with the players.

A great way to get sponsors involved in by asking them to host a hole on the course. They can be present at the hole and run a contest or provide refreshments (you will need to coordinate refreshments with course management).

The contests you choose should be determined by the level of golfers participating. Serious golfers probably won’t be interested in a marshmallow driving contest. The old standby contests are long-drive for men and ladies, closest to the pin and longest putt.

You will need to have one or two staff at any contest holes you are conducting on the course. To assist, we have a player helper that patrols the course to help players with carts or bathroom breaks for volunteers.

If you are going to have sponsor signage, make sure to have it at the course the day before so you aren’t scrambling the day of the tournament.

The Weather
As with any outdoor event, of course the weather can be a factor for golf tournaments. But, even if it isn’t a perfect day most people have taken the day off and want to play. You can shorten the event and play 9 holes or delay the start and see if it will pass.

I tell planners not to worry about the weather too much. In my experience, it seems that some of the most memorable events end up being those when the weather is not the best!