Organizing my first charity golf scramble w/... THE TALLY!

[A-Train]

...proceeds going to our HS athletics. Need tips!

Need to put a good scramble together to raise money and keep people coming back next year for more. We have a good course willing to help.
Need your suggestions PLEASE.
Discuss...

[bulldog8b]

I just helped my Mom do this yesterday. I know personally the biggest things that make a good tourney is a good course, decent pace of play and good prizes. She got a bunch of people to donate money and then we went and bought prizes that we will sell raffle prizes to give away. We then give the raffle ticket $ to the charity. We got some clubs (a few Odyssey putters, Nike driver, some wedges, a Cameron Putter) and some balls (a few dz ProV's and TP's and some Bstone E6's) and then we went to Best Buy and bought some digital cameras, Ipods, DVDs like Band of Brothers, etc and lastly we went to Lowes and bought a bunch of tools and power tools. We do this evey year and we have realized that people get excited about good prizes and are willing to spend a lot of money on raffle tix when they can win stuff like Cameron putters or Ipods. Don't cheap out on the prizes and people will be willing to spend $.

 

You can also give prizes for long drives and closes to the hole on par 3's. We always sell mulligans, no more than 2 per person. You can also sell string. It is usually 3 feet per team. They can use the string when they miss a putt. If the ball is 1 foot from the hole, they cut off 1 foot of string and count the ball as in the hole. We sell the string for $40, so it is $10 a guy. You should also try to get sponsors for the different holes. Go around town ask businesses for $ to buy a hole or a green or a tee box. Then you need to get signs to advertise for the business on the hole, green or tee the bought. That is something you could have the kids at the HS do.

 

I think that is pretty much everything we did. You can raise a lot of money asking for donations, buying prizes w/ the donations and then selling raffle tix. Just make sure they are good prizes that people want. You can also raise a lot of money selling string and or mulligans as well as selling tee, greens, and FW's and charging a reasonable fee to play. I have noticed that as long as it is a good time, there are good prizes and it is for a worthy cause, people are pretty willing to crack open their wallets. You should also buy a bunch of water, sodas and beer and then have somebody ride around the course and either give it out or sell it cheap. You really don't want to try to make money off of the drinks because then it seems like you are just wringing the people out. I would suggest just buying cases at Costco or something and giving it away. People who have had a few beers also tend to be more generous.

 

If you have any other questions, feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll help any way I can.

[WRXJIM]

I know JetBlue used to very supportive of these things, and have played in a lot of scrambles where JetBlue have given away some roundtrip tickets, and even a Getaway weekend for a hole in oone...

 

Give them a call. they will be even more likely if you are in a town/city that is served by them.

 

the current state of gas prices they may not be too helpful, but its worth a shot, as they have given away alot at golf charity events I have played in.

[woohoo4me]

A-Train,

 

Good on ya for putting an event together. I sit on two tournament committees and play in a few more each year.

 

When is it? Get flyers out early to get people signed up. Maybe offer a slight discount to people that pay before a certain date (committed dollars). We're seeing less people sign up for tournaments this year due to the economy, so get their dollars early!

 

Besides golfy prizes, go to local resturants and get gift cards donated for raffle prizes or even for team prizes.

 

Depending on who you expect to play, offer (and make sure this is on your flyer) team prizes for men only teams and mixed (any team that includes at least one female player) teams. Every scramble has at least one team of unbeatable super sticks, this lets someone else win something too.

 

Talk to your locally owned golf store(s) in town. If they're like us, they have a good discount program for tournaments and will probably donate to your tournament as well providing they get a little business out of it.

 

I played in one yesterday and they had a couple of things that worked well. One, they offered a "package" at sign in......two mulligans ($5 ea), one piece of licorice ($3.....same idea as the string), and two throws ($1 each) for $25. Since most people there are spending corporate money, it's an easy extra $25 coming per player.

 

Secondly, they set out all the raffle prizes and had little bags by each one. When you bought your raffle tickets, you got both sides of the script ticket. You could then put your tickets (one side, you kept the other side...obviously, I hope) in the bags for the items you were interested in.....and maybe increase your chances for winning the item you liked the most.

 

I've got another 6 paragraphs in my head for you regarding sponsors, but have to get back to work. PM me if you want more of my drivel.

 

The course should have an events coordinator who should be able to help tell you what other tournament have done.

 

Good luck with it!! :friends:

 

Woo

[Carolina Golfer 2]

bulldogh, you gave some great advice. I will just say two things, you mention pace of play. In my opinion the mulligans and string while they are good ways to get extra money, slow things down. I know most people take the mulligans on putts so you think what's one more putt. But I've been behind foursomes where they used their "2" mulligans at least 6 times :friends: But you gave lot of great suggestions, I would have loved to lay in yours with those prizes, I would have probably spent $100 at least on raffle tickets ;)

[bulldog8b]

bulldogh, you gave some great advice. I will just say two things, you mention pace of play. In my opinion the mulligans and string while they are good ways to get extra money, slow things down. I know most people take the mulligans on putts so you think what's one more putt. But I've been behind foursomes where they used their "2" mulligans at least 6 times :) But you gave lot of great suggestions, I would have loved to lay in yours with those prizes, I would have probably spent $100 at least on raffle tickets :)

 

 

Thanks. I know that when I play in tourneys that have great prizes, I always look forward to going back and definitely spend a lot of money. We get sponsors to donate cash and then buy the prizes w/ that. This year we had $4,000. We spent most of it and donated the rest. We then sold raffle tix and donated that money. We usually get about the same amount of money as we spend, sopmewhere in the $3-4k range. We have 144 players and if they each buy $20 worth of raffle tix, that is just a little less than $3k. So w/ good prizes, genrous people and little booze, you can get to $4k usually.

 

You are right about pace though. Mullis and string and that stuff does slow it down, but it also makes a lot of money. You just have to figure out a way to balance that stuff out. That's the hard part, making everything actually run smoothly.

[A-Train]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies everyone.

We are a small town of approx 8000 so any monetary donations will go straight to the charity but I'm sure local businesses will donate some prizes.

 

The host course, of which I happen to belong, will work closely w/ us to assure max return. String and mullis all around - pace will be no problem.

 

Again, thanks for the help and I'll prolly get back in touch as the date draws nearer.

[drewcatc]

I have run a small town type event for 4 or so years. One of the hurdles is that parents of the athletics program are often tapped out this time of year, but with a good event and a fun time, it will be successful.

 

A few things that we have done to make the even a financial success are the mulligans and a 50/50. For the mulligans we sold a $20 package that included 3 mulligans and one tee shot from the forward tees. for the 50/50 we usually do well and since it is a fund raiser, people are usually generous. One event a friend attends, they place a $20 bill with your name on it in a box and pull one out. Winner takes half of the kitty.

 

Prizes and fun are the important part. Find some booster parents who can donate some suff or some of their corporations as well.

 

Obviously the largest money maker is the hole sponsorship. We have raised almost 40K in the past 4 years, and most of that was on sponsorship dollars. Golf makes no money. And very often, around this area anyway, the course gives money "back" in the proshop that can be used for some of your prizes.

 

Also since this is a HS athletics supported event, hit up the school and all of the coaches. Also find out from the AD who they use as vendors and hit them up for financial or goods support. One of your vendors does trophies for the contests and winning 4some.

 

Hope I gave you enough info. if you need more feel free to contact me.

 

Drew

[A-Train]

Excellent stuff Drew... THX!

[tekmiester]

This is a great thing you are doing. Congrats!

[A-Train]

This is a great thing you are doing. Congrats!

 

Thx tek!

We're coming along. Economy and competition for extra scramble bucks have def been a challenge. United Way, Chamber of Commerce and others are having their scrambles before us BUT the community support and enthusiasm for the new and improved booster club has been outstanding.

 

A local GM dealer, despite the economy, has donated a hole-in-one car and we're very grateful for that.

 

I'd love to hear from anyone who's been involved w/ a local HS booster club and their experiences and ideas would be great to hear.

[Bartok]

A-Train, where is this tournament taking place?

[jimbonecrusher]

Definitely get the kids involved. The players of the tournament will like nothing more that to see who the money that they donated or paid for participation is going to help. Definitely try to get every sport represented. Whether it is at check-in, on the course, or during the drawings, have the kids present.

[A-Train]

Cactus, sorry for the delayed response. We're in East Central Indiana - just a stones throw from Quebec. :clapping:

 

Crusher, we've invited the coaches to sign-up teams to play and kids to volunteer. So far we have plenty of volunteers.

 

UPDATE:

We're two weeks away, have 20 teams signed-up and 13 hole sponsors. Coke is donating all the drinks and a local independent grocer is providing 80 hotdogs and hamburgers. A few ladies are making potato salad and other stuff to round it out.

Local Ford dealer is providing a 2-year lease on a Focus for a hole-in-one and the course has $1000 on another hole.

 

The course owner/pro has been OUTSTANDING to work with.

 

QUESTION:

I still need to pick up hole prizes for longest drive, closest pin and long putt. SUGGESTIONS?

[A-Train]

Dates fast approaching...

 

I ended up buying $50 worth of "Chamber Bucks" (coupons) per prize hole that can be used are virtually any business in town including gas stations. This a) fills my prize need and b) puts the newly formed booster club in good graces w/ the chamber and the businesses that sponsored holes.

 

All seems to be going well as we now have 23 teams and 18 hole sponsors.

 

Thanks for the support and I'll certainly respond w/ the outcome.

[A-Train]

22 teams, 23 hole sponsors and the best volunteers imaginable!

Netted >$3000.

Everyone got a 22 x 44 silk screened golf towel, a road atlas and lunch.

 

Learned:

High school volunteers can eat a lot of food especially when their sitting around!

Sometimes you need to lean on the winning teams a little bit to donate their winnings, or a portion of them, back to the charity organizing the fundraiser.

 

All three teams took their winnings. Embarrasingly, one was the girls basketball coach!

 

Still a big success and, again, I thank those who responded earlier w/ ideas and encouragement.