2007 OREGON EXECUTIVE GOLF GUIDE: COVER STORY
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Golfing for charity
Golfers practice by the lake at Broken Top Club before the Sagebrush Classic in Bend. |
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The course
Finding the right venue is a lot more work than you might
think. Many courses are booked a year or more in advance,
particularly during high season for golf — June through
September.
Finding the right fit for an event involves a couple of
different factors. If this is your first time planning an
outing, Maletis recommends choosing a course with an
experienced staff that is willing to help you with ideas on how
to make money.
Another hint: Consider the advantages of debuting your event
at a smaller course. The nine-hole Hidden Valley Golf Course in
Cottage Grove plays host to several golf events each year.
“We get smaller tourneys when they are just starting
out,” says owner Dan Nord. “They like to come here
because we can accommodate more readily.”
It’s more fun to have the golf course to yourself, and
smaller courses can accommodate smaller groups.
“We’ll shut our place down for 45 people,”
Nord says, “where others require 100 or so.”
When choosing a course, be sure to also check out its
benefits. Hidden Valley, for example, gives 10% of its fee back
for charitable events. Other courses commonly provide cash or
credit in the pro shop for prizes during the event.
The players
The single most important key to a successful tournament is
getting the players signed up –– the right players,
the ones with the connections and the resources to really make
your event pay off.
How do you do that? By working with the right people.
“On the charity end, you really need to get the board of
directors behind you in the effort,” Maletis advises.
“They always have a lot of connections, a lot of people
on their speed dial willing to play a round of golf for a good
cause.”
Getting a full roster of players is essential to the bottom
line. Registration fees should cover the costs of the golf
course and a meal, should you choose to serve one. The rest is
gravy.
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Golfers compete at the local qualifier for the 2006 RE/MAX
World Long Drive Championship at Centennial Golf Course in
Medford. Photos courtesy of Medford Mail Tribune. |
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The sponsors
The national average for benefit golf tournaments is $3,000 to
$7,000 in profits. Timothy Mort, who has been organizing large
golf events for years, has developed a formula for increasing
that return. One of the key components has to do with
sponsorships.
“I learned a long time ago that if you treat sponsorship
as an investment rather than a donation, companies will step up
and spend more money with you,” Mort says.
For example, RE/MAX organizers typically spend $40,000 to
$50,000 in advertising the month prior to the event. The goal
of the coverage is not to attract participants, since the event
usually is sold out well before that. The goal is to publicize
the cause, the Children’s Miracle Network, and to get the
names of the corporate sponsors out there.
Another key to success is to make those sponsorship
opportunities available at all levels, so as many businesses as
possible can participate. The big bucks come in on the title
sponsorship, of course, but that is only one of the branding
options. “You can sell sponsorships for your lunch or
dinner, so you cover your expenses there,” Maletis says.
“You can have a sponsor for the driving range where
golfers warm up, for the golf carts, the drink carts, even the
putting green.”
Hole sponsorships are relatively low-cost and, times 18, can
significantly offset tournament expenses.
The prizes
With so many golf tournaments out there, there is a lot of
competition for players. Mort credits the “wow
factor” with the success of many events. “Year
after year, it’s all about that wow factor,” he
says. “When people come to play in one of my events, I
want them to walk away with their hands full of stuff and
saying, ‘Wow, I’m coming back next year.’ You
always want to be building toward next year.”
Contests within the tournament provide the opportunity for
golfers to win prizes while increasing revenue. Tournament
registration fees are often paid by employers, so golfers are
usually willing to spend a little more out of their own
pockets. “You don’t want to nickel and dime them to
death, but there are some definite revenue possibilities you
want to take advantage of,” Maletis says.
Putting competitions are a favorite, since skilled and amateur
golfers alike can participate — for $10 or so a try, of
course. One of the most popular contests at Langdon Farms Golf
Club in Aurora, which Maletis owns, was the chance to win a ski
boat. For a fee, golfers got a chance to put their ball into a
plastic swimming pool floating on the lake alongside the ski
boat, right off the 18th hole. “That was a lot of fun,
and someone actually did win the boat,” Maletis says.
All the trimmings
Once you have the course, the players and the sponsors, you can
take your golf event to whatever level you want. At this point,
sometimes it’s not even about golf anymore.
The Sagebrush Classic, for example, has morphed from a small
golf outing into one of the Northwest’s premier culinary
events. Twenty celebrity chefs from around the world come to
Bend to cook for more than 1,300 guests, who also sip
handcrafted brews from the event’s sponsor, Deschutes
Brewery, and enjoy local wines. The best-ball golf tournament
at Broken Top Club is scheduled for one of the event’s
two days.
“The golf tournament is a lot of fun,” says Judy
Anderson, executive director of the event, “but the
celebrity chefs are the big draw.”
Many golf tournaments find huge success with dinners, raffles
and auctions. These events aren’t limited to golfers,
which encourages more participation and can double the take for
the charity. “You can make anywhere from $20,000 to
$40,000 more if you tie your function into an auction,”
Maletis says.
With the right structure, your golf event can make money for
your favorite charity, and provide a lot of fun at the same
time.
“The great thing about these tournaments is that players
get to come out and compete with their buddies,” says Dan
Nord of Hidden Valley. “Usually, they pay almost twice
the fees in a tournament — half of it is just a give on
their part.
“Golfers are the most charitable people
alive.”
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