Six months out: the course, the date and the goal
Book the course first. Outings fill a course's calendar months ahead, spring and fall soonest. Ask for its outing package in writing: what a player costs (golf, a cart, often range balls), what food and drink cost, how many players you must guarantee, the deposit, and the date your final count is due.
Then set the goal: what you want to raise, and how many players and sponsors it takes to get there. Most fundraisers play a four-person scramble with a shotgun start, so every team starts together and finishes together for the awards.
- Book the course and the date
- Agree the player guarantee, the deposit and the final-count date
- Set the fundraising goal
- Choose the format and the start: a shotgun or tee times
- Name a lead for sponsors, one for registration and one for the day
Four to five months out: sponsors
Sponsors are usually most of what a golf fundraiser raises, so they come before players. Build a few tiers (a title sponsor, hole sponsors, a lunch or beverage-cart sponsor, contest sponsors), decide what each one includes, and offer last year's sponsors their packages first.
With Golf Sync XP
Each tier has its price, the foursome or dinner seats it includes, its benefits and how many are left. Sponsors apply from your event page and pay by card, bank or check, and each gets a PDF invoice with your EIN.
Three months out: the event page and registration
Open registration with a page that says what the money supports, the date, the format, and the price of a single and a foursome. Choose a closing date and a field size, and keep a waitlist once you are full. List the event where golfers look for tournaments to play in, not only with the people you already know.
With Golf Sync XP
Your event gets its own page with your logo, photos, schedule, FAQ and refund policy. It takes card and bank payments into your own Stripe account, plus Venmo, check, invoice and cash at the desk, and closes at your date or your field size, with a waitlist. Golf Sync's tournament catalog lists it free. No Golf Sync fee on registrations, donations or sponsorships when your event raises money.
Six to eight weeks out: volunteers, contests and prizes
Count the jobs rather than the players: check-in and payments, someone on each contest hole, the beverage cart, scoring help and the awards. Pick the contests (closest to the pin on a par 3, the longest drive), their prizes and their sponsors. A hole-in-one prize needs a hole-in-one insurance policy, priced on the prize and the field. Order trophies, player gifts and signs now.
With Golf Sync XP
Post volunteer shifts that people claim from a public page, with no account needed. Closest to the pin and the long drive are posted from the course, and the iPad Event Desk sells or comps mulligans at the table.
Two weeks out: pairings, starting holes and print
Close registration, give the course your final count, and make the pairings: sponsor foursomes together, groups that signed up together kept together, and single players placed into teams that are even. For a shotgun, give each group its starting hole. Then print the hole and sponsor signs, cart signs and scorecards, and send every player where and when to be.
With Golf Sync XP
The tee sheet is one click: sponsor foursomes stay together, parties stay intact and singles fill by handicap. Every group gets its starting hole, A and B groups included, and the print pack makes the cart signs, scorecards, hole and sponsor signs and the alphabetical list as PDFs from your event. Each player can be emailed their tee time, starting hole and group the day before.
The day: check-in, scoring and the board
Open check-in well before the start. Take what is still owed, sell mulligans, and hand out carts and scorecards. Tell the field the format and the contests before they go out. Keep a live leaderboard in the clubhouse, and if you want a finish people wait for, hide the last holes until the awards.
With Golf Sync XP
Check players in, add walk-ups and substitutes on the iPad Event Desk. Teams score on their phones, and when the signal drops, scores wait on the phone and post when it is back. A live leaderboard with your sponsors runs on any TV, and the board can hold the last holes until the awards while it says how many teams have finished.
The week after: results, thank-yous and next year
Send the results and photos to everyone who played. Thank every sponsor with a note of where their name and logo ran, while the day is fresh: it is the start of next year's renewal. Settle the books, write down what you would change, and put next year's date on the course's calendar.
With Golf Sync XP
Results are final for every player and every flight the moment the round closes. The recap email takes the results and photos to everyone who played and a recap to every sponsor, and the wrap-up checklist ends with next year's copy of the event.