Golf Tournament Planning: What You Should Expect

For one day every year, the World's Largest Golf Outing (WLGO) encourages people to host golf tournaments all over the world and donate the proceeds to the charity of their choice.

It's a great idea! Major golf tournaments are fun, successful, and have good profit margins. We already have guides on choosing the right course for your golf tournament.

The next step is the actual golf tournament planning. To help you, we've come up with planning tips that everyone should consider below.

Decide on Your Player Cap

Scoring amateur golf tournaments should be easy, given that people turn in their own scorecards. But a well-run tournament involves someone looking through the cards and verifying them as well as they can for each scoring group.

You'll need to create rules about what to do for ties, people you suspect have entered more than once, as well as calculate any handicaps if those aren't built into your groups.

If you decide to use different scoring groups, then you may want to figure out a cap for each of those, as well as criteria for when someone falls on the cusp between two groups.

Choose Your Buy-In Cost

Charity golf tournaments are some of the best events for raising funds, as golfers usually come from higher-income groups and are willing to pay for a good cause.

The average cost of a golf tournament entry is between $100 and $150 - but that doesn't mean you can't charge more (or less).

If you need help deciding what the buy-in should be, think about your audience. What kind of jobs do they have? Who will have invited them to the tournament? Where are they coming from?

You can always research similar tournaments online or ask your golf-playing friends.

Additionally, you'll work with our course manager to tell you what the tournament will cost per player (on average). That way, you can calculate the profit margin before deciding the buy-in.

Market Your Event

Your tournament will only be successful if people show up. And for them to show up, you need to let them know your event is happening.

The pro shop at our course can do some of the talking for you, but you'll also want to create a Facebook group or send invitations another way.

Offering people $5 off the buy-in price for bringing a friend is a great way to increase the success of your event.

Create An After-Event

There's a reason that golf clubs have clubhouses - golfers like to gather and celebrate with their friends after a good round. It's safe to assume they'll want to do this after your tournament too.

Whether you have a private room set up for your players or work with the club to offer a custom cocktail on tournament days, giving players some wrap-up will increase your event's success.

Your Guide to Golf Tournament Planning

After picking the best course at the best golf resort, the quality of your golf tournament planning is the next most important decision that will determine the success of your event.

We hope this guide to tournament planning helped you -- but remember that we have golf pros and event planners on staff who can assist you too.

Get in touch with our course here.