How to Organise A Charity Golf Day

Organise a Golf Event

Who we are.......

The Redpost Golf Society based in Dorset in the UK have now run 4 Charity events and raised in excess of £12000 and would like to pass on to anyone who has an interest in golf and is looking to run a Charity golf day how we have done it and hope it proves helpful.Organising a golf day is great fun and rewarding but it is hard work and you need to constantly badger people to help you out.

How we have done it .......

First select your chosen cause and set a realistic target
Seek a local business as a major sponsor. We were lucky enough to find the Hearn Group of Companies in Dorchester and they have made a regular contribution to all of our events
Book a golf course well in advance of the event and settle the amount they want to charge and agree what is to be provided. This needs to include what food and refreshments they can offer, free use of buggies to place advertising banners on the course, Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive markers and anything else you can think of. If you stress that it is for charity they are normally happy to help financially.
Start getting teams to enter we try to get teams of 4 which means that it is easier to organise when they are playing. But don't turn down single players as you can usually make up more teams from these single players.
Find sponsors for each hole. We get them to pay a set amount for the hole ( charge more for 1 and 18 as most sponsors seem to like these holes). We ask if they are to provide their own advertising banner to place around the hole or if they would like us to provide one. we have an arrangement with a manufacturer so we make a small profit on this.
Organise a draw to be drawn on the day. We have in our latest event charged £10 for an envelope which includes draw tickets and an entry into the putting competition ,Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive. Anyone without the tickets cannot enter the competitions. We had about a 95% take up.
Get prizes. A good source of prizes are from local golf clubs who are usually willing to donate green fee tickets especially if you have played on their course. We have also approached with great success, local organisations providing such things as Shepherds Hut holidays, Gliding, Zorbing, Shooting and alpaca walking. You will need to buy trophies as you see fit for overall winner, Nearest Pin, longest Drive, Champion Putter etc.
We play full handicap scoring for both team competition and individual. this makes it slightly easier for the person collating the scores. For the team score we count the best 2 scores for the first 6 holes,the best 3 scores on holes 7 to 12 and all scores on the last 6 holes. Anyone who has reasonable Excel skills can easily develop a programme to add up these scores, if not we are happy to sell you a copy of ours at nominal cost. you can contact us on www.redpost-golf-society.co.uk We also run a yellow ball competition and a nearest the mystery prize on the 18th fairway. The way the yellow ball competition works is that each team starts with a yellow ball and each player in turn has to use this ball. All the scores with this ball are added up at the end of the round and we give a prize usually a green fee voucher to the winning team. If the ball gets lost the team does not qualify. A dustbin is placed on the 18th fairway at an average driving length so the big hitters have to throttle down if they want to win and the highest handicappers still have a chance of winning. the prize is anything we need to get rid of and has included a beer cooler, a battery drill and a case of beer.
We have also held auctions after the golf and we have put up lots such as holidays,tickets to sports events, restaurant vouchers, football club shirts and anything else that you can cajole people and businesses into giving. We have been lucky that we have been able to enlist the services of a local farmer who has conducted many auctions and is also an entertainer in his own right. Make sure any one who is going to run the auction is "pushy" so you get as much from the auction as possible.
A general point is to make sure that you have enough people helping your golf dayand they all need to know what you want them to do. We have enlisted the help of a lovely lady who registers all the players, enters scores and sells the £10 envelopes, she is probably the reason we get such a good uptake in selling these!