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Me and a couple buddies want an excuse to get away from the wives, meet every month to plan, and then run a Charity Golf Tournament. Has anyone here every run one? I would love to hear some sort of business plan where we don't end up owing a bunch of money.

My main idea was a Big Brothers/Sisters even where a four some consisted of 2 golfers and 2 "bothers/sisters" to play. I think this is a wonderful idea, would look great on a resume also.

I know its a nobel effort, but i think you run into the problem of providing several sets of jr. clubs with kids who do not play.

I think there is lots of info out there running your own golf tourny.

Now that you bring it up, even if you provided sets to kids who don't play, they could have an awful difficult time on the course. I always find that par 3 courses are much better for beginners.

I have a decent local hook up with a local Golf Galaxy, I might be able to get clubs there. I agree with the par 3 idea, we have been spit balling about a shorter local course. I just need to iron out most of the logistics, because I think the idea is too good not to give it a 100% effort and a good try.

I help run a charity golf tournament for my company's annual fundraising drive. There are several things you will need to consider:

1) How much money do you want to raise? If the primary reason is to get away from the wife as you state in your opening post, as opposed to raising the maximum amount of money for a given charity that will dictate several key issues: where to host the event and how much money to charge for the entry fee

2) Where will the event be? No venue is going to give you a discount to host a charity event. You will have to pay whatever their regular rate is and they will require you to get a cart. No free range balls either. That will set your minimum rate you can charge for the event. If you want to provide tee prizes, lunches, free H20 etc., you will need to either find donors or start charging more for the entry fee. Obviously, you can get more people interested in a charity event at a marquee course vs. a local muni. Typically to make it worth your while, you will need to charge at least twice the greens fee + cart for the entry fee.

3) What charity do you want to sponsor? Generally speaking, the smaller the charity, the smaller the help you will get from them. Do you intend this to be an annual event? You will get more help if you position this to be an annual fundraiser as opposed to a "one and done" deal. Larger charities will have web sites and other methods to help create awareness for the event which can help you draw more participants. Typically you will have someone from the charity kick off the event, thanking sponsors (if any) and leltting people know a little about their charity and why they are grateful for them being in the event.

4) Prizes: There is usually some sort of "game" involved. Scramble, best-ball, closest to the pin, long drive etc. You will need someone to figure out scores, handicaps, flights (if the field is big enough) and of course several reasonable prizes to dole out. Again, all of this either needs to be donated or it comes out of the entry fee.

All in all, it is a significant effort over at least a 3 month period to pull one of these things off. You might actually be better off finding an existing charity golf tournament you can help out with rather than starting one of your own if the main goal is to get away from your wife and play some golf.

Thanks a lot for your response. When I said, we wanted an excuse to get away from the wives, it really was in jest. We would seriously like to make this work, and of course make it raise as much money as possible. The "free time" is just an added luxury.

I am currently working on a Business plan for a late summer event, as a lot of the people who will play and be involoved are teachers, and we need to hit the summer vacation. It also should be low season for rates.

I hope to post the plan soon.

Be prepared to pony up a lot of up-front money before your players pay their registration fees. You will REALLY want to get a significant player commitment before you book your venue. The deposits can be a killer and most will be non-refundable. Oh! and BTW, keep posting on this, I'm rooting for you.

i can't help w/ running a tourney, but here are a few suggestions for raising money for the charity:

1. hole sponsors-- go to your local businesses and offer a yard sign for advertisement, i've seen up to 3 or 4 signs per hole, usually if it's for a good cause, businesses will pony up the money

2. offer "fun" holes-- we recently had a tourney where on one par 3 they had 6 holes on the green, and for $5 a person, you could play to whichever hole your ball was closest to.....every team i talked to paid the money, and at $20 a team that adds up quick

3. offer mulligans-- $5 a person, once again, it adds up quick

4. sell t-shirts-- this one's a little tricky, we've printed a lot of shirts for tourney's, and some do great at selling them, some don't.......i'd say the key is to know your market, and design a shirt that appeals to them

5. have a raffle-- you said you had a hook-up at golf-galaxy, see if he'll donate a new club, and raffle it off at the tourney


just a few suggestions, some are probably obvious but i thought i'd put them in here in case you didn't think of them