something i've been thinking about

i've been thinking about running a tournament, something small but fun. aside from merchandise for am payout, how much does it really cost? if everything were to come out of my own pocket, no sponsors or anything?

i know to help with the cost of the pdga sanctioning, park rental fees, and such, one could offer hole sponsorships and cfr discs. but worse case scenario, everything out of pocket.

the only sponsorship would be some other club to run merch payout. and i would cut them a check out of the am entry fees. have you ever heard of this being done for an event? a local club handling payout, while another individual actually runs the tournament seperately. it might be a way for the club to get rid of some extra plastic, while making a little money.

that's just something i've been thinking about. best/worst case scenario, it would be easier to gather up the money for the actual tournament, minus the merch for payout. that and i would probably have to go through the process of trying to become an approved dealer to get the disc myself. after running a tournement or two, it might better my chances.

[Twoputt]

We have done that in Tulsa several times. Sometimes a TD doesn't have the stock or the funds to lay out that kind of cash but wants to put on an event. Not a problem to have the club run the payout, then settle up afterwards. If you are wanting a fun tournamnet, may I suggest a non-sanctioned event. This will allow for a fun format without all of the stress and details of a sanctioned event.

I have run big money skins events, team events and bag tag match play events, all of which were non sanctioned and everyone had one HELL of a time. For my bag tag match play, I did brackets with 64 spots just like NCAA. We finished the event in two days. I bought 64 shirts with a logo on the fronnt but didn't give them out until after the first round. The reason for that was, 32 of them had "One & Done" on the back of them. Some still wear those one & done shirts with pride.:) The players really enjoyed the bracket match play. Head to head matches are a blast.

For the skins event, we have $90, $40 and $20 divisions, all 100% payout. For this I usually donate all of the drinks, beer and gatorade.

For our team event, I threw out something different. Instead of a shotgun start we had a shot start. For those that wanted to participate, there was a Pint of Crown Royal on every tee pad for the "SHOT START". The majority liked this also. For those that didn't partake, they still thought the event and format were a lot of fun.

What ever you decide to do just try to think what would be fun in your mind and what you as a player would enjoy.

As for cost, mine have always been minimal as for tournament expenses, they were non-sanctioned, no park fees, no club fees or anything else. My expenses were just what ever I wanted to donate to the event. I have gone out of pocket as much as $600 and as little as $50. I never expect anything in return and it makes it all worth while when the players come up afterwards and thank me for such a fun format.

[Chuck Kennedy]

We've doing something similar for years in Minnesota where we've been fortunate to have retailers available to handle merch prize conversion. The current rate is 80% of the merch value you award. For example, if you give out $200 in merch certificates redeemable at the retailer, you owe the retailer $160 for that. While you make less than you would if you handled the prize redemption, the retailer also may not make as much per sale but gains traffic they might not have had plus players tend to spend more than their certificate value.

The retailers also may have an online presence making it even easier for redemption by traveling players. We just tell the retailer who got the certificates and for how much so they can track it without dealing with actual certificate redemption online.