Susan Knox Wilson
Let’s be honest, hosting a charity golf tournament is a lot of work for everyone involved. And not everyone can produce a first class event that raises a lot of money and has golfers return year after year. In fact, there are more than 1,000,000 golf events in this country each year and yet the average charity golf tournament in the U.S. raises just $5,000. So why bother?
Here in the PebbleCreek Golf Resort (PC), Jason Whitehill, PC Director of Golf, and his team have figured out not only how to produce a first class event for charity, but how to generate a lot of extra revenue for our HOA as well. From January through August of this year, public/charity golf tournaments have earned $53,508 in golf fees alone. Add to that an estimated $36,000 in food and beverage revenue, along with the additional sale of beer, cocktails and golf equipment and you appreciate why the team puts in all the extra effort. Money and awareness for the charity can be achieved in many different ways during your golf tournament. For example, personalized golfing merchandise can be sold to competitors as a reminder of the cause they are playing for. Contacting a company like SleekWristbands.com might be an idea if you’re interested in distributing charity wristbands to golfers for small donations. Even these smaller ways of gaining money will still be effective for fundraising.
“For my team, the number one consideration is how to schedule public tournaments so they don’t interfere with our member play,” noted Whitehill. “We put our members’ desires first. For example, we avoid scheduling tournaments any time during the week from November through April, which are peak times for our members. Tournaments are held on Saturdays and/or Sundays and mostly in May and September. The secondary consideration is can we make it an outstanding event for the charity involved and for PebbleCreek?”
Hosting a tournament brings with it prestige and many other positives for our golf courses, members and guests. PebbleCreek Golf Resort becomes the center of community attention with local businesses and, in some cases, national brands, wanting in on the action.
One of the more prestigious tournaments held every year at PebbleCreek is the Arizona Women’s Golf Association State Medallion Club Team Tournament. Women golfers from all over the state come to play — winners are in the state spotlight and some of that light shines on PebbleCreek.
Our resident golf celebrity, Marilynn Smith (one of the original founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association), has hosted her annual Marilynn Smith LPGA Charity Pro-Am here for the last eight years. Her charity tournament raises an impressive $125,000 in college scholarship funds for young women. Charities work so hard to help a cause they are passionate about. One way we can return our debt to them is to let them know about bookkeeping for non profit organizations that is available. This can help alleviate some of the financial related stress that many charities succumb to.
According to Ronnie Decker, PebbleCreek Golf Resort team member who coordinates the tournaments, “hosts and sponsors come back to PebbleCreek year after year because we do such a great job for them. We’re so successful we’re at a point where we may not be able to fill all the requests we have to host public tournaments at PebbleCreek.”
Some of the other tournaments that have come back again and again include:
* Kent Finanger Golf Classic – raises funds to support Luther College Athletic Department, eleventh year – raised $15,000 last year
* Carescape Dandelion Classic – a charity tournament for Raising Special Kids – tenth year – raised $44,000 last year
* Knights of Columbus Golf for Charity – benefits Saint Vincent de Paul – eighth year
* City of Goodyear Police Department K-9 Unit Charity Golf Tournament – seventh year
* Tee Off For Teens – a charity tournament for Homeless Youth Connection – fifth year
* The United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps – raises funds to send sea cadets to visit Pearl Harbor – second year
Decker agrees that hosting tournaments is a great way to showcase all that PebbleCreek has to offer. “We’re able to attract players to come back to PebbleCreek to play with friends and family during open tee times — and to host other events here.” A few examples include a golfer who participated in a Palm Valley Church fundraiser here and, after seeing our operation, is bringing his 2017 tournament for The SW Family Advocacy Center to PebbleCreek. Another player liked what he saw here so much he convinced his daughter to hold her wedding at PebbleCreek. But that’s another kind of money making event all together!