6 Months to Tee Off: The Must-Do Tasks Before Your Golf Event
At six months out, your charity golf tournament should be moving from planning mode into action mode. The foundation is set, with your date, golf facility, and core structure in place, so now it’s time to build momentum.
Six months out from your golf event is the time to build momentum for recruiting teams, selling sponsorships, and promoting the tournament.
Things now start to get real—sponsor outreach begins, registration picks up, and your marketing efforts take shape. The work you put in during this phase will impact how quickly your field fills and how much sponsor revenue you generate going into the final stretch.
This installment of the blog series will walk you through the key tasks to focus on six months before tournament day to stay organized, be proactive in planning, and stay on pace for a great tournament.
Previous Posts in This Series:
It’s important to note that while having more time to plan is usually better, it’s possible to plan a successful golf tournament in a matter of a couple of months.
Pre-Planning & Reference
Staying organized keeps you, your team, and your tournament on track. If you haven’t already:
Get a GolfStatus demo. GolfStatus is the industry’s leading platform for charity golf tournaments and fundraisers. Find out how to save 40+ hours and raise thousands more dollars!
Get a GolfStatus Education Session. Once you’re on board with GolfStatus, our client success team will walk you through the software’s backend.
Watch a GolfStatus webinar. GolfStatus holds free monthly webinars on topics like sponsorships, planning basics, logistics, marketing, and more. Browse upcoming webinars.
Planning Team & Committee Meetings
Your committee should be in place and ready to get to work! It’s a good idea to set dates for your monthly committee meetings at the outset of planning so everyone can get them on their calendars with no surprises.
Hold monthly committee meetings. Brainstorm a prospect list of potential sponsors and sponsor packages, review the budget, and talk through ideas for player gifts, revenue enhancers, contests, and raffle items.
It’s a good idea to set dates for monthly planning committee meetings on the calendar at the outset of planning.
Date & Golf Facility
Now that you have your date booked and golf facility secured, you’ll want to stay in regular communication with golf facility staff.
Share access to GolfStatus’ backend. There’s no cost to grant staff at the golf facility access to your GolfStatus tournament management platform’s backend. They’ll be able to see golfer and field information at a glance, in real-time, so they can plan appropriately for staffing and carts.
Periodically touch base with facility staff. Golf staff are busy, so there’s no need to stay in constant communication with them, but it’s not a bad idea to send a periodic check-in email to keep your event top of mind.
Event Website
You’ll see the benefits of your event website come to fruition as you promote your tournament and start to see teams and sponsor registrations roll in. You’ll see immediate time-saving benefits, without the need to manually process forms, checks, and receipts.
Make event website updates as needed. Check in on your website every so often and make updates as needed. For instance, you might add new photos from last year’s tournament, list raffle prizes as donations are made, and announce contests or challenges as they’re added to your tournament.
Keep your event website updated! Add or edit information as details take shape.
Team & Sponsor Packages
Building attractive golfer and sponsor packages is the first step to filling your tournament’s field.
Create a prospect list for each sponsorship. Brainstorm prospective sponsors with your planning team and identify where people might have connections to each business.
Create talking points or a sponsor pitch template. Empower your planning committee to successfully reach out to sponsors by creating talking points, email templates, or a pitch deck template. This ensures consistent messaging and gives your team the confidence to connect with sponsors.
Follow up with past sponsors (if applicable). If you haven’t heard back from past sponsors, follow up with them on the first right of refusal for their current sponsorship before you start reaching out to other businesses.
Begin sponsor outreach. It’s go time! Once your talking points or templates are ready, divide your prospect list and set your team loose!
Add custom packages as needed. As you reach out to sponsors, ask them what their goals are for sponsoring your event, and don’t be afraid to create custom packages or modify existing packages as needed to help them get the most out of their investment in your tournament.
Marketing & Promotion
The marketing and promotion phase of your tournament should be starting to ramp up. Build some early momentum for your tournament by being strategic with your marketing plans.
Create or update your tournament logo. Create a tournament logo that’s reflective of the event and your cause. If you’re starting from scratch, free online tools like Canva make it simple to create an eye-catching logo without design experience. The logo should unify your tournament’s brand and be used wherever the tournament is mentioned.
Create or update your tournament flyer. A flyer, whether it’s printed or shared electronically, is a great tool to promote your tournament to your audience. Need help getting started? Download these free flyer templates.
Announce that registration is open. Send a quick email to your audience and share on social media that registration is open for your tournament. Be sure to include the link to your event website so folks can browse packages and register right away.
Refine your promotional strategy as needed. Update and further refine your promo plan as details come into focus and advertising budgets are set, if applicable.
Golf Tournament marketing Resources
Details & Logistics
Once again, most of the logistics will be handled in a few months. Make sure to update the loose schedule on the event website as details firm up.
What’s Next?
At six months out, your tournament should start gaining traction as you actively sell sponsorships, recruit teams, raise awareness, and drive donations to your tournament. The more consistent and intentional your outreach and promotion are now, the less pressure you’ll feel in the final months leading up to your event. You can do that by keeping your committee engaged and staying in front of your audience as details come together.
Up next, we’ll cover what to prioritize as you get even closer to tournament day, when logistics and promotion become priorities.