Booster Club Supports Growing Golf Team With a Golf Fundraiser Powered by GolfStatus

The Klein High School Golf Booster Club helps fill the funding gaps between what the school provides and what the student athletes need to be successful.

Partner Snapshot

Golf may not be the biggest thing in football-focused Klein, Texas, but the boys and girls golf teams are talented, passionate, and growing. “The kids get so much out of being on the golf teams,” says Andrea Vickers, president of the Klein High School Golf Booster Club’s board. Klein High School provides some funding for the teams, but unfortunately, doesn’t have the budget to fully subsidize all the teams’ expenses and needs.

That’s where the Golf Booster Club comes in. The club wants to make sure any student who wants to play golf for the BearKats has the opportunity to do so and has the tools and equipment needed to be successful. The combined team of nearly 30 student athletes is becoming more competitive in local and regional tournaments and getting more kids excited about golf.

The Challenge

Filling the funding gap between what the school provides and what the student athletes need requires significant dollars. “Golf teams can’t just go play in the school gym or football field,” Andrea says. “We have to go to area golf courses and that gets expensive.” Other team expenses include entry and travel costs for tournaments, plus greens fees for practice rounds, uniforms, and balls for each golfer. 

Three years ago, the booster club decided to launch a golf tournament as the best option to raise as much money as possible. The first tournament was successful in terms of dollars raised, but the time and administrative burden on Andrea, her husband, and the rest of the planning team was significant. “We’re all busy parents who work full-time and shuttle kids to and from activities, so we really needed to get away from manual, time-consuming processes,” Andrea says. They used an online platform to manage registrations, but one that required much more time and attention than the team had to give. “It was loosely organized chaos!” Andrea says.

The Solution

After receiving emails about GolfStatus, Andrea connected with Account Manager Ken Boatman close to the inaugural event. “We were already in too deep with another platform to make the switch at that point, but loved what GolfStatus had to offer,” she says. GolfStatus’ no upfront cost through the Golf for Good program was especially appealing, along with an in-house support team, one-of-a-kind sponsorships, and time-saving automations. Soon after that year’s tournament, Andrea and her team saw a full demo and were excited about making the switch to GolfStatus’ tournament management software for the tournament’s second year in 2023. Klein Golf Booster Club qualified for the Golf for Good program, which gave them full access to GolfStatus’ software at no upfront cost. 

The Booster Club launched a golf tournament to help raise funds to cover costs like travel fees, tournament entry, and equipment.

The Results

In 2023, the second annual BearKat Golf Classic raised just shy of $20,000, with a goal to surpass that in 2024. In the event’s first two years combined, enough money was raised to purchase a golf simulator for indoor practice, which, in a rain-prone area, was a necessity to help golfers compete with other larger schools.

Just as importantly, using GolfStatus has lessened the burden in prep and planning for Andrea and everyone involved. “GolfStatus made everything so much easier! The tournament was less of a hassle and less stressful,” Andrea says. The staff at the host golf facility, Windrose Golf Club in Spring, Texas, were just as pleased with the platform—they could log into GolfStatus and simply hit “print” for pre-formatted cart signs, scorecards, and alpha lists, saving hours of office work.

The digital exposure provided by GolfStatus was combined with on-site signage that boosted ROI for sponsors.

Improved Organization & Processes

“Getting everything in one place in GolfStatus has moved us from organized chaos to an organized tournament,” Andrea says. Instead of bouncing around between numerous platforms, importing and exporting data, everything is stored in GolfStatus’ backend, where Andrea can see teams and sponsors who have registered and paid through the site. With the previous platform, “we had to track who would register and manually go in and update the site if a sponsorship was sold,” she says. Sponsors who purchase packages via the golf tournament website submit logos and assets at registration, eliminating the back and forth, and their logo appears on the site instantly and starts earning impressions right away.

Andrea could communicate with registrants with just a few clicks within GolfStatus. “It was all right there, I could send reminders, thank you, a survey. It was nice and easy,” she says.

GolfStatus’ support team was available to help Andrea and the planning team if they ever had a question or issue. “They really took care of us and were so patient, walking us through everything,” Andrea says about her Client Success Rep, Matt Richardson, who helped guide them through setting up the event, making edits to the website, and starting the tournament’s round to enable live scoring.

Easy Promotion & Sponsor Onboarding

Promotional materials linked to the tournament’s website, where golfers and sponsors could commit with a few taps.

Andrea explains that every member of the golf team is required to volunteer at the tournament until their senior year, when they’re eligible to play on their own team in the event. The planning team created promotional flyers that included the link to the event website for team members and families to help market the event and share with local businesses and contacts to drum up teams and sponsors. 

“Mostly we used our personal networks to get sponsors and donations for the silent auction,” Andrea says, mentioning how they assigned folks to reach out to specific area businesses to make the pitch and manage the sponsorship. She says they wanted to make it easy for parents to assist in reaching out to folks, which is why the event website was a great tool for people to send prospects. Sponsors included dentists, orthodontists, consultants, law firms, car dealerships, realtors, fleet services, and more.

GolfStatus’ tech provided immediate ROI for sponsors. “The title sponsor loved getting their name and logo on the homepage of the site, plus the link to their website,” Andrea says. The accompanying logo exposure in the GolfStatus mobile scoring app was an added bonus. “Sponsors loved seeing their logo on the app throughout the tournament!”

Fun & Fundraising

The planning team was adamant about making the tournament fun. Drawing inspiration from traditional golf-centric movies, games were added to three holes to boost fun and fundraising. On the “Tin Cup” hole, golfers draw an index card with a specific club on it and have to play the entire hole with the corresponding club. For the “Caddyshack” hole, golfers play with a tiara and tutu, alluding to the famous quote, “What an incredible Cinderella story, this unknown comes outta nowhere to lead the pack at Augusta.” Golfers can also opt to pay to have a member of the golf team tee off for them on the BearKat hole. 

The BearKat Golf Classic also utilized GolfStatus’ reliable live scoring. Teams submitted and tracked their scores using the GolfStatus mobile app, which synced to live leaderboards where golfers could see current standings and even make a donation to the golf team. “Golfers loved having everything at their fingertips!” Andrea says. 

The tournament gave people the chance to get to know the student athletes the event is supporting.

Connecting With Student Athletes

One goal for the tournament is to help golfers connect with the members of the golf team. “We want people to know who and what it is that they’re supporting with this tournament,” Andrea says. Team members are stationed on every hole, where golfers have the chance to chat with them, hear about their seasons, and just talk golf. “It really does make a difference to everyone to create that opportunity to connect,” she says.

The 2024 iteration of the tournament will raise money to purchase new winter rain gear for the team, replacing the current decade-old versions. “Our school colors are blue and gold, and the current rain gear, which was bought secondhand, is black and white,” Andrea says. “We want the kids to look and feel professional and confident, and the dollars GolfStatus is helping us raise mean they can rock their school colors and feel good on the course.”

Planning a Golf Tournament?

Whether you have a tournament on the calendar or are just exploring the possibility of a golf event, GolfStatus can help! With easy-to-use technology, tournament planning resources, and an industry-leading support team, you’ll be set up for success. Click the button below to book a meeting with the GolfStatus team to learn how you can use the software at no upfront cost.