If you’re looking for a way to bring fun and fundraising to your charity golf tournament, on-course games are a great option for events of all types and sizes. An on-course game is an addition to your tournament that involves an activity on one or more holes on the golf course that golfers pay to participate in. The games can have a variety of outcomes, like improving the team’s score, providing a better tee off location, removing an obstacle, winning a prize, or just to add an element of fun.
Games can be added to your tournament at any time, well in advance or right before the event. You can opt to have golfers pay to play when they register or pay the day of the tournament. Make sure you have an easy way to collect credit card payments in case golfers don’t carry cash (your GolfStatus event website is a great option for this). An all-in games package is the easiest option—folks pay one flat fee to participate in all the games. Use wristbands or something similar to signal to the volunteers working the games on the course that those golfers have already paid.
On-course games come with a ton of benefit for your event, including:
Fun, fun, and more fun! Golfers of all skill levels can participate in on-course games and enjoy the extra entertainment.
You’ll raise more money. Games bring in additional revenue, whether you sell one or more game sponsorships or just rely on golfers paying to play.
They’re memorable. Golfers are guaranteed to remember the tournament where they shot the ball down the course with an air cannon or had to tee off or putt wearing Mickey Mouse gloves. Games add to a more enjoyable overall tournament experience.
Cause connection. Tying a game to your cause in some way helps golfers better understand and connect with what they’re helping raise money for.
The Credit Unions for Kids Golf Classic adds extra fun to its tournament with on-course games, like kicking soccer balls onto an inflatable dartboard.
31 Ideas for Golf Tournament Games
The possibilities are endless, so gather your planning team to brainstorm ideas. Reach out to the Pro at the host golf facility, who might also have ideas for games that have been popular at other tournaments. These ideas can help get you started.
1. Golf Ball Cannon
Give golfers the chance to shoot their ball down the fairway using an air gun or golf ball cannon, instead of hitting a tee shot.
2. hole of fortune
Choose one hole that’s dubbed the “hole of fortune.” Golfers pick a card, play Plinko, or spin a wheel to determine the club they’ll use to tee off or play the entire hole with or the tee boxes they’ll start from. Prizes could also include an extra mulligan, an automatic hole-in-one, or a free drink. Alternatively, some slots or cards could result in something not as rewarding, such as teeing off while blindfolded or getting a penalty stroke.
Pro Tip: Some slots or cards could result in something not as rewarding, such as teeing off while blindfolded or getting a penalty stroke to give it a true “wheel of fortune” feel.
3. marshmallow drive
Have golfers tee off with a marshmallow. The golfer with the longest “drive” wins a prize. You could change this up to have golfers chip with a marshmallow, and the golfer with the closest chip to the hole gets the prize.
4. Plinko
Give golfers the chance to drop a puck on a Plinko board to win a prize, earn a drink or raffle ticket, or improve their score.
Plinko is fun for all ages and can be used with a variety of golf tournament formats, including traditional nine or 18-hole events or putt putt tournaments.
5. Roll-a-score
Have golfers roll a set of dice and give them the option to replace any score from the event with whatever they rolled.
6. Single Club hole
Participants play with the same club for the entire hole. They could choose a card, spin a wheel, roll dice, or other method to determine which club they play with.
Pro Tip: Consider limiting clubs to those that would present the most challenge across the hole, such as the driver, wedge, or putter.
7. Wrong Hand Challenge
Participants play the entire hole “wrong-handed”, i.e. with their non-dominant hand. You may need to have clubs available in case no one in a group has left-handed or right-handed clubs.
Pro Tip: Give teams the option to pay a fee to play the hole normally.
8. Scavenger Hunt
Place items around the course (these could be related to your mission in some way or just for fun). Participating teams get a list of the items to hunt for and take a picture of them once found. Teams that find every item could earn a prize or the chance to better their score.
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9. Club Game
Teams are given the chance to purchase a certain number of club lengths to move their ball closer to the hole without taking an additional stroke.
Pro Tip: Have a volunteer stationed on the tee box and another one near the green to sell club lengths. Choose an especially challenging hole to make the purchase more appealing.
10. Poker Hand
Teams draw a card on each of five designated holes to make up a poker hand. The team with the best hand at the end of the round wins a prize or you can offer prizes for specific hands (i.e. three of a kind wins a gift card to the pro shop).
11. Speed Hole
See which team can play the entire hole—from tee shot to sinking a putt—the fastest. You’ll need a volunteer to serve as the timer. The team that logs the fastest time wins a prize.
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12. Trivia hole
Station a volunteer on the tee box to ask golfers trivia questions before they tee off to win a prize or move to closer tees.
Pro Tip: Relate the questions to your nonprofit’s mission to help connect golfers to your cause.
13. Shot Clock Hole
The entire team must tee off within a certain amount of time or must take a penalty stroke. Set up a large countdown timer or have a volunteer count out loud.
Pro Tip: Sell extra increments of time to take the time pressure off.
14. Ball Toss or Kick
Great for a booster club or team! Instead of hitting a golf ball off of a tee for their tee shot, golfers throw a football, baseball, softball, tennis ball, or other ball and play from there. Alternatively, they could kick a football or soccer ball for their drive.
Pro Tip: Have a local sports figure (high school, college, or even professional) run the game. For an extra fee, they can make the throw or kick.
American soccer legend Clint Dempsey kicks a soccer ball for his tee shot at a golf event benefiting Team Red, White & Blue.
15. Closest to the…
A spin on the classic closest to the pin contest, this game can be customized to your event. Determine an object either placed or naturally occurring—anything from a prize like a Yeti Cooler or golf bag, distinct tree (or other feature on the course), or an item related to a sponsor (one GolfStatus client places a rubber chicken on a hole, and the game is sponsored by a chicken company). The team that gets the closest to the object wins a prize (or wins the prize they were hitting at).
16. Speed Putting
Golfers try to make as many putts from one location in a certain amount of time as possible to win a prize.
Pro Tip: Run multiple rounds of the contest, moving the ball further away from the hole.
17. Sitting Drive Challenge
Golfers take their tee shot while sitting on a chair. Offer the choice to pay a fee to opt out of the challenge.
18. Ball Swap
Golfers play the hole like normal until they reach the green, where they mark their spot and play the rest of the hole with a racquet ball or ping pong ball.
19. Blind Putt
Golfers wear sleep shades or blindfolds when they putt and have to rely on verbal cues from their team to try to make the shot.
20. Alternative Putter
Golfers putt using objects other than their putter, like a croquet mallet, hockey stick, or baseball bat. This could be on the practice green as a separate contest or as part of a specific hole.
Pro Tip: Pick putting objects that help golfers understand what your nonprofit does. For example, Habitat for Humanity of Columbus, which helps provide affordable housing and homeowner education, had a game on the practice green where golfers putted with building tools, like sledgehammers and levels, instead of their putters.
Golfers at Habitat for Humanity of Columbus’s golf tournament used building tools to putt as part of a golf tournament game.
21. Caddie Auction
Teams bid on volunteer caddies to join their team. Recruit well-known locals, such as your nonprofit’s Executive Director, the mayor, coach, local news anchor or weathercaster, or influencer as caddies.
Pro Tip: Use an online bidding software and allow teams to bid over the week leading up to the tournament so the caddies are set when event day arrives.
22. hit it & Get it
Set varying prizes up on the practice green. Golfers get the chance to putt and win a prize if they hit it.
Pro Tip: Place high-value prizes further away to up the challenge.
23. Skins Games
Skins games create mini-competitions where teams (or individuals, depending on the event’s format) compete against each other based on their score on a given hole, in addition to their overall score. Event organizers can use skins games to fundraise by setting a dollar amount for participants to buy in to compete.
Pro Tip: Display skins results on real-time digital leaderboards to keep golfers engaged and make the skins games more competitive.
24. Dizzy Bat
Golfers take turns putting their forehead on the end of a baseball bat and spin around multiple times, making them dizzy, and then attempt to tee off.
25. Goggle Putt
Golfers wear goggles that impair their vision in some way—such as being impaired by alcohol or make everything appear upside down—and attempt to putt.
26. Bingo Bango Bongo
Players earn points for being the first on the green (bingo), closest to the pin once all balls are on the green (bango), and sinking the first putt (bongo).
Pro Tip: Raise extra funds by selling a Bingo Bango Bongo sponsorship or encouraging donations for each point earned.
Golf Tournament Contests
27. Hole-In-One Contest
Players take their best shot at acing a designated par-three hole (or several holes) for the chance to win an exciting prize, like cash or a golf getaway.
Pro Tip: Be sure your contest is covered by hole-in-one insurance so your nonprofit isn’t stuck footing the bill for the prize if someone gets an ace. Sell a contest sponsorship to cover the cost of the insurance to boost revenue.
28. Longest Drive Contest
Participants compete to see who can hit the ball the farthest off the tee while keeping it within the fairway on a selected hole.
Contests are easy ways to improve the overall experience at a charity golf tournament.
29. Closest to the Pin Contest
Golfers test their accuracy and compete to see whose tee shot lands closest to the hole on a designated par-three hole.
30. Chipping Contest
Players demonstrate their short-game skills by chipping the ball as close to a target as possible, often set up near the practice green.
Pro Tip: Boost revenue by selling mulligans specifically for shots in longest drive, closest to the pin, and chipping contests.
31. Beat the Pro Contest
Players take on a pro in a head-to-head challenge to see if they can hit their tee shot closer to the hole on a specific hole.
Best Practices for Running Golf Tournament Games
Sell a games sponsorship! There are a few ways to structure a games sponsorship for your golf fundraiser:
Individual games sponsorships. Sell a sponsorship for each individual game on the course and encourage the purchasing business to run the game the day of the event. This gives them great brand exposure and ample opportunity to connect with golfers.
Overall games sponsorship. An overall games sponsorship encompasses every game on the course. This sponsorship should sell for more than the individual game sponsorships and provide premium exposure for the sponsoring business.
Front and back nine games sponsorships. Offer two separate games sponsorships, one for the front nine and one for the back nine.
Connect golfers to your mission. Games that connect golfers to your mission in some way have double the impact—they get a deeper appreciation for your cause and are more likely to chip in additional money. For example, Outlook Enrichment, a nonprofit that serves the visually-impaired, uses the blind putt game to help golfers better understand the struggles of vision loss.
Outlook Enrichment uses sleep shades for a blind putt hole to help golfers better understand vision loss.
Leverage social media. Go live from one of the games, create a specific hashtag for a new game, and assign someone to share photos from each game throughout the tournament to get more people excited about participating in the games.
Hype it up. Ask a volunteer, a staff or board member, or recruit a local celebrity to announce or emcee a game to hype golfers up to participate (and make extra donations!).
Keep pace of play in mind. You don’t want teams piling up on a hole with a time-consuming game. Keep games easy to explain and quick to play to keep the round moving and golfers happy.
Recruit volunteers. These can be staff or board members, other volunteers, or even sponsors. Depending on the length of the round, you might want to have two shifts of volunteers. They need to be comfortable explaining the rules and procedures, how to pay online via your event website, or collect cash payments.
Incorporate team-based challenges. Create ways for teams to compete against each other in the games. For example, if you use the marshmallow drive game, you can keep track of distance across all teams and award a prize to the overall winner.
Use real-time leaderboards. When you use a software solution that provides hassle-free live-scoring, you can use real-time standings as part of your games. Perhaps teams that are under par at a certain game hole get a free extra wheel spin or Plinko drop, or teams that are more than a few strokes over par get an additional try at the marshmallow drive.
Take online payments. Whether you’re selling supertickets, wristbands, or individual game entries or collecting donations, the ability to collect payments online via your event website helps bring in more dollars and makes post-tournament accounting easier. Post a sign with a QR code that links directly to the packages page to make it super simple for golfers and your planning team, and you won’t have to deal with keeping track of cash payments.
Golf for Good
Nonprofits, charities, and third parties planning charity golf tournaments can get started with GolfStatus at no upfront cost through the Golf for Good program! Get access to GolfStatus’ golf event management platform—with a robust event website, time-saving automations and built-in fundraising tools, premium sponsorships, trusted partners, and an A+ in-house support team—to make your next golf event the best one yet. Click below to connect with our team!
