Advantages of becoming a member of USPMGA

Register your course online and let USPMGA guide you through a successful tournament and cash in on saving for your courses supplies!

Running a tournament Properly & Successfully

The Tournament Director needs to plan the tournament as far in advance as possible. The best option is to start planning for the next year in the previous fall. The first decision is who will be invited to play: local churches, local schools, companies, the players from certain cities or country, players from your state or anybody who is interested in participating in an Open Tournament.

The next decision involves the tournament date. Notices about the tournament date should be published well in advance, which help Tour players to incorporate this tournament in their schedules. This is especially important if Tour players are expected to participate. Each season offers many competitions and the Tour players planning usually starts six to twelve months ahead.

Many tournaments are organized as fundraising events. Raising money for local charities improves ties with the community and makes it easier to find sponsors. Donations to charity can be tax-deductible depending on your state laws. The benefiting charity needs to be informed about the fundraising. Invite the charity representatives to your tournament and ask their advice on how to promote your event.

The money can be raised in two different ways: from the tournament fee and, or by having sponsors. Search for sponsors should start as soon as possible because this is the most difficult task and a majority of the companies establish their budgets between September and November. A good way to involve the sponsors is by offering advertisement possibilities: banners (small or large), signs with the advertisements, t-shirts with sponsor logo, advertising tags, web-site advertising, tournament programs containing advertisements from sponsors along with information on players and the tournament. Many companies might offer gift certificates or items to be used as added prizes. Do your best to establish good contacts and long term relationships with the companies supporting your tournament. Visit your local tourist information center and the Chamber of Commerce because they can also offer help in your search for sponsors.

To make your tournament more attractive to players, it is essential to set a proper prize fund. Medals, trophies, golf equipment, promotional items donated from sponsors, money, and many other items can be used as prizes. If tournament players will be divided into categories such as men, women, seniors, junior, and/or kids, winners in each category will have to receive their prizes or acknowledgement of success.

In order to involve a sufficient number of participates, developing mailing lists for potential tournament players will be extremely helpful. The Tournament Director can contact local park and recreation departments, churches, temples, schools, boys and girls clubs, societies, and companies to share with them the information about the upcoming tournaments. To have an idea of how many players actually will play, invitations should be mailed at least a few months prior to the tournament date with a set deadline for tournament fees. The invitation letter should contain specific information on the tournament date(s): time, place, schedule, prizes, rules, tournament system, tournament fees, and deadlines.

The Tournament Director should contact their local TV and Radio stations, local newspapers to make the announcements about the approaching tournament date(s) and make-up rain date(s). It is even better if you have a good story for media about the fundraising cause, excellent tournament players, participating celebrities or companies involved in sponsoring the tournament. Have reporters invited to your tournament for onsite broadcast. Place the information about the winners with the results and photos in your local newspaper. Wide coverage in the media will spark curiosity in new players, who will want to compare their scores with the tournament winner’s scores.

When a large amount of players is expected, a Standard tournament can be subdivided in two or three parts, respectively qualification rounds and finals, or qualification rounds, semifinal rounds and final rounds. The Tournament Director will determine how many players will pass to the next level. The tournament will have two qualification rounds, two semifinal rounds, and two final rounds. Example: All two hundred players will play first two rounds. After the first two rounds the best 50% of the players (100 players) will qualify for the semifinal rounds. After two semifinal rounds only nine players and players equal to the ninth player will qualify for the final rounds.
When the Tournament Director is interested in having all the players play the same amount of rounds but a larger number of players are registered, players can be divided into larger groups with different start times. Example: 150 players are registered for the tournament. The first 50 players will be in Group 1 with start time of 8:00AM, the next 50 players will be in group 2 with a start time of 10:00AM, and the last 50 players will be in group 3 with a start time of 1:00PM.

Two different ways are possible to start the rounds: a start from the first hole or shotgun start. A start from the first hole means all player groups will have different start times but each group will tee off from hole #1. Shotgun start means that every player will have the same start time and be divided throughout the course and start the tournament at the same time. Note: One tournament round with a shotgun start will take approximately 1 hour to 1.5 hours. One tournament round that starts from the first hole will take approximately 2 hours to 2.5 hours.