EP 25: Golf Tournament Fundraisers -- How to Plan, Promote, and Profit

Positioning review: Reframed several prescriptive statements into experiential/descriptive language. Removed direct "you should" directives and replaced with "what tends to work" or softened framing. See Original vs. Revised pairs below.

Original: "don't be afraid to fail either" --> Revised: kept as-is; this is a guest's natural encouragement, not prescriptive advice from Handbid.

Original: "I always tell people, don't be afraid to go big and throw a bunch of options out there" --> Revised: kept as-is; this is the guest describing his own coaching style.

Original: "don't be afraid to accept just in-kind donations" --> Revised: kept as-is; natural conversational encouragement from the guest.

Intro: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff Porter: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about all the many ways that you can make your fundraising event better. Today, because it's getting warmer -- well, wishing that it gets warmer -- we are going to talk about golf, one of my favorites. In Colorado, it can get warmer and you get super excited and then you get a hailstorm or some snow and it just really depresses you for a few days, especially because they close the course or the driving range. We're entering that golf season and we know a lot of you are planning a golf fundraiser, so we wanted to bring a special guest on today, somebody who's an expert in how to run golf fundraisers. We'd like to introduce Logan Foote from Golf Status.

Logan Foote: Hi, everyone. Glad to be here.

Jeff Porter: Why don't you tell us a little bit about what Golf Status does, and then we can dive into some questions about golf tournaments.

Logan Foote: So Golf Status is a golf technology company. We specialize in the golf fundraiser specifically. The golf event is unique, and our technology handles all those golf-specific tasks that general event software really struggles with. It saves organizers a ton of time. We also have some really cool built-in areas where events can leverage sponsorships and just make the event as fun as possible while raising as much money as possible.

Jeff Porter: I love that part -- raising as much money as possible -- because we've had experience with Golf Status and it's absolutely true. Everything from automating the registration to helping drive sponsorship revenue to automating how guests are scoring to the leaderboard at the end, all of that is automated, and it absolutely makes a huge difference. It was fun to use your software. I had a tournament I was at, so I totally understand the benefit. If you're looking for ways to make your event better, there are kind of two things you can do. One is what we call the aspirin -- you eliminate the headaches. Some of the stuff around who's coming to my event, did they pay, how do I make it easy for them to pay, all the way down to how do I get all those scores at the end.

Jeff Porter: I ran a golf tournament with my sister for at least 11 years. And I remember one year, the pro -- they must go to handwriting class or something. They put this gorgeous leaderboard up, and the guy sat there with a Sharpie marker and drew the most beautiful scores, and then his marker ran out. Everything stops as they're looking for another marker. That tells you technology has some benefits on the backside of this. But Logan, why don't you talk about what we were mentioning before we started the podcast -- just in general with golf tournaments, what do you see? How do you help people that are diving into this for the first time? They're probably overwhelmed.

Logan Foote: Yeah, absolutely. Always look for those subject matter experts, especially when you're a first-timer and you don't know where to start. With a golf event, the first thing is always when do I want to do this? Spring, summer, fall are the peak seasons. If you live down south, you can really do it any time of year. Then find your golf course. Who has availability? Who can accommodate your needs? Public course, private course -- a private course, you're probably going to be limited. Usually they reserve Mondays for their outside audience. They're going to be a little more expensive, but that could also be a nice draw to get people to sign up. A public course will be a little cheaper and you'll probably have more options in terms of availability and what day of the week.

Logan Foote: From there, I always emphasize really utilizing technology as much as possible. Move registration online. That's going to save you so much time, make it easier to promote. Drive everyone who's interested in the event -- whether they want to play, sponsor, or just donate -- to the same place. That streamlines your promotion. Having the ability to take not only registrations online but payments is so important. We have a course we work with, one of the many, and one of their inside events took registration online for the first time for one of their biggest events. The pro came back to us and said, "This is the first year I've had everyone who signed up actually show up to the event." Because they paid when they signed up. When people pay ahead of time, funny how that works, it actually commits them to the event.

Jeff Porter: Skin in the game, right?

Logan Foote: Absolutely. That is such a huge key -- not only to save time, but to ensure everything runs smoothly. You're more than likely to have everyone show up when they're supposed to. And if they don't, at least you got their money. It saves you so much time. And it allows you to focus on the event day of -- actually having a fun day, raising as much money as possible, really connecting with people. You can focus on what matters most instead of worrying about all the little logistical details or making sure everyone's paid up. It allows you to focus on the fun and connecting people and stewarding folks forward.

Logan Foote: Utilizing technology for online registration and scoring -- you mentioned the calligraphy leaderboards. They are cool, but they're so time-consuming. All those early finishers standing around waiting, this awkward moment of people just waiting for scores to be posted. There are only so many things you can do after the event to stall until you can finally announce winners. Just let technology do that for you.

Jeff Porter: I think that's a pretty important part. And what you mentioned earlier about finding the venue or golf course along with the date -- that can be a bit of a ping-pong match. You're looking for a target time of the year or date, then you look for a set of courses and try to line those up. They don't always work, but once you land on something, the next thing to consider is what the course is going to charge you.

Logan Foote: Absolutely. People always come to us asking how to start. Do I just call the golf course? Yeah, absolutely. Even just pull up Google Maps and type in golf courses in your area. They'll all pop up. Especially at the private clubs, a lot of them will have people dedicated to talking events with you. One of their main jobs is booking events for the golf course. There are so many courses out there that if they're not full of events, they're trying to fill that events calendar. Golf courses make a ton of money on a yearly basis from outside outings. So they want to talk to you.

Logan Foote: Some may not work for you, and that's okay. Just come up with a list of courses in your area. You know when you want to have this event. See what their availability is. Once you've got that pinned down, they'll have a cost per golfer that they'll charge you. From there, just ask yourself, how much do I want to make per golfer? And there's your pricing for golfer registration right there. That's really the easy part. Then you can get into the list of sponsorship levels you want to try and attract.

Jeff Porter: Do you help them with that? When we did our golf tournament, the revenue per golfer or the profit per golfer was pretty easy to figure out because it was a balance between what the course is going to charge -- and that would typically include all the greens fees, carts, plus some sort of breakfast or lunch, some food included that usually spanned a couple meals. So with all of that included, say that's $200 or $250 a golfer. I know my cost is going to be $1,000 a foursome. What can I charge? What do I think my audience will pay? And if I'm not making enough money on that, what are my other options?

Jeff Porter: A couple questions for you on that. Is there a point where you can invite too many people to a golf tournament, or too few? What's the range of golfers you're looking for to make it profitable but also not an eight-hour round?

Logan Foote: Most 18-hole facilities will top out at 144 golfers, which is 36 four-person teams. That's typically your max. I don't think you can invite too many, because if you sell out, you can use something like Golf Status to have a waitlist. That's a wonderful problem to have. Don't be afraid to invite too many, especially if it's your first year. It's unlikely you'll sell out. If you do, more power to you -- you probably should have been doing this a lot sooner.

Logan Foote: Another nice trick a lot of events use is including team registrations in sponsorship packages that are higher than a certain amount. You can kill two birds with one stone -- get a sponsor for the event and get a team signed up. We just had one of our larger events where the title sponsor included four teams. That gives the sponsor a ton of value. Not only are they getting exposure at your golf tournament and getting linked to a charitable cause, they also get to send people out, whether for client entertainment or employee appreciation. That's a great way to drive both sponsorships and golfers to the event.

Jeff Porter: So what kind of sponsorships do you guys typically recommend or see in your golf tournaments?

Logan Foote: The most common one is your typical hole sponsor where they get a sign on the tee box. Unique to our platform is what we call the technology sponsorship -- basically a sponsor gets exposure in all the big areas within our platform. Their logo on the home page of the event website next to your organization's logo. Their logo within the scoring app on every single hole. Their logo on the custom printed scorecards and the cart signs that identify which golfer is on that specific cart. And they can have their logo on every live leaderboard throughout the day -- the in-app live leaderboard, the event site live leaderboard, and a leaderboard we can display on a TV in the clubhouse.

Logan Foote: It's amazing seeing the golfers flock to that leaderboard throughout the day -- when they're making the turn, coming in for a drink or to go to the bathroom, and at the end of the event. Having your logo there -- it's going to get viewed countless times. That's a very popular one with our events.

Logan Foote: We also have a lot of events that do custom pin flag sponsorships. Having the same logo on every pin flag throughout the day -- obviously everyone's looking at the pin flag the entire hole. That gets a lot of exposure. And that's also a cool keepsake the tournament can give to the sponsor at the end. We usually see them take one or two and get them framed. Who doesn't have a framed golf flag in their man cave or office? That's something they'll hold on to for years.

Logan Foote: Really, anything you can put a logo on, you can probably sell a sponsorship for. Don't be afraid to think creatively. There are so many options -- towels, pin flags, custom tee-box markers, even inserts in the actual hole that golf courses use. You can put a logo on that. Every time someone picks their ball out of the hole, they're going to see the logo there.

Jeff Porter: Logan, it's about being creative. We can promote sponsors with their logos, but what are some ways you've seen organizations communicate their message and their mission and why golfers are there? I think golf -- we all recognize how fun and turnkey a golf tournament fundraiser can be -- but because people are so scattered and out and about, it's easy for people to miss the reason why they're there. What are some ways people can communicate the mission to the players and attendees?

Logan Foote: Great question. We talk a lot about building in that cause connection to your event so golfers aren't just having a good time but know why they're there. That can be a great tool to maximize fundraising. Some really cool examples -- we had an event supporting a military organization. They had a tasteful display behind one of the greens around the tee box of a fallen soldier's boots, rifle, and helmet displayed very nicely to remind people that's why they're there.

Logan Foote: We work with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. They've had kids out at events who are receiving treatments at one of their hospitals, so they can meet and interact with golfers. Any way you can bring your mission to the forefront during the day, that'll really stick with people. It attaches them to the mission while they're there. They're like, "Wow, this is what I'm raising money for. This is fantastic. I want to keep giving."

Logan Foote: Also, really showing golfers what their money's going to -- if you can get specific. "The money from your registration alone helped provide 10 meals to someone in a community." If you can equate those dollars that golfers are spending to what you're actually raising money for, that's really powerful and goes a long way.

Jeff Porter: I think that works. For our event, it was for the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research. It was all around research funding for individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome. We would take the tee-box signs that we had sold the hole sponsorship to, and half of it was the sponsor's logo. The other half was a photo of a child and a little bit of information about that child, so you got a taste of both.

Jeff Porter: But probably the most powerful thing, as difficult as it can be, was that we would bring my daughter around in a golf cart. We had a U.S. Congressman who was also a chairman of a committee, and we would take them around to all the foursomes to get photos. We would take my daughter Abby with us. It was me, my daughter, the photographer, and Chairman Ed Royce going around the golf course, and everybody wanted to take photos with Abby. They also wanted photos with the Chairman, but she was the connection. It was so powerful that one year she couldn't make it because she had just had back surgery, so the event planner who runs it out in D.C. created a giant cardboard cutout photo of her. We dragged that around with us every year. She would meet people and remember people, and there were certain people she always wanted to see on the course. They got a real personal connection to that.

Jeff Porter: It doesn't have to be a children's charity. But any way that your constituents can get connected with the golfers on the course is a great approach. And photos is one. That's a typical thing everybody does at a golf tournament -- taking foursome photos.

Logan Foote: Absolutely. Most of these events are shotgun starts where everyone starts on a different hole so they finish their round at the same time. We've had some events use tee-time starts where everyone starts at the same hole, one after the other. Some events take advantage of that and station their staff on that first tee, using the time between when golfers arrive and when they tee off to educate them. "Here's what we're doing today. Here's why we're raising money." Take a picture next to one of the signs. Those photos get posted on social media all the time. Any way you can bring your mission and cause to the golf course that day will really stick in folks' minds.

Jeff Porter: Good. Let's bounce back and talk about sponsorships for a second. I'm doing some math in my head trying to figure out how much money I'm going to make on this event. Let's assume we have 100 golfers and a $1,500 foursome. We have a $250-per-golfer cost. So we're looking at $50,000 on the golfer side. If I want to make $100,000 or $200,000 this event, it's really going to have to come from sponsorships. Do you help your clients determine what levels to set those at?

Logan Foote: Yeah, we work with thousands of events, so we have a lot of examples we can send over. We have resources in our resource library with example levels. Obviously it all comes down to what market you're in and your connections. But generally you want your title or presenting sponsor at the top. Working down from there, the hole sponsor is very common and usually a pretty easy sell for any sponsor or company that doesn't want to spend a ton but still has a budget to contribute. Then things like the flags, technology sponsor, beverage cart sponsor -- that's another popular one. Towel sponsor. Golf ball sponsor.

Logan Foote: A cool thing about some of these sponsorship packages is you can put them out there, see if someone bites, but you don't have to spend any money on that package unless it's sold. As long as you know your deadline date, you can throw a bunch of options out there just to see if anyone bites. Don't be afraid to go big and throw a bunch of options out there. As long as you've found the vendors that can fulfill these packages if they are sold, you can set yourself up with a nice sponsorship menu and give people a lot of options to contribute. We have a lot of vendors we've worked with that we can connect people with.

Jeff Porter: And then as sales are happening, you can always adjust on the fly if you're not seeing traction?

Logan Foote: For sure. It's easy to go in and adjust pricing. Another cool way to create urgency is to say we have this pricing up until a certain date and then it'll go up or down. Don't be afraid to cut people deals if they're interested. As long as you know what it's going to cost you from the vendor, you know what flexibility you have in that final price point.

Jeff Porter: And do you help clients find the types of manufacturers they need for logo golf balls or whatever they want to create -- shoe bags, anything?

Logan Foote: Yeah, we have relationships with a couple of companies. Golfballs.com is a big one. They have a ton of different branded merchandise they can provide to events. Most of their sales come from outside outings, tournaments, and whatnot. They can quote you on a ton of different options. We have examples of smaller local tournaments and what those price points look like, all the way up to large corporate outings. We can give you a couple different models and examples you can follow and make adjustments to. Don't be afraid to go out and try.

Jeff Porter: And I've said this before -- don't be afraid to fail either. Just get out there and see what interests people. And also, don't be afraid to accept in-kind donations from sponsors. Maybe they don't have money in their budgets, but maybe their business has things they can gift to you -- a golf bag, a sleeve of golf balls, or even the golf course itself. If you want to give away a free foursome at the golf course, that doesn't cost the course anything to provide as a giveaway. That's something worth always asking for. If you're spending that kind of money with a course, the golf course ought to throw in a foursome for the auction.

Logan Foote: Absolutely. That doesn't cost the golf course anything. They're not going to make the green fees on that, but they're going to make money off the food and beverage and anything they sell that day. And they're going to make the cart fee as well. Most courses are very open to providing that to your tournament.

Jeff Porter: And that's one of the things I've found about golf tournaments -- it seems easier to make that connection with expenses and sponsors. The few golf tournaments I put on, we got almost all of our expenses covered by sponsorship, whether it was golf balls, logoed shirts, or donated meals. So our only real expenses were greens fees, and that was covered by the cost per player. Do you see that a lot?

Logan Foote: Yeah, absolutely. That's the ideal setup. Golfers cover the cost from the golf course through their registration, and then sponsorships cover everything else -- signage, golf balls, shirts, hats, whatever. That's the ideal setup. The only skin you have in the game is the time you're spending to put this on and how much you're paying the golf course. You're hoping to break even or do even better. Getting all your costs covered by those participating or sponsoring is the goal.

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Jeff Porter: So let's talk about some other revenue generators. This is all pre-event stuff so far -- tickets, sponsorship. Now it's more day-of stuff. It wouldn't be a mobile bidding company if we didn't talk about putting on an auction. We've talked in a previous episode about mulligans and closest to the pin and all kinds of fun games at golf tournaments. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. How do you associate an auction with a golf tournament? Or does it even make sense?

Logan Foote: Auctioning and golf tournaments are very popular to run together in tandem. Online auctions work very well. We have a ton of events doing live on-site auctions or silent auctions at the actual golf course. You go into the clubhouse, check in, and they've got all their items laid out on tables or doing everything online. Those pair very well together. If you have the time and staff to pull that off, it's definitely worth exploring. And that's where a great partner like Handbid can step in and help on that front.

Logan Foote: Those go really well together. Golfers typically have a lot of purchasing power -- it's a very high-end demographic. If you can get some really cool items in there, that can add to your event and help you raise as much money as possible.

Jeff Porter: And paper bid sheets are probably the worst way to run an auction at a golf tournament. I know this from experience. I was doing golf tournaments in 2007, 2008, before mobile bidding was popular or affordable, so we had to do the paper bid sheet route. It was so hard to get people to bid because they're all out on the golf course. Until they make the turn, and even then, they weren't coming in to check on items. We had to shift to making them come really early in the morning just so they would bid. There are all of these logistics with paper bid sheets at a silent auction at a golf tournament. It's really good if you use mobile bidding because they can be on their phones between holes and stay connected. And their significant other could be bidding in the auction while they're out playing golf. That person could be at home.

Jeff Porter: We used to call it B and B at the turn -- bathroom and beer. They're not coming in to bid. So it would have to be bathroom, beer, and bid, and that's not going to happen.

Jeff Porter: The other challenge with an auction is giving people enough time. An interesting trend we've seen, probably more with the higher-end tournaments, is doing a gala the night before and running your auction there. You can leave it open if you want, or maybe leave a few items open into the golf tournament. But the gala is really where you're going to bring in the couples and spouses, and then perhaps one of those couples is going to play golf the next day. I have a friend who said he's done this for three or four years now, and he's like, "I've got to put some space between those, man. I've got too many hungover golfers showing up on Monday morning."

Jeff Porter: But the challenge has always been how to give your golfers enough time. If it's a morning golf tournament, they show up, maybe shotgun is at 9 a.m. They show up at 7, register, buy some drawing tickets, grab their breakfast burrito, head to the driving range, and from the driving range they're heading to whatever tee they're supposed to be on. When do they have time to check out the auction area?

Jeff Porter: There are strategies around that and where you put the items. We've done plenty of golf tournaments. We did one for an NFL football team and put the items out on the course. There were certain spots where all these holes kind of merge and there's a lot of cart traffic. We put up a tent, put the auction items there, and said, "Come on in here, grab a drink." We were handing out seltzers or waters, and then saying check out some of these auction items. Because sometimes in a golf tournament, you are standing around.

Logan Foote: If you can find those natural bottlenecks in the course where you know people will have a little bit of time between shots, I love that idea. And you said you're handing out drinks -- well, that can turn into a sponsorship opportunity as well. Sponsor the auction tent off of hole four or whatever it may be. Come check out the auction items.

Logan Foote: That's something we've seen a lot -- these little experiences or opportunities to engage with golfers turning into sponsorship opportunities. Having items out on the golf course is great because it's probably a challenge to keep auction items top of mind with golfers. Once they get to the course and get set up, their mind focuses on the golf and they're locked in. Finding those opportunities where there is some downtime to remind them, "Hey, we've got this auction going on, and it's really easy to bid, just whip out your phone."

Jeff Porter: We weren't necessarily planning on moving a bunch of auction items around a golf course on golf carts. But we did it and it was a brilliant idea. It really paid off. As people are playing through, you bring the items back and get them all set up at the end. But people had been exposed to enough of the auction, and you had gotten them set up to where you were showing them, here's where all the rest of these items are. So the next time they're sitting on the tee waiting to tee off, they can bid on something. And by that time, they've probably had a few drinks, so they might be a little more generous.

Logan Foote: There you go. Good time to drive the golf cart around and sell raffle tickets or drawing tickets, whatever the legal term is. You have to watch our other podcast for that one.

Jeff Porter: The other nice thing is when you're using technology like that, you not only keep them connected to the auction, but you also get to communicate with them. You can send text messages and updates, which helps.

Jeff Porter: Okay, let's talk about my favorite golf revenue generator -- the mulligan. I need a lot of them. Don't make them too expensive if you're inviting me to your golf tournament because I'm going to buy a lot of them.

Jeff Porter: My first golf tournament, I didn't know anything about golf. I still know very little. But the golf pro that was working with us to organize the event said, "You've got to sell mulligans." We said, okay, how much do we sell them for? And people were just forking the cash over. We were like, what is this magic?

Logan Foote: Exactly. Don't make them too expensive either, because then people will buy more.

Jeff Porter: You've got to have mulligans available. But I think you can have too many. I went to a golf tournament that had unlimited mulligans, and six hours later we're still waiting for teams to come in. The guys in front of us were doing some ten-cup near the end of the round and had eight or nine mulligans left. They were 50 yards out on this par five and had to clear water. They're just going to sit there and hit eight shots until they make it on the green. So it can backfire. If you're going to make them unlimited, they should be $50 each or something. Just make the price go up as the round goes on. At the end of the event, it's $500 for a mulligan so it better be worth it.

Jeff Porter: Let's talk about all the other stuff, because golf tournaments have a lot of fun things you can do and it can get out of control. Take us through the common ones -- closest to the pin, longest drive. What do you see out there?

Logan Foote: All of your pin prizes. Some events do a pin prize on every single hole -- longest drive, closest to the pin. Some fun ones where people do closest to the tree. They'll put one off to the side. We have a buddy who has a memorial tournament for his uncle who passed away. They put a keg on a par three, but way away from the green, so it's closest to the keg. If you're closest to the keg, you get to keep it. And that keg was tapped that night.

Logan Foote: You can do a lot of cool things. Other popular ones -- the air cannon, where you pay an amount on the tee box and instead of hitting a drive, you load your ball into a cannon and fire it down the fairway. We work with a company called Back Swing Golf Events that sends out lady professional golfers who do a couple different games on course -- beat the pro, a long drive challenge, see if you can out-drive their long driver. Those are fun, engaging on-course entertainment that also raises money. Golfers are having fun and you're raising more money, so those are very popular at a lot of our events.

Jeff Porter: I did research after our last podcast. We talked about revenue drivers at several different types of events, and golf tournaments were one. Someone mentioned a golf ball helicopter drop. Have you seen this?

Logan Foote: Oh yeah, those are a thing.

Jeff Porter: I started Googling and that's definitely a thing. So explain it.

Logan Foote: Basically you will pay money to have a ball dropped from a helicopter. You can buy multiple balls as well. They'll fly a helicopter over the practice green and do a big ball drop. Your ball is labeled with your name or something. If it finds a hole, you can win something. There might be different variations of how those work, but yes, I've heard of those.

Jeff Porter: Just thinking about the liability. I'm sure the course manager wants a bunch of golf balls dropped from a helicopter on his green. That's like a hailstorm.

Logan Foote: That's a literal hailstorm.

Jeff Porter: We did a golf tournament for a professional baseball player. On one hole, you had to put on catching gear and putt. On another hole, you could use a bat. One person in your foursome had to use a bat -- throw the ball up in the air and hit it down the fairway. You had to have some hand-eye coordination and skill. They were fun. Sometimes they got a little out of control.

Jeff Porter: But I'll tell you one that made $18,000 or $20,000 after the tournament was over -- a closest-to-the-pin contest that was post-tournament. You had to pay to buy in. I think your first ball was $200 or $250, and every time you bought back in, you had to pay more. The prize was several thousand dollars. These guys are going after this -- it was a trip somewhere. You pay this money, you were about 160 yards out over water, had to land it on the green, and whoever got closest to the pin won. But you could keep buying in. It went on for a while, but they didn't care because they were making money. People can get frustrated, but they were up to $18,000 or $20,000 so they kept going. That one shocked me. That's quite a bit.

Logan Foote: For sure. Longest drive. I've seen the straightest drive where you run a string down the fairway. Hole-in-one contests are very popular. That's another sponsorship. We provide the insurance for that.

Jeff Porter: You guys provide the insurance?

Logan Foote: Yeah, we have a couple different packages and we work directly with the insurance company so the organizer doesn't even have to bother with it. That's a very popular one. I've even seen a hole-in-one contest where they cut multiple holes on the green so your chance of getting a hole-in-one was actually greater. That led people to buy more entries. Obviously, your insurance costs go up because the chance is more likely, but it's still fun for the golfer and raises more money.

Jeff Porter: That is a good idea. I've also seen one where you can pay to have a pro drive for you. At a recent golf tournament, apparently the guy was the Colorado high school golf champion. It was a par three. We could pay to have him take a tee shot and use his shot if we wanted. I'm thinking, why would we need his shot? When he put it within two feet of the hole, I realized why we had to pay him 100 bucks.

Logan Foote: Exactly. We had one on a par three -- kind of a beat-the-pro. The pro was stationed on that hole the entire time and would play it every single time. If your group could beat him, you'd pay in and be in for a drawing for a prize. It engages people's competitive side -- see if they can team up and beat the pro. Always a fun one.

Jeff Porter: They really are. And there's a million of them. People listening to this podcast probably have even more. The only recommendation is don't make them too complicated, because they can slow things down quite a bit. But outside of that, they're not just extra revenue generators -- they're fun. Especially if you've got some really competitive golfers that are going to drop four, five, six, seven hundred dollars to try to win something.

Logan Foote: Oh yeah, it works. Golfers are a competitive bunch. But they're fun. Absolutely.

Jeff Porter: All right. Well, this has been an awesome chat. Any final parting thoughts? Definitely tell people how to find you guys and what services you provide.

Logan Foote: For sure. We're the golf tournament experts, so we have a lot of people who have experience running events. We even have PGA pros on staff that have experience working on the ground at the facility, so they can tell you what to expect on that side of things.

Logan Foote: Our platform provides a custom event website where you can drive all your golfers and sponsors and collect straight cash donations as well. Then our tournament management software, the back end, is the big time saver for the tournament organizer. It does all those golf-specific tasks -- hole assignments, pairings, scoring. You can easily download all your custom printouts that the golf course staff will need -- scorecards, cart signs, alphabetical list of names, hole assignment sheet. All that stuff that takes so much time to put together is done instantly once you've got the names in the platform.

Logan Foote: The live scoring is really cool, elevates the event, and speeds up the results process at the end of the tournament. The sponsorship opportunities our events can take advantage of are significant. We're seeing events bring in anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 in extra revenue when they're leveraging the areas we have for them.

Logan Foote: We have the hole-in-one contest, custom flags, and lots of connections with vendors that provide things to golf events that we don't. We've vetted these vendors, making sure they're really good to do business with. We're happy to make those introductions.

Logan Foote: The last thing I'll plug is our support. We don't charge anything for it. You get a dedicated client success rep assigned to you from start to finish. They'll be at your constant beck and call. If anyone needs immediate assistance, we've got a live chat we monitor seven days a week. All of our support team is in-house, so it's not outsourced. You're talking to someone who lives with our software every day. We'll be there with you from start to finish.

Jeff Porter: Will they help me with my golf swing?

Logan Foote: No. That's the only thing. Well, we have some PGA professionals. They give some lessons on occasion. So come out to Nebraska, maybe they'll book a lesson with you.

Jeff Porter: That'd be awesome. And we partner with you guys and absolutely appreciate the partnership. We get nothing but rave reviews about your support and your technology. If you're considering running a golf tournament, definitely give Golf Status a look. This has been awesome. Logan, thank you so much for your time. Thank you guys for listening to this episode. We'll be back soon with another episode of Elevate Your Event. Until then, happy fundraising.