Golf Tournament & Outing Planning Guide: Part 2

In Part 1 of "Tournament & Outing Planning" we covered two of the most important topics of planning an outing: deciding on a date and choosing a golf course. In Part 2 we will now cover choosing a format/contest and also how to promote your event.

Factors to Consider in Choosing a Format

One of the major factors in determining the playing format is the number of players you plan on having participate. Once that is determined you can choose the type of format that makes the most sense for the size of your outing.

Typically a golf tournament brings out a wide variety of players, some of them avid golfers and others who rarely, if ever, pick up a club. This will affect your choice of formats in that you should try and pick a format that will allow players of all abilities to enjoy the round. Even though you will match players of varying abilities on teams, the social nature of golf is one that soon after the event begins, golfers always find they have something in common.

You may also want to take into account the time of year and weather conditions. For example, if your event is in the summer in warm weather, you may want to try and schedule a morning event. You will also want to choose a format that allows players to finish in a reasonable amount of time. Remember, it is probably going to take 4 1/2 to 5 hours to complete a typical golf outing.

Event Formats and Contests

There are a variety of formats and contests that will work for corporate and charity events, but perhaps the key factor in choosing a format is the abilities of the golfers who are participating. Since there are typically a large number of players playing at the same time, team formats usually work best. Having players on teams also tends to even things out since there is typically a wide variety of skills among the players.

Competition Formats

The Scramble - This is by far the most popular format for a group golf event because it allows for a good pace of play despite the large number of players. It also gives everyone, even the less experienced, a chance at winning. A four-person scramble is one in which there are four players on a team. Each team member hits a tee shot at each hole, but the second and succeeding shots are played from where the best shot of the four lands. Play continues until the ball is holed out.

Best Ball - Each player hit their own ball in a Best Ball format, but only the lowest score from among the group is recorded as the official score for the competition. The lowest score for each hole is recorded as the official score for that hole. The Best Ball allows for each player to play a full round of golf, but still allows for less experienced golfers to contribute to and be part of a winning team.

Stableford - A Stableford awards points for shots made depending on a player's handicap. A point value is assigned for a birdie, par, eagle, bogey, double bogey or triple bogey based on the following formula. Instead of the player winning with the fewest strokes, in this case the winner would be the player with the most points.

Callaway - The Callaway, though a bit more complicated than other scoring systems, is used for one-time events when most of the players do not have a handicap. The Callaway system utilizes a special scoring table to determine each player's net score, based on how players do on their worst scoring holes of the day.

This is just a brief sample of possible formats and scoring systems. If you are unsure of what system to use or how to score an event, our MCG golf professionals will be more than happy to not only explain and recommend a format, but also take care of all of your scoring needs. This includes setting up the event and figuring out handicaps and teams.

Contest Formats

Putting Contests - The most common added competitive activity at golf outings, putting contests are very popular because anyone has the basic skill to putt a ball toward a hole. Usually held on the practice putting green, putting competitions offer dozens of variations on a theme, with the object being to putt the ball in the hole in the least number of attempts.

Most putting contests collect a nominal fee from each participant, depending on the group. These entry fees can range from as little as $1 to $50, with the prize going to the winner or a smaller prize to the winner with the majority of money going to charity.

Closest to the Pin - This popular contest involves a tee shot off a par 3 that comes closest to the pin. Often this contest is played on a par 3 where the green is visible from the tee box or on the course's signature par 3 hole.

Longest Drive - Award a prize for the person who hits the longest drive on a predetermined hole during the competition. Normally, this contest takes place on one of the course's longest and straightest par 4 or par 5 holes.

Again, our MCG golf professionals can help walk you through this process and will take care of setting everything up on the day of the event. We understand that you have a lot to do on the day of the event and we want to help you out as much as possible.

Promoting Your Event

A key component of planning for a golf outing is informing your potential golfers about the event. Since golf outings are typically all-day events, it is extremely important to provide your guests with as much notice as possible. If there is a huge demand for spots in your tournament, you may have to start the process even further in advance.

For your first announcement, a simple news item or press release listing the name and date of the event, location, starting time and list of the day's activities is appropriate. Distribution can be via email, fax, through your company or charity newsletter or even via snail mail. Plan to announce your tournament six months in advance if possible so that your guests can reserve the date on their calendar.

Plan to follow up three to four months in advance with a second announcement. That announcement should include a registration form or some type of reply form. One month in advance, plan to follow up with another news item about the event, as well as send out a confirmation letter to those who have already signed up.

Although being in charge of a golf tournament or outing may appear to be a daunting task, hopefully some of these ideas and tips help show that it is not nearly as hard as you think. It is important to know that the golf course and golf course staff are there for you and should help assist you in as many ways as possible. Our MCG golf professionals have many years of tournament operation experience and look forward to working with and helping tournament planners in any way possible.

Again, if you are interested in hosting an event at Hampshire Greens, Little Bennett, Laytonsville, Northwest, Needwood, Falls Road, Rattlewood, Poolesville, or Sligo Creek, please contact us at: Wrohauer@mcra-md.com.

Golf Tournament & Outing Planning Guide: Part 1

Have you ever thought about putting together a golf tournament or outing and just didn't know where to start? Or has your company recently made you the Golf Event Planner for this year's upcoming tournament? If so, you may be asking yourself "now what?" and wonder how to even get started. Not to worry. What seems like a daunting task need not be that difficult. You certainly don't need to be an experienced golfer to run an exceptional golf tournament. All it takes is some advance planning and the foresight to use the planning tools that will be at your disposal.

Below are some basic guidelines on how to approach planning for your event and a task list to guide you through the entire process.

Most golf tournaments and outings can be put together by a relatively small group of individuals with the help of the golf course's own staff. Assuming that your event is of typical size (144 players or less), you should find the following information extremely helpful and will help you treat your group to an unforgettable day of golf hospitality.

An Overview of Your Golf Outing

A typical day long golf outing involves 72-128 players with 18 holes of golf beginning at either 8am or 1pm. Plan for 4 1/2 to 5 hours of actual golf, with most outings having a lunch and/or dinner either before or after the event. Registration usually begins an hour or two before the event.

As the golf event planner, most of your work will be completed well in advance of the outing. Once the big day finally arrives, you'll get plenty of help from the golf course staff, which will be more than happy to take many of the details off your plate, including all matters pertaining to the actual golf competition.

One of the pleasant surprises about hosting an outing is how helpful the professional staff should be in the planning process and on the actual day of the event. Our goal at MCG is to make sure that we develop a good working relationship with you and your outing committee, to the point where on the day of your event, our golf staff will almost seem like part of your own event staff. You will find our golf course staff extremely attentive to your needs and very adaptable to last-minute changes that are typical to golf events.

First Step: Decide on a Date

Probably the most important step in starting your event plan is to choose a date. Are the days of the week flexible when you can have your event? Is it necessary to hold the event on a weekend or are you flexible enough to have it on a Monday or Friday, or even mid-week?

For example, if you are flexible enough to have your event on a Monday, it drastically opens the possibilities on what courses you have access to. While Monday is a business workday, there are many golf outings held on Monday afternoons, with some of them preceded by a business meeting in the morning. For weekend events, you will find that most 18-hole courses prefer to book group outings in the afternoon so they can still welcome the many individual golfers who like to play on weekend mornings. Additionally, the cost of weekend outing will typically tend to be a little bit higher as those are days that are more in demand.

Second Step: Choosing a Golf Course

After deciding a date, or multiple dates that may work, the next step is to decide which golf course is appropriate for your group. Is the course centrally located so that most of your guests can easily commute? Does the course have the type of food and beverage facilities that can provide your group with the type of service that you would want your guests to have?

MCG has nine golf courses scattered throughout Montgomery County, making it very convenient to find at least one that meets your geographical needs. And all of our courses are equipped to handle your food and beverage needs, including a great working relationship with a local catering company.

The number of players for your event will also have an effect on the choice of courses. For example, a golf course will max out at 144 players for an 18-hole event. If you are expecting more players than that, you may want to consider a facility that has 27 holes. Here in Montgomery County, Northwest and Needwood Golf Courses would be perfect options to host your larger events. And if you are looking for a smaller, nine hole event, consider Sligo Creek, located conveniently off the DC beltway in Silver Spring.

Keeping in mind that there will be players with a wide range of golf experience, the actual topography and layout of the course might have an impact on your choice. The best choice for a golf outing is a course that will provide a challenge for the best golfers, yet still allow inexperienced players a chance to navigate their way around the course with the least amount of difficulty.

As you research your golf course options, ask the general manager or golf professional to provide you with some names of other groups who have held event at that particular course. you'll be able to contact someone who has been through the whole process and has the benefit of a great deal of feedback from golfers who played the course.

Visit the Course and Tour the Facilities
Also, when you begin to make phone calls to inquire about golf course availability, make an appointment to come out and see the facilities first-hand. In most cases you'll be able to meet with someone who can book the golf course for you. Once you get there, ask the various staff members about the condition of the course and you'll find plenty of people willing to provide thorough feedback.

Take a golf cart out on the course and notice the condition of the greens. Are they green and lush or do you see large bare or brown spots? Putting surfaces that have large brown patches or worn spots are something that you don't want to have to explain to your guests. Also look at the fairways, areas of rough and the areas surrounding the tee boxes and rough areas that divide one hole from another. Are these areas well maintained and tidy looking?

There are many other routine things you will want to check on with regard to the course. You'll need at least one golf cart for every two golfers, so does the course have enough carts in their fleet to accommodate you? What about golf club rentals for those in your event who might not be bringing their own clubs?

What is Your Budget?

When establishing a budget for a golf event, remember that most courses will charge on a per person basis. This cost per golfer includes the greens fee (cost of actually playing the course) and a cart fee (cost for renting each golf cart). Many courses, although not all, will also charge an administrative fee of some sort that handles the various details of the event, including bag handling, preparing cart signs, scorecards, scoring the event and display of a large scoreboard with all the names of the golfers.

Food and beverage is usually calculated separately, again at a cost per person. Based on the time of day of your event you will have to decide what meal options you will want to include, before, during and after golf.

What kind of prizes will you have and will you have to purchase them or will they be donated. Many golf tournaments, especially those run for a charity, contact various businesses for donations of prizes. Additionally, you can work the particular golf course so that some of your prizes can be gift certificates redeemable at the golf shop on the day of the event.

That concludes Part 1 on how to plan and run a successful golf outing. Part 2 will include information on how to choose a format/contests and how to promote your event.

MCG has nine courses located throughout all of Montgomery County. If you or someone you know interested in hosting an event at one of our nine MCG courses, please email us at: Wrohauer@mcra-md.com.

Winter Work: Course Accessories

As we continue to take a look at the number of things that keep maintenance crews busy during the winter months, refurbishing course accessories takes a significant portion of our time.  This work is typically done when the course is covered in snow, or during frost delays that prevent us from working on other projects outside.

Little Bennett's ball washers disassembled, cleaned, sanded, and repainted

Traffic control stakes are repainted at Hampshire Greens

Amongst the items that are refurbished are ball washers, flag sticks and cups, yardage markers, tee markers, traffic control stakes, water cooler houses, tee caddies, directional signs, benches, bunker rakes, trash cans, and the list goes on!

Broken tee caddies and directional arrows are made and painted

Yardage poles are repainted

Northwest in the process of making new signs and tee markers

So when you think that those maintenance guys couldn't possibly be THAT busy during the winter, rest assured that we are working just as hard as we do during the rest of the year trying to take care of this type of work that can't be readily accomplished during the season when all these accessories are in use and needed on the course!

PGA Tour 2012 Preview

The 2012 PGA Tour officially kicked off in Maui last week with Steve Stricker winning the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. The 44-year old Wisconsin native shot 23-under on The Plantation Course at Kapalua , three shots clear of runner-up Martin Laird. But even with the first win of the early season going to a seasoned vet, all eyes in 2012 will be on the tour's new breed of young guns and a Tiger with something to prove.

6 Twenty-Somethings To Watch In 2012:

• KEEGAN BRADLEY: Bradley played his college golf at St. John's in New York City. His second win in 2011 came in the form of a PGA Championship (was also his first appearance in a major, not bad!). Bradley is quite simply a very steady and consistent player without much flash in his game. He ranks 12th in total driving (combo of distance and accuracy), which means he keeps it in play and doesn't make a whole lot of mistakes.

• JASON DAY: The young Aussie is fearless and appears to be built for majors. In 2010 he finished tenth in the PGA Championship, his first career major. In 2011, he tied for second in his first Masters and also finished second in his first attempt at the U.S. Open. And while he is known for his length off tee (averaged 302.6 yards), Day also led the tour in making birdie or better on par 3's.

• WEBB SIMPSON: Although Simpson flew under a lot of radar's most of last season, he emerged on everyone's screen after winning the Deutsche Bank during the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and finished second in the FedEx standings. He also won the Wyndham Championship last season and may have won the Zurich Classic had he not had to penalize himself with three holes to play (ball at rest moved). The former Wake Forest star also finished second on tour in scoring average (69.25) and official earnings ($6.35 million).

• BILLY HAAS: Haas' father, Jay, was a standout on tour; his brother, Jay, Jr., spent some time on tour; his uncle Bob (Goalby) won a green jacket at the 1968 Masters; and his uncle Jerry is the golf coach at Wake Forest. And Billy, a star at Wake Forest himself, did not win in 2011 until the Tour Championship (which won him the FedEx Cup). But most tend to forget that Haas lost twice in playoffs earlier in the year and won two tour titles in 2010. Here's an interesting stat: Haas ranked third in 2011 in holing putts 5 feet or shorter. And as many of us know, making those knee knockers can keep you in contention.

• DUSTIN JOHNSON: DJ may just be the most intriguing and fun to watch player on tour. Never mind that he ranked third in driving distance (314.2 yards) and fourth in birdie average (4.2 per round) -- has anyone on tour collapsed so much? The Coastal Carolina grad was leading the 2010 U.S. Open by three shots with 18 holes to play, then shot 82. He would have been in a playoff with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson in the 2010 PGA Championship but was penalized for grounding his club in a bunker on the final hole. He was in the hunt in the final round at last year's British Open before shanking a routine fairway shot OB. But DJ does already have five PGA tour wins on his resume. So while many fans may shake their heads at his catastrophes, he's only a stroke away from domination.

• Rookie of the Year - BUD CAULEY: Although he may not exactly fly under the radar, Cauley, 21, turned pro after his junior year at Alabama and became one of only six players in Tour history to earn enough money through sponsor's exemptions and guaranteed starts to bypass Q-School. He made the cut in eight out of nice starts, had two Top-4 finishes in the fall season and earned a smooth $735,000. Watch out for young Mr. Cauley!

Does Tiger Smell Blood?

And of course the main talking point in 2012 is, naturally, how Tiger Woods will perform after his return to the winners circle. Doubts have certainly been expressed about his professed 'return', given that his victory at the the Chevron World Championship was in a field of eighteen players. Obviously all we can do is wait and see, but the nature of that victory was quite impressive and holing two sizeable putts for birdie on the last two holes to win by one shot is something that would be associated with Tiger in his prime. One would have to think that Woods will see multiple wins in 2012. And with the news that Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy have taken up membership on the PGA Tour, potential rivalries with Woods have the golfing public anxious with anticipation.

And The Winner Is....

And now for this blogger's 2012 Major Championship predictions:

The Masters: Adam Scott

The U.S. Open: Lee Westwood

The British Open: Tiger Woods

The PGA Championship: Steve Stricker

Agree? Disagree? Got something to say? Leave a comment below.

Winter Work: Equipment Maintenance

Superintendents often refer to their mechanics as the unsung heroes of the operation.  Each golf course has at least 30 pieces of specialized equipment that are used to maintain our properties, and these technicians ensure not only the machines are safe and functional, but also play a key role in turf health and playability, for example, by assuring that cutting units are sharp and precisely adjusted (within a thousandth of an inch on height of cut) to the specifications of the superintendent.

Pictured above is a fairway mower getting its winter service (cutting units removed for sharpening and to access hydraulic and electrical systems)

Utility carts, mowers, tractors, sprayers, aerators, seeders, and small equipment like blowers and string trimmers are repaired and maintained throughout the season as needed, but the winter offers our equipment managers some much needed time to thoroughly go through each unit and perform more intensive preventive maintenance that keeps these machines running smoothly throughout the year.

Engine replacements or rebuilds are a piece of cake for our talented mechanics

Cutting units for green, tee, and fairway mowers are checked and adjusted after every use during the season, but in the winter, these complex machines get a thorough check-up of the hydraulic system, engine, and electrical components as well.

The "guts" of a greens mower hydraulic system.  This machine is 14 years old and running great because of the expertise of our equipment manager.

 
The cutting units themselves will be ground and prepped to original factory specs and tolerances.  Bearings throughout the machines will be inspected and replaced as needed, and hydraulic hoses and fittings will be checked for wear and replaced to help ensure there are no damaging leaks next year that could kill grass.

The underbelly of a greens mower all set, clean, and ready to go!

Even big jobs like splitting a tractor to replace the clutch are performed in-house

 This is really the tip of the iceberg, but we are lucky to have such a talented group of mechanics who can quickly perform the full gamut of repairs necessary to the equipment!  Next time you see all that equipment on the course, just know that a hard-working technician is an integral part of keeping the course in good shape!