You have just been called into your bosses office and he is truly excited about the company getting to host their very own golf day; inviting all your top clients and key stakeholders. You smile through your teeth and say “sounds great”, but you are actually petrified. Not only you don’t have a clue on how to tell apart a putter from a wedge, but you also don’t know the type of golf ball that will impress the CEO of your biggest client. Golf can be a little overwhelming. However, here at Red Tomato, we pride ourselves on making golf superstars out of all our clients. We know that with our team’s extensive experience, we can get your golf day up and running on the highest level.

Here are 4 tips to help you survive planning your corporate golf day:

Planning!

Determine your Golf Day goals. What do you need to achieve from a golf day? Setting clear objectives will help you find the perfect people to invite as well as allowing you to spend quality social time with your best clients.

Here are some awesome reasons to participate or even host your own golf day:

Do you want to show your clients a great day out in the sun?
Are you celebrating your employees’ good work?
Are you looking to mingle with your favourite suppliers?
Are you wanting to spend time with an important client?
Are you trying to position your brand?
Do you have a key product or service that you would like to launch or sample with a specific demographic?
Are you wanting to support a good cause or charity?

Choose your golfer.

Golfers come in many shapes and forms, but in general, if they love golf and are typically quite brand conscious, they’d prefer brands such as Callaway Golf, Titleist, and Footjoy for their golf balls and equipment. In some cases, they’d even pass on the free golf balls if they don’t carry these names. In Australia alone, there are over 1.18 million golfers and over 1,000 golf courses. For this reason, you can count on several different options available that can be effective in helping you achieve your marketing goals to engage with clients, staff, and golf enthusiasts alike. As a business, you need to decide if it is better to invite 3 or 4 of your favourite clients for a more personal round of golf at a local prestigious club; or buy a few groups on a charity day, maybe splash out and host your very own day, or sponsor a local Holden Scramble event, or even go the whole hog and sponsor a National/International golf tournament such as the PGA Championship or Fiji International.

Set your budget.

Decide how much you want to invest and do it well! Choose well done over, mass marketing when hosting a golf day. The power of using a Titleist ball co-branded with your company logo over a cheaper ‘no-name ball’ will give your brand great kudos amongst your peers, and it also ensures it doesn’t get thrown in the trash. Select the right location with green fees, carts, and a great food and bev package. Food and Booze! The essentials to any golf day are to have good food and great drinks to keep the mood going through the day. (See below our fav locations).

Organising goodie bags or tee gifts or just a thank-you pack of 3 balls and tees for all guests is a must. Custom polo’s and caps are great for this. It will help the photos of the day look awesome by adding a sea of your company colour and will give life to the golf day long after the event; you never know, it could become their lucky golf shirt! (Anywhere from $10-50 is a good amount to spend here). If you are sponsoring or hosting the day, don’t forget to brand up the course. Get your own custom golf flags, organise hole signage, you can even get your very own custom caddie bibs! Last but not least, prizes… Good prizes are always a great way to ensure people will be back the next year if they weren’t lucky enough to snaffle a prize this time around. Click here for some golf day prize options available.

Location, Location, Location.

It’s always about location. It will make or break for a golfer to go to your golf day. Corporate golf days are sometimes the only way many golfers can get the opportunity to play on great courses. Australia has many private courses that open up, especially for corporate golf days. Most high-end executives that play golf will have a membership at one of these courses, so if you host your day at a mediocre course, you might end up struggling to influence the right people to take the half-day off work to come to your event.

Here is a list of courses we recommend in each state:

Sydney:

Melbourne:

Adelaide:

Brisbane:

Perth:

At Red Tomato, we have a great deal of knowledge on and off the golf course and have been looking after clients such as PGA Australia and Golf Australia with their corporate merchandise for several years now. If you are looking for more information on the ins and out of a golf day, feel free to reach out to Justin Reynolds and we will be sure to help you make the most of your golf experience. Ready to plan your next corporate golf day? Find more resources here:

Girls Guide to Golf