Golf Tournament Gift Ideas
You’ve been given the opportunity to plan the annual corporate golf tournament. Tournaments are an excellent way for a company or organization to thank its’ customers, suppliers, partners and employees. As you will find out, there is a lot that goes into making the event a success - the course and its facilities, food and beverages, foursome pairings, the tournament format (scramble, net/ gross), hole challenges (long drive contests, closest to the hole), trophies, and participant gifts.
The purpose of this article is to provide tournament gift ideas that will make your golf tournament most memorable. Done right, tournament gifts can help your guests remember the great time they had at your tournament for months and even years to come. First off, the gifts should be personalized with your corporate or your organization’s name/ logo. Depending upon the item, this may be embroidered, screen printed, engraved, sand carved, pad printed, etched enamel and probably several other types personalization. There is usually a one time set up fee anywhere from $15 - $50 depending upon the type of personalization. In addition, most suppliers will offer discounts based on the volume of items purchased. Be sure to ask.
There are several things to consider when choosing a gift. If you would consider the group to be (in general) avid golfers, then a golf related item makes a great gift. Popular golf items include a compact golf ball retriever (even avid golfers hit into the water), trunk golf gear organizers, golf bag watches, shoe bags, caddy pouches, coolers, umbrellas, golf towels, bag tags, scoring journals, etc. For organizations with larger budgets, travel cases make great gifts for those in travel related industries, but for other industries there are probably better options. The reason being, unless your participants travel and play golf frequently, I’m not sure you would want to pay for a logo’d travel bag that is just going to be stored in someone’s garage. My take is that you would rather see your tournament gift used more often than once or twice a year. A sleeve or dozen of personalized golf balls are always a well received gift for avid golfers, however to make your event stand out, why not include an engraved wooden ball box as well.
For groups that are less avid golfers (yes these groups do exist) one fun idea is to hire a golf photographer to take either group or individual shots of participants. While most photographers provide paper photo displays, adding a wood frame for the photo will impress your guests and will be much more likely to be displayed. Items such as coasters, pen/ stamp holders, golf cart clocks, leather wallets and scorecard holders, wooden valuable boxes and dresser organizers, coffee cups, tournament plaques all make great gifs. Shits, caps and windbreakers make excellent gifts as well.
One note on personal items. I’ve been to some events where shoes, putters and other more personal items are given out, and while these may seem to be well received, my guess is that more often than not, they get put away in storage, rarely to see the light of day or worse yet, get auctioned off on ebay.
To summarize, when planning what tournament gifts to provide, the number one thing to consider is how likely will the participants of your tournament use the gift you give.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you have found it helpful and wish you a most successful tournament.
Bob Johnson is an avid golfer in the pacific northwest and owner of GettingToPar.com an online retailer of golf accessories, gifts, equipment and awards. For all of your tournament needs, please visit us at http://www.gettingtopar.com