First Things First: Create A Championship Committee

Making the assumption that your club and board have already decided on the “why” to host a championship at your golf course, it’s time to get started planning an exceptional event.  But how? Your General Manager and Golf Pro are likely behind you 100%, but they already have a golf course and club to run. So, it’s time to put together a committee for your new golf event, and there are some guidelines to follow in this pursuit.

First, you must identify your biggest needs.  A few will jump out for any event. Firstly, a committee of several dedicated volunteer members is critical.  There is a required division of labor that will be necessary when executing a large successful golf championship.  So, a Committee Chairperson (or, sometimes, two co-chairs) is first on the list. This person is at the helm of this ship, and they should be prepared with dedication, time, expertise and possibly some sweat and tears.

Once a Committee Chair is in place, depending on the size of the golf event, you will certainly need a few more people to spread the work around.  We would at minimum suggest a Volunteer Coordinator, Project Manager and Communications Guru. The larger the event, the more people may be required, but having too many people in the kitchen can get confusing and tasks and even the best and biggest ideas will start to fall through the cracks.  

A Volunteer Coordinator’s job encompasses much of the “behind the scenes” tasks for the event.  Volunteers are critical to ensuring a successful event, and their enthusiasm and willingness to work hard can elevate your championship to rock star status quickly. For this reason, Volunteer Coordinators should be organized, have a clear idea of the needs of the championship and be skilled communicators.  Recruiting volunteers and keeping them happy, scheduling, communicating, and creating solid infrastructure are just a few requirements for this position. This importance of this committee job cannot be overstated. Depending on the size of your golf event, you could be looking at scheduling hundreds or even thousands of shifts, and if your Volunteer Coordinator isn’t highly skilled with plenty of prior experience we strongly recommend farming this job out to a contractor.

A Communications Chair can look different for each event, but we highly encourage your committee to have one in place.  Here’s the thing: your event is going to be amazing. Your membership, the supporters, spectators and the media should know all about it.  If you have someone who creates and/or edits all messaging, social media posts and thinks big picture, your event will be a smash hit. This person can, and should, even be involved in the branding of the event with regards to signage, website and all messaging that leaves the committee.  This is a “thinking outside the box” kind of job, so find someone who has that special skill. Then it’s time to execute. Think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, apps like Nextdoor and your club website. This person should work with the Committee Chair(s) to create an “editorial calendar” for all messaging. This means a timeline of every piece of communication that needs to be created. The pieces of the puzzle should all work synergistically so that all of the communications pieces such as newsletter alerts, letters to the membership from the Club President, calls for volunteers and everything in between are leveraged to the maximum.  With a Communications Chair, you will ensure everything will be polished and looking its best. Again, if you don’t have someone within your membership who can do this level of work, we highly recommend contracting it out.

Lastly, a Project Manager is MUST!   When committees come together and have amazing ideas, someone needs to be in charge of who, when, where and how.  Otherwise small tasks and great ideas get lost in the shuffle. This person should be fluent in spreadsheets, sharing apps, be a capable to communicator with committee members and an excellent executor of ideas. When you have a committee that has more than two members (which is every single committee), email chains quickly grow out of control. Having a Project Manager, whether an employee of the club or a volunteer member, will make everyone’s job so much easier.

Creating a committee and clear objectives are all critical to a successful championship. If the structure is there and everyone is excited, skilled, and dedicated, you will have a golf event that your membership and the golfers will be proud of for years to come.

And as always, if you need backup to make all the pieces come together, reach out to Full Swing and let us tell you how we can help.