Other Ideas to Try That Don't Cost You Anything

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At the banquet, sell entries into the Heads & Tails game for whatever dollar amount you see fit ($5 or $10?). Give each entrant a sticker to denote that they are entered into the game. When ready, get all the participants to stand up at their seat or, in today's new reality, gather them outside standing 6 feet apart. Have your emcee, or better yet one of your SPONSORS, get to the mic and explain that everyone in the game will now put their hands either on their head or their bottom. The emcee then flips a coin, and everyone who guessed the flip correctly remains standing and everyone who guessed wrong sits back down (or leaves the game area). 

Continue this process until there are only two people left. They will then stand back-to-back (again, 6 feet apart) and the flipping will continue until there is only one person that guessed correctly, and they are your winner.

All you'll need is a coin, about 10 minutes to play the whole game and a nice prize to award to the winner. Don't sell re-buys, though, or the game may never end! 

Prior to the round of golf, sell entries into the Mega Putt contest. Usually $10 is not too rich and it can generate enough additional revenue to make this a fun, quick fundraiser.

Each person in the contest should write their initials or name on their golf ball. They will then form a circle around the practice green, or the 9th or 18th green if they are close to the clubhouse. Have your emcee, the club pro or a SPONSOR explain that on the count of 3, everyone will putt their ball at the same time at the designated hole. The first ball in the hole, or the one that stops closest to the hole if none go in, is the winner.

All you need is one hole on the putting green and a cool prize for the winner.

This is an on the course game, played on a par 3 hole. You'll need a volunteer to run the contest, but it's super simple. As each foursome approaches the tee box, explain that for a $5 or $10 donation, the golfers will have two chances to win some cash. Whoever lands their tee shot CLOSEST TO THE FLAG on the green will win one of the two money bags, and the person who lands their shot CLOSEST TO THE GREEN without landing on the green will win the other money bag.

This game will require you to secure a sponsor for it to run successfully. Ask for a $300, $400 or $500 sponsorship fee. You then make the "money bag" on the green worth half that amount, and the one closest to the green worth the other half of the sponsorship cash. The cash donation from a sponsor supplies the two prizes so that costs you nothing, and if you can get 80%, 90% or 100% of your golfers to play for their $10 donation, it is all pure profit for you.

You might want to spice the game up a bit by buying a couple of actual novelty "money bags" to place near the green. DON'T PUT ANY MONEY IN THEM, JUST SOME ROCKS OR SAND TO MAKE THEM LOOK FULL OF CASH AND SO THEY DON'T BLOW AWAY! You will also need the golf course to supply you with 2 proxy markers for the hole. One will be for the closest to the flag prize and the other will be for the closest to the green prize. Golfers can move the money bags along with the proxy markers as the lead changes.

Your Money Bags SPONSOR can present the cash prizes to the winners at the banquet.

Have a Skins Game available for any teams that are interested in playing. The way it works is that each of the 18 holes is worth one "skin", so you'll have 18 "skins" available to possibly be won.  Each hole, or "skin" is worth 1 point. The team with the lowest score on each particular hole will be considered the winner of that hole's skin and win the point. The team with the most "skins" at the end of the round will SPLIT the Skins money with the charity.

HOWEVER, here's where it gets fun and interesting! On any particular hole, if two teams tie for the lowest score on a hole, ALL teams tie and the skin (or points) will carry over until only one team has the lowest score on any particular hole. It is also possible that you will have two teams tie on all 18 holes, meaning no team won a skin and ALL the money will be kept by the charity. 

At the end of the round, have a volunteer work with the golf course pro to determine which team won the most skins and that will be your winning Skins team. They will receive half of the skins money collected to divide amongst their team, and your organization keeps the other half.

In the case of a tie, you can do one of two things: 

1. Award the split money to the team that got the skin for the LOWEST handicapped hole so there is only one winning skins team (we don’t recommend this...you may upset any other tied teams!).

OR

2. Give each team that tied an equal split of the money, remembering that the charity has already kept half of the total prize money as a donation. 

We recommend a $100 per team entry fee so that there will be incentive to play, but you can make it whatever you like. Do the math for your outing and see what kind of return you can get for doing nothing different other than adding some extra numbers up at the end.

This is a great way to keep more of your golfers involved in the match, and to stick around for the banquet, raffles and auction.

Instead of awarding prizes to the top (best) one or two teams, create "flights" so that every team has a possibility of winning even if they're not very good. Here's what you do:

Obviously, the team with the lowest score should be your champions and give them whatever prize you would normally give them. Then take their score and add 4, 5 or 6 strokes to that number and you have just created a 2nd "flight". BE CONSISTANT WITH NUMBER OF STROKES YOU ADD FOR EACH NEW FLIGHT, THOUGH.  Whichever team has that number for a score is the winner of the 2nd flight and they receive a prize (of your choice). Then, add 4, 5  or 6 strokes to the 2nd flight's score and you have just created a 3rd "flight". Whichever team has that number for their score, they are the winners of the 3rd "flight". You can do this for up to 6 flights based on the number of teams you have.

For an example, your winning team shoots a 58. Add 6 strokes to that and you get 64. Whichever team has a 64 (or the next CLOSEST score 64) will be the winner of that flight. Then, add 6 to that number and you get your next flight. The team with a score closest to that number is then the winner of the 3rd flight. Create 4 -6 flights depending on the number of teams you have and award a prize to each team that wins a flight. 

You'll be surprised at how many golfers LOVE this idea because they usually know coming to your event that they're not going to win anything because they're not that good. However, when they leave your outing with a trophy for winning the "C Flight" with a score of 70, 73 or whatever...you've made them very happy and they'll want to play again next year in YOUR outing knowing they might have a chance to win! You can even name the flights after your sponsors, or something pertaining specifically to your charity, or even sell each flight as a sponsorship. Get creative and have fun with this one! 

The "scramble" format is by far the most popular scoring technique for charity golf outings, for a reason. The golf pros have a very easy time of adding up the scores and handing you the winning teams names. Then they get to go home.

Don't get us wrong. We love the course pros and their staff, and they provide a very valuable service to you and to us. Next time you speak with the course pro, however, ask about different scoring ideas for your outing to help make it DIFFERENT than the dozens of other outings taking place in your area this season.

Below are a few to ask about or make part of your event. Any of these different scoring formats could generate a lot of interest from golfers in your database that don't currently play or donate now to your outing because yours is "just another scramble":

Peoria System - holes are selected by blind draw and those are the scoring holes. This could penalize some really good teams, so consider having a prize for the best or lowest "actual" score in addition to the Peoria System winners.

Stableford System  - This is a points based scoring system, so a team could have one or two bad holes and still be in the running for a top prize. For example, a par on the hole is worth 1 point, a Birdie is worth 3, an eagle is worth 7 and there are negative points for bogey's and double bogey's. 

You can still award for most, least and any variation of point totals you'd like to make it a fun twist for your outing.

Leave the Ringer in the Cart - This is a simple variation for your scramble format. Each member of the team will tee off as they normally would in a simple scramble, however, the person whose shot the team decides to use must sit out the next shot. This method is repeated until the team finishes the hole. Essentially, they play the hole as a 3-some to prevent sandbagging and bringing in a "ringer" (a well-skilled golfer to help carry the team to victory).

Now, some people will get upset at the notion that they paid to play golf and don't want to not swing the club. Of course the person who is supposed to "sit out" on the shot can swing their club, the team just can't use that person's shot until the next shot. It is, after all, supposed to be a fun, relaxing charitable outing.