Planning Next Year's Schedule

While this job is to be performed by a sub-committee of the Tournament Committee, there is no place else to put the following information, so here it is.  This is one of the most important jobs performed for the club and it must be started early.  Don't wait.  Start early, get an overall plan, start contacting courses and keep following up.  And the first job is to designate the member or members to perform the task.

Assuming now, that YOU are the member in charge, schedule a meeting of the entire Tournament Committee.  Generate some recommendations for away courses.  These can be old standbys, new courses, whatever.  Make sure the Committee spends enough time talking about the plans so that they feel like they are part of the process (this prevents after-the-fact complaints).  

Start the process by blocking out certain key holidays.  Easter is out; so is Mother's Day.  Father's Day should be avoided if possible.  Stay away from 3 day weekends because people go out of town.

Next, block in the Home schedule.  We are in a great position on home tournaments; our weekend priorities come right after the city sponsored tournaments and before outside clubs.  In addition, we get to schedule tournaments at 8:00 AM; other clubs must wait until 10:00.  Along with the Tournament Committee, review the previous year's home schedule.  What worked?  What didn't?  Are there some new formats we can try?

Be particularly careful about the NCGA Zone Qualifier.  It must be run some weeks prior to when our Zone takes place.  The NCGA now announces the dates in the previous summer so we can make sure we conform to their schedule in time to avoid being late with our qualifiers..

For the away tournament schedule you must find a way to balance the price, the distance traveled, the quality of the course, and the reputation of the course with the members.  Weekend (including Friday) golf is getting more expensive all the time.  When you add in mandatory cart fees, our own $9 prize fund contribution, and gas, things can get pretty pricey.  You need to come out with a mix of reasonable local courses, and good away courses.  Check out how the weekday tournaments went the previous year.  They can be a reasonable deal if we can get the attendance.

Once you have a list of candidate away courses, my recommendation is that you contact each club initially by phone.  This allows you to get the name of the Tournament Director at each club, find out their current fees and what their contracts require in terms of deposits, lead time, etc..  In most cases, you will be asked to put your request in writing to specify desired dates, times, number of players, etc..  And even though many clubs only start booking tournaments later in the year, get your request in early; it should wind up at the front of the queue when they get around to scheduling.  Don't forget that other courses have their own local club to take care of first.

Start a filing system or binder for the away tournaments.  Keep a copy of your letter and a copy of any contracts you might receive.  Don't forget that you will have to hand this off to your successor next year; leave it in the shape you would like to find it in.

Pay particular attention to the details of the contract.  In particular note the deposit requirements and the payment dates.  Some courses require full payment 30 days ahead (e.g. Poppy Hills), others will take a check on the day of the tournament.  These requirements will also dictate when the sign-ups have to close for the tournament.

Also pay attention to any required credit payments in the shop.  If the course requires $5 per player as part of the fee, then we should only charge a $4 prize fund fee so that the total comes to $9.

You want to be able to post a reasonable version of the schedule by early November of this year.  That allows a copy to be sent out to new members and published on the web.  Even if you can only publish the first few months, this can help the sign-ups for the first few tournaments.  And since the master copy of the schedule resides on the web, the easiest approach may be to work on a web-formatted schedule from the start of the planning process.

Last Updated on 12/07/2008