If you’re looking for a fun and innovative fundraiser for your child’s school, youth club, or scouting troop, you may want to consider planning a golf tournament! Miniature golf is an activity that most kids and their parents enjoy, and the money earned can go toward new sports equipment, a camping trip, or activity funding for your local school or club. Keep reading as we outline a basic game plan to help you in your planning golf tournament fundraiser.

Set the location: contact your local miniature golf courses and see if any of them will donate their course for a few hours for a worthy cause. Or, they may offer reduced group rates for your charity golf tournament. Either way, most of the profits can go directly to your organization, rather than the mini golf course owners.

Select a fundraising plan: one popular idea is to have children get contributors to sign up to pay a specific amount of money for every point a child is under “par”. Make sure to set the par to a generous and reasonable number given the ages and skill levels of the participating children. Another idea is to have contributors to pay per hole played.

Advertise: you will want to make sure that as many community members attend your fundraiser as possible. See if you can get free ad space in the local church bulletin, school newsletter, or newspaper. There are also online ad spaces you might wish to check out. It is also a good idea to post large, colorful signs to help direct people to your event.

Refreshments: if you’re planning golf tournament fundraiser, you can also raise money by selling refreshments at the tournament. The children and parents can help serve food and beverages. Many mini golf tournament pros say that they purchased drink mix, baked goods, candy, pretzels, etc, from a local discount warehouse in bulk and sold it at a premium at their event.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has become well-known for its golfing, with many people traveling to what has become known as the Grand Strand, specifically for this purpose. The area includes more than one hundred golf courses throughout, with the golfing being offered on an individual basis and also through golf package deals. Depending on what you are looking for from a golf course, you will find it here. These courses are designed by some of the greats, such as Tom Jackson, P.B. Dye, Clyde Johnston, George Fazio, Rees Jones, Gene Hamm, Fred Couples, William Byrd, David Johnson, and Jack Nicklaus.

These golf courses are well-honored. The Aberdeen Country Club offers the “Meadows”, “Highlands”, and “Woodlands” nines, and has received Golf Digest’s medallions for value and service, as well as the Blackmoor Country Club. Both Golf Digest and Golf Magazine have named the Arcadian Shores Golf Club as a “Course of Distinction”, while Golf Magazine selected Grande Dunes as “Top Ten You Can Play.”

Lion’s Paw at Ocean Ridge Plantation has been judged by Golf Digest as one of the “Places to Stay” and “Best in the Myrtle Beach Area.” Oyster Bay Golf Course is seen as one of the top fifty public courses in the country. Golf Week selected River Hills Golf Club as one of the top fifty in the southeast, while River Oaks was rated one of the top five on the Grand Strand by Golf Course Magazine. Tidewater Golf Club and Plantation has been ranked number one on the Grand Strand and one of the top thirty-two public courses in American since its debut. Golf Digest refers to True Blue as the seventh best in South Carolina and the number one course in Myrtle Beach.

Many of these courses have outstanding reputations. Brierwood Golf Club, just north of Myrtle Beach, is the most played course on the Carolina Coast. Myrtlewood Golf Club Pinehills Course is believed by some to be the best-kept course on the Grand Strand. Designed by Ray Floyd, holes two, three, and four of “The Cypress” at Arrowhead Country Club are said to be the most scenic in America. Myrtle Beach golfers voted one of the holes at Colonial Charters as one of the “dream holes”, and hole number nine at the Indian Wells Country Club has been named to the “Grand Strand’s Dream Eighteen.” The three toughest holes to finish on the Grand Strand are thought to be at Eagles Nest. Caledonia Golf and Fish Club has often been thought of as the best course built in the past twenty years.