SL 2010 Event 4 - Grassmoor, Chesterfield

That's very kind of you Eddie, thanks.  that's three nearest the pins sponsored now, Tim Hawkins' company is doing one, Allan has also offered to sponsor another nearest the pin on behalf of CGL, so it looks like there will be three nearest the pins! Stu Laws' tiling firm, is sponsoring the Longest drive hole (he's promised to take a 7 iron off the tee) so that's all of the "prize" holes covered. 

If anyone else knows of any more companies or organisations that would like to sponsor a hole at £25 a time, please put them in touch with me.  They will get their company's branding on the tee and an advert in the programme for the day in return.

Hi John,

I've replied to your email but, for everyone's benefit, organisations can get involved in a variety of ways.  The £25 I've suggested is to sponsor a hole and have their logos, etc on the tee, in the programme and on the Golf for Life sponsors' page.

I am open to other suggestions, but ideas that spring to my mind are:

Sponsor the putting competition - £50, their banner next to the putting green, all golfers have to walk past this on the way to the first tee and their way back from the 18th green.

Provide us with a prize for the day (or the raffle prize).  This doesn't have to be golf related.  Different organisations will have different views on this, so we have to be grateful for anything.  For example last year, Mizuno posted a brand new stand bag, whilst others send things 3 golf balls or a book.  As i say we're grateful for anything.  Boots sent a fantastic his and hers hamper containing loads of toiletries last year, we also had bottles of whisky, wine and champagne donated as well as subsrciptions to golf magazines and to golfshake.  i will be approaching all of these companies again when i get chance.

We have three nearest the pins and a longest drive, as listed on the other thread.  There are another 2 unsponsored par 3 holes, so they could provide a prize for one of those, although i'm not sure if 5 nearest the pins would be overkill or not, particularly if Mr Cockerham is playing, he might win the lot! 

Sponsoring the Jeremy Dale Trick Shot Show?  Starting from £100?

Grassmoor have said we can use their function room and they're happy for any sponsors to have a small display around the room if anyone would like to take advantage of this.  I am also intending to invite all sponsors to the show in the evening.

As I say, if anyone can come up with any ideas that I haven't already, I'm happy to hear them, please let me know.

I'll be out with my chainsaw from the middle of June then Al!

Make it a quid Al.  How about I give you £1 every hole you don't three putt, you give me a fiver for every hole you do?

I spent yesterday in London with Jeremy Dale attending one of his "scoring schools".

Having seen some of his videos on youtube such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eCjPeasx34 I have to say that he's even more impressive in the flesh.  Jeremy has an amazing ability to hit shots right or left handed with equal precision and I only had a very brief taster of what his show entailed. 

I'm looking forward even more now to his full show at Grassmoor.  It's scheduled to start at 7.30pm after the golf, although this may be subject to change if the golf overruns.  I am planning to invite all of our sponsors to this show, as well as family and friends of those playing.  It would really add to the atmosphere if we could get a lot of people there, even if they're not playing in the competition.  Darren is also going to advertise it on Golfshake and make it clear that people don't have to attend the golf to come to the show.  I'm also going to be contacting some of the local media as I hope it's somthing the TV News might go for.

Hi Eddie.  Thanks for that, i'll see how many i can get printed off before next weekend!

Thanks for that Ged, very kind of you.  Feel free to pick a hole that's free http://countygolfleague.com/node/857 or shall I choose one for you?

In terms of kid's entertainment, we don't have anything at the golf course for them, the charity's main event on 14/15 August http://www.relayforlife-swanwick.co.nr/ is the real family affair (by the way we're still looking to put a CGL team in for this so if anyone fancies it let me know as we only have 2 people at the moment).  There are plenty of tourist attractions in the area though Ged and if you need any help finding somewhere, please let me know.

They are, as all families are, quite welcome to join us around 7 o'clock for a drink and to watch the trick shot show by Jeremy Dale.

Good choice Ged.  The 5th is one of their remodelled holes: par 5, over water for your second or first if you're very long.  Down hill to what's usually a very fast front to back sloping green. 

That's great news Ged, thanks!

Do you want to keep your hole as the 5th?  There's one more par 3 we don't have a sponsor for, the 13th, or we could do a "nearest the pin in 3" on the par 5 5th, or a "nearest the pin in 2" on one of the shorter par 4s.

Will Frodsham be giving you a voucher or letter we can present on the day?  Also, could you get them to email me their club logo? then i'll add it to our web site on the sponsors' pages.  You can give them the address james@countygolfleague.com if you like.

Thanks Ged, I'll change it to the 13th.

Not sure about two events on the same day.  I tend to think that all we'll end up doing is reduce the amount both of us raise.  I'm sure if you held a charity day a fair number of CGL members would travel accross to support it as you are doing with ours.  Obviously this is not possible if they're held at the same time.

I'm hoping the GTour event on july 17th will not detract from ours too much.  I just hope with it being in Norfolk that most people from this area won't bother travelling and will come to ours instead.

Yes Ged, it takes a fair bit.  The main money raiser comes through economies of scale, in other words getting loads of golfers in.  I held it in spring bank holiday week last year as, mistakenly, I thought I'd get quite a few players from the educational sector which is where I work.  This turned out not to be the case and we ended up with, I think, 32 after 2 no-shows on the day.  This meant we only made a few hundred pounds for the charity.  There are still a number of fixed costs you have to pay regardless of the number of people that attend, hence it's only when the number of players gets high that you make any real money.  The other barrier to raising a ton of cash is that we have to be greenfees to use the courses, albeit Grassmoor have been very generous this year.

We've got 54 signed up at the moment, so it's looking healthy.  Darren at Golfshake is doing a feature in the next few weeks, so hopefully there is still room for a substantial increase in numbers.  We've only got 29 signed up from CGL, so hopefully that will rise as well as it's generally less than we'd expect to attend a league game.

You certainly learn as you go.  I've looked at a number of different ways forward, including making it a celebrity event but, without a major corporate sponsor it's impossible.  Will be happy to have a chat when we next meet up (which will probably be July 17!!!)

No problem Ged.  From my point of view I don't see any reason why the events should be on the same day when there plenty of dates available.  Even between Halewood and CGL, assuming we would bring the same number to you, that's roughly £100 profit each event would miss out on.

Yes Rich, that would be great, the more prizes we have the better.

We could also use any unwanted sleeves of balls if anyone has them.  i know that sometimes, when I go to an event I get a complementary sleeve of 3 balls which is usually a brand i don't play with.  they always go straight in the charity box and I'm getting quite a collection at home.  Mind you the wife's not too happy at the collection of stuff in our conservatory!

If anyone knows anyone else that might like to join us on the day, please invite them.  We have around 60 players coming on the day at present, but entries have flatlined a little of late. 

Let's all have a final push to see how many recruits we can get out on the day!

Will do Rich. 

I've been speaking with the club again today.  Food will be available between the golf and the trick shot show, but I'm going to ask those who want it to order and pay for it before they go out for their round.  By doing it this way, anyone who wants food can choose whatever they want from the menu and not be limited to a set choice and those that don't want food don't have to pay for it.  The kitchen would normally be closing on a Saturday evening, but they will keep it open for us.  Ordering in the morning will help them too.

I am also going to offer a discounted entry fee to Grassmoor members.  This will be £10 as the club won't charge them a green fee.  This means all of their £10 fee goes to our charity.  The secretary thinks we might get 20-30 members at least so that's another £200-£300 into the coffers.

I must say that the people at Grassmoor are bending over backwards to help make the day a success.  The secretary Helen even keeps coming up with the odd fundraising idea of her own to help us!  They are going to allow us to put raffle tickets and one or two of the prizes in the clubhouse from the start of July along with some advertising for the day to attract as many people as possible.  Their attitude is a stark contrast to one or two of the courses we've played at over the last year or so and, in my mind, more than makes up for the fact that the remodelling of one or two areas of the course have not yet been completed and are GUR.

Good thinking Rich, I didn't think of that.  Leave it with me.

With under a month to go until this event, there is still lots to do.  For everyone's information, the day will go something like this (but is subject to change):

10.30 – Registration open. Bacon rolls and coffee served in the club house.  Players who require it to order food for after their round.

11.00 – Putting Competition open (£1).

12.00 – Tee times for 60-65 players.

13.30 - Squashes/cakes available near the 10th tee.  Jeremy Dale will be selling his drive for £5 on the 10^th tee.

14.30 – Last tee times.

16.00 – First groups arrive back

18.30 – Last groups arrive back. 

19.00 – Prize ceremony in the function suite.

19.30 – Jeremy Dale begins his golf show.

20.30 – Golf show ends, drinks in the function suite.

Anyone want to share a buggy with Dan Atkins?  It will only cost you a fiver!

I've already realised I've missed Allan off!

That's right Chris.  i suggested 60-90minutes before your tee time.  I should have said bacon rolls were "from" 10.30 Robin.