Golf Outing "On Course Contests"

I am setting up a golf outing in order to raise some my for my high school golf team and am looking for some unique on course contests that would help to raise even more money. I know of closest to pin, longest drive, straightest drive, closest in two (par 5s), and longest putt, but am wondering if anyone has ever been part of an outing that incorporated anything different that you found particularly fun and memorable.

Any suggestions with descriptions would be appreciated.

A charity tournament that I play in every summer has a few dollar games in various spots on the course. A few that I can think of off the top of my head are;

- Chipping contest, chip to a 4 foot circle about 10 yards away. Get 2 out of 3 balls in the circle and you get a ticket for a drawing.
- Putting contest, roughly a 20 foot putt. For every ball that you make, you get a ticket for the drawing.
- Marshmellow driving contest, longest "drive" wins a prize.

The drawing is for some sort of small prize, like a sleeve of balls. Same for the marshmellow driving contest. They have a few other games scattered around the course as well but I can't seem to think of them at the moment.

haha thrid one sounds pretty fun, any techinque to that. i.e. marshmellow at setup, swing speed anything like that.

At one of the fun tournaments we have here, on one of the holes they have about a 30" driver. They give out a prize for longest drive with that goofy club, some guys smoke it over 200 yards!

doesnt seem to unrealistic, i was once at the driving range and a guy was driving with his putter and hitting a fence in air 250yds out. i was amazed.

Sorry, I don't know that these all of these things are identically "appropriate" for a high school fundraiser, but its theory that's important...

"Does a bear chip in the woods?" a 6' wooden bear cutout, chip a wiffle practice ball through a 2' hole on the cutout. There's a lot you can do using a wiffle practice ball since you can replicate fuller shots. Doesn't sound that spectacular but at our tournament people go crazy with their chipping "expertise".

A keg in the fairway, about 200 yards to make it accessible to everyone, closest to keg wins it. I've seen it done with root beer too... I chose to ignore the root beer option.

A +1 on the putting contest. Not longest putt made during the round, rather a contest for making a crazy long putt on the practice green before the tournament. Buy tickets for a chance to putt. Make it, win a donated prize, maybe a box a Pro V's. Not many make it...

I suggest attractive women working the par 3 selling tickets for a chance to participate in closest to the hole, same with long drive. On the closest to the pin, someone wins out of each group. Of course its some small prize but its incentive to buy the opportunity.

Another one, a pro hits a drive on one of the more difficult holes before the tourney starts and you can buy his drive. Dare I say its usually about 300 yards???

A popular one lately is selling string and using as much of the string as you'd like to move your putt location closer to the hole.

Key is making sure you're creating revenue on your "fun" things and not just giving it away on things like longest drive. People will pay for those opportunities. Either they understand that its a charity event and are ready to donate a few bucks or they feel the pressure from their partners who understand the point of the whole event.

I can't stress enough how important it is to invest the work gathering donated items. I venture to say that attractive women are the most successful. We're men, what can I say??

Of course, all of these gimmicks to make money and add fun also make it possible for guys to shoot just ridiculous scores. I know when I'm in a scramble with mulligans, string, etc. there will be teams that turn in perfect scores, meaning birdying every par 3 and par 4 and an eagle on every par 5. Whether its true or not is for another thread...

Good luck!

A few of the things I’ve seen/played…

A club pro is positioned at one par 3 and one par 5. A $5.00 donation buys the pro to make your tee shot for you.

Just for fun (no donation) games played on some of the tees. Prizes are donated “trinkets” like a bag of tees, ball mark repair tool, sleeve of balls, cap, etc.

A plastic ring about 18” in diameter with a tee in the ground is placed about 10-12 feet from a line. Each player is given two tries to chip to the tee. Closest to the tee (inside the ring) wins a prize.

A variation of that is where three shipping boxes are placed in a row going away from the player. Chipping a ball into one of the boxes makes you eligible to win. Winner is who chipped into the furthest box. Subsequent ties are resolved with a chip-off.

Each player puts a tee into the ground normally, then lays a second tee on top of that one, either end (player’s choice) pointing downrange. Using any club he wishes, each player tries to drive the second tee as far as he can. Longest drive wins.

On a short par four, each player in the foursome has to tee off wearing a pair of oven mitts. Longest drive wins.

The marshmellow is a fun one. Usually the guy who wins it uses a very smooth tempo swing and a mid iron or high lofted wood. Swinging hard is a no-go. Take a smooth swing and try to hit it high. I've never won one of these but I've come pretty close. Hitting a marshmellow for distance is quite a bit harder than you might think...

My favorite is an opposite hand long drive contest. Have someone stationed at a par 5 with a left handed driver. (if you have any lefties, you'll need a matching right handed driver) After everyone hits their normal tee shot, have them tee up again and take a swing from the other side of the ball.

This works for a putting green contest as well.

That's an interesting idea. I'd lose by a mile, but it'd be fun.