Make My Day Camp: Golf Banquet

I play in a women's golf league and my partner Natalie and I were assigned the fun of planning the end-of-season banquet last August. Ok, ok, maybe not assigned so much as we were in last place and the losers "get" to do the planning hahaha. But we are both planners so this wasn't that difficult - hardest part was not having solid info regarding what was expected (for instance - there is usually a cash prize for the first couple teams but the amount is up to us, and how we divide it is also for us to decide. My sister said when it was her turn to plan the party and was told the same thing - 'well ok then, 5th place gets all the money'! You guessed it, she was in 5th place LOL) so we were sort of winging things.

After finding out how much money we had to spend, we decided how to break down the budget among prizes/food/games/decor. In case you're interested, I'm sharing our notes on what we did because when I googled 'how to throw a women's golf league end of season banquet' I did not find much useful info (!) - I'll pass these notes on to the next party planners in case they want to know what we did, and if not they can make up their own plan haha. It's a long post but I tried to provide detailed info - maybe you'll be inspired by some of our games and party planning:

NOTES AND THINGS TO DO FOR GOLF FUN NIGHT '21

· This year the budget is $620 ($20 from 31 golfers)

Prizes:

- 1^st place - $20 and a seat cover ($25 each)

- 2^nd place - $10 each

- 3^rd place - $5 each

- Last place – practice balls ($5 each), white board,

payday candy bar in a goody bag

(note cash and prizes = $130 plus what Nat pd for board & leis))

· Favor bags for all league players (and subs? I hear some members don’t like that subs get the same thing since they don’t pay dues, etc. I guess it depends how many subs are attending… this year we have 2 subs joining us)
· Prize for the winning scramble team (aloha theme this year – 3 Island-y balls, lei, chocolate macadamia candy, bright tees)
· Ask Greg and Mike for donations – give everyone a raffle ticket then draw for the donated prizes. (Jen says Greg donated a shirt and something else last year ‘20) NOTE: Mike donating 2 gift cards ($15, 10), Greg says he’ll donate but I don’t know what yet. Also asked Wendi at Dairy Den and she’ll donate $10 g.c. (Update: Greg gave 2 shirts and (4) 18 holes with cart)
· Talk to Greg about shot gun start from all 9 holes (Update: he texted that he’d adjust the tee sheet)
· Food: Nat ordering subs and chips, Jill will do cooler with coke/zero/water and dessert – note we had a lot of leftover food and drinks. 3 trays of assorted 3” subs with almost a whole tray left, ½ of cookies left, and only drank 2 reg cokes and a few diets.

*I googled Subway to get an idea for the food budget – a platter serving 7 is $48. Not sure how many people we’ll have, if it’s 50 that’ll cost us $345 not counting chips. Update: Nat got a great deal at Subway and it only cost 170 delivered! Other ideas for $170 – Twilligers (chicken fingers, potato salad, etc) or pizza and salad. We could ask everyone to bring a dish but then we'd need more tables, plugs, etc. and would end up with a lot of food - plus the minor hassle of having to bring your dish ahead of time, then set it up after golf...Subway brought utensils, plates and napkins, all the condiments - easy.

BANQUET PRIZES:

· SCRAMBLE winners – 4 bags with leis

· ANNOUNCE AND HAND OUT OVER-ALL LEAGUE WINNING PRIZES (Natalie):

- 1^st place envelopes and 2 cart seat covers to

#9 Deb and Mary 25.5 points

- 2^nd place envelopes to #4 Brenda and Krys 21.5 points

- 3^rd place envelopes to #16 Kathy and Michelle 21 points

(*if anyone cares, 4 teams tied for 4^th place with 20 points)

- Last place – bag w/ practice balls, payday bar, white board to #12 Jonna and Becky

· FAVOR BAGS FOR EVERYONE – LPGA socks, hat marker, wipe tablets (water activated), tees, straws, 2 fun size candy bars

· GIVE EVERYONE 2 RAFFLE TICKETs, DRAW FOR PRIZES:

- TWILLIGERS $10

- TWILLIGERS $15

- DAIRY DEN $10

- SUBWAY $15

- PINE HILLS –

§ Shirt

§ 18 holes with cart

TO DO:

§ put $ in envelopes for prizes - label so Natalie can read each one and hand out
§ favor bags - buy bags and filler, and assemble
§ buy raffle tickets, separate
§ collect donated items to raffle

- Twigs (2) $10 gift cards

- Greg/Pine Hills

- Dairy Den $10

§ Scramble winner prize –

- buy bags and shreds, leis, island-themed balls, Hawaiian candy bar

- assemble bags

§ Get a case of coke and zero, and waters

- Ice in large cooler – note I froze waters ahead, and only added a gallon ziplock baggie of ice from home

§ buy cookie assortment and chex mix bags from Meijer
§ Make rule sheet and score cards
§ Get head count, make teams
§ Order subs, fixings, chips

Night of:

· Get to course early and set up:

- tables/chairs on patio, we put a plastic tablecloth on the food table. Food on head table, drinks in cooler under the table.

- put rule sheet, score cards, and chex mix on a table. Nat will read the rules and give instructions, everyone take chex mix snacks for their golf cart.

· Separate raffle tickets ahead of time, I passed out 2 tickets to each golfer and drew the numbers out of a hat. Next time I’d have people pick their own 2 out of a container that you can shake up, I didn’t shuffle good enough by hand and some people won twice with back-to- back ticket numbers. Also, it was dark on the patio and by the time we did the raffle it was hard to read the numbers.

BUDGET/PURCHASES

Jill:

· Scramble winning bags - $2/ball, candy $6 $24

· Last place balls - $5/each, paydays $14

· Drinks – 24 coke, zero, water $27.60

· Cookies $11.50

· Seat covers $50

· Chex mix cart snacks $20

· Subway gift card for raffle $15

________

$162

Natalie:

· Favor bags and fillers = $200

· Subway $170

__________

$370

TOTAL SPENT approx. $532 + 70 cash prizes = 602

Split the remaining 20 with Nat to cover all the misc. incidentals we didn’t keep track of like dollar store cheap filler stuff, etc. (tees, straws, goody bags, ice…)

Budget 620

-70 cash prizes

Nat -200 bags/filler

-170 subway

- 10 misc.

Jill -100 prizes

- 60 food/drink

- 10 misc.

______________________________________

Where to purchase/find prize items:

AMAZON for socks, golf balls, hat markers, wipe tablets, seat covers

DOLLAR STORE for white boards, clear favor bags and shreds (Nat did white handled bags from Family Dollar), leis, payday, aloha straws, raffle tickets

MEIJER for practice balls, tees, subway gc

COST PLUS for macadamia candy

Before the banquet we play a round of 'fun' golf, it's up to the party planners to choose how to make it 'fun'. Nat and I decided to do a regular 4-man scramble with a few 'twists' on the odd-numbered holes:

hole #1: MAKE LIKE A FLAMINGO, GET READY FOR FUN - STAND ON ONE LEG TO DRIVE HOLE #1 (rule: balance on one leg while teeing off on hole #1)

hole #3: TWIST, JIVE, LOOK ALIVE - 'CAUSE NOW YOU'VE GOT TO USE THE WORST DRIVE (rule: everyone tee off, but use the worst drive instead of the best. Play the rest of the hole as regular scramble)

hole #5: OUR TWISTS ARE SILLY, NOT MEANT TO BE MEAN, WE BET YOU'LL LIKE THIS ONE - IT'S BOWLING THE GREEN! (rule: play regular scramble until someone is on the green; once there, pick the best ball as usual but instead of using your putter, pick up the ball and roll it towards the cup like you are bowling it. Continue playing the best roll until you make it in the hole - count each best roll as a stroke just like if you missed a putt)

hole #7: NOT A 7&7 WITH CROWN AND 7UP - USE ONLY YOUR 7 IRON, JUST LIKE 'TIN CUP' (rule: use your 7 iron for all strokes including drive and putt)

hole #9: NOW THAT YOU ARE FEELING FINE, TAKE A TEAM SELFIE ON HOLE #9! (rule: take your photo and text it to Natalie or Jill)

holes #2, 4, 6, 8 - play traditional scramble

NOTE: you must use at least one drive from every team member at some point in the game.

SCRAMBLE BASICS - all team members tee off on each hole, then decide which one is the best. The other team members pick up their balls and play their next shot from that spot. Repeat everyone hitting and picking the best one on every shot for the rest of the game.