We’re not talking about PGA or even the Champions Tour sponsorship here. What are you doing to leverage your local golf tournament sponsorship? I’m an active participant in local charity and sometimes celebrity tournaments. I’ve been in the role of player, tournament organizer (including selling sponsorships) and sponsor.

Whether you are spending $600 to send a foursome or $10,000 to play a bigger role, it’s important to get the biggest bang for your buck in a tightening economy.

1. If you are sending a single foursome, send your best company representative(s) along with a top customer and a top prospective customer. The 4th person in the group can be customer or employee. Be sure your employee who is playing is dressed for the part and has been prepped as to the company expectations. It’s more important that someone with a great attitude goes more than the best golfer, although hopefully it’s the same.

2. If you are a bigger sponsor, request an advance round of golf at the same course and get your team out for practice. This will build camaraderie in the group and make the later round of golf more relaxing.

3. Don’t just put up a tee sign on a hole. Have a team of non-players at the hole who create some type of fun promotion. For example, the foursome draws 4 slips from a hat. The one who draws the ’special slip’, gets 2 shots off the tee and chooses his or her best shot. There are no losers. All four are given a token gift to remember your company by, preferably with a business card included.

4. Ask for a link to your web site. This may not be included, but you should draw up exactly what you want (graphic, text, and link to page) and present it to the organization. They will almost certainly comply and you will benefit from years to come with the SEO value of the link in addition to exposure of your charitable works.

5. Don’t just supply your logo. The bigger your sponsorship, the more you should ask for. Unless you are shooting for branding, create custom ads specifically for the event that target the demographics of who will be attending the event. Think MICROMARKETING. My favorite marketing method is not the masses, but just the few. Who do you know who is playing the tournament that you want as a customer? What would entice them to be a customer? Plan everything you do around marketing with just those few people in mind. For example, add your custom one line message targeting those people to emails that go out with tournament announcements. Make sure you ‘bump into’ your prospects; if you don’t know how, simply ask the tournament organizer to give you an introduction. It works!

BONUS TIP: The event is not about building your business, but building relationships. It’s relationships that lead to future business.

Yes. However, if you are sending an EPS file, it’s best if it is at the actual size, or if you tell us the maximum width and height that you want your embroidered logo to look like. I recommend someone looks in their closet and measures logos they like. Then you get determine what size would be best for your shape logo. Otherwise, it’s all left up to the subjective decision of the person digitizing your logo.

We always ship a sample of the sew out for approval before embroidering all your shirts.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA (August 11, 2008) - West Coast Trends, Inc., makers of the Club Glove, the Number One travel bag in golf, today announced that it settled the patent infringement lawsuit it had filed in Texas against Armor Gear, LLC, and its supplier Uneka Concepts, Inc. 

West Coast Trends owns the invention described in United States Patent No. 7,19,902 entitled “Flexible Travel Bag With Integrated Support to Protect Bag From Wear.” The ‘902 patent is directed to a travel bag, such as for golf, fabricated of a flexible material such as nylon combined with a specialized rigid support. The patented travel bag is sold by West Coast Trends under the trademark Club Glove. In the lawsuit, West Coast Trends had alleged that Armor Gear’s Big Kahuna, Big Kahuna II, and Rolling Sherpa IIz travel bags infringed the ‘902 patent. Mike Adams, with the Winstead law firm and one of the attorneys for West Coast Trends in the lawsuit, said the settlement details are confidential but noted that “the parties have settled the litigation to their mutual satisfaction.” 

“We will continue to protect our patents vigorously,” stated Jeff Herold, President, West Coast Trends, Inc. “There are more companies on our list that we will be contacting soon.” 

About West Coast Trends 
West Coast Trends, Inc., the Huntington Beach, California-based quality golf club protection company, designs and markets premium golf travel bags, luggage, stand bags, cart bags, club covers and accessories. These include the Club Glove Last Bag, Burst Proof with Wheels, Piggy Back II, Club Glove Carry-On, Rolling Duffles, Aficionado IV, Hot Stepper, and Stiff Arm. Nearly every Touring Golf Professional in the U.S. carries their clubs in a Club Glove travel bag.  
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Club Glove, Last Bag and Scheyden are registered trademarks of West Coast Trends, Inc.

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CEOgolfshop.com is an authorized North American distributor of all Club Glove products. For more information, call 954-942-7747. 

These sites were kind enough to link to CEOgolfshop.com or my.CEOgolfshop.com, our online superstore.

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I’m sorry to see it go. I rec’d mine with my membership with Executive Women’s Golf Assn (EWGA.com). I wouldn’t rush to read it, but I generally read thoroughly before the next issue arrives.  I like the stories, and I thought the new ‘play better 100/90/80′ series was nicely well done.

I agree with others;  the clothing that’s advertised is frequently in the stratosphere. I play public and private clubs around the country and pay special attention to see what people are wearing to help with my own marketing. What’s advertised has never matched reality. I dress more like Annika Sorenstam and Stina Sternberg (stock magazine photo) than what I see in the magazine ads. I’ll spend a good amount on an outfit, but $1000 for an outfit (no shoes) isn’t what I’m wearing daily.

As to the future…if Conde Nast couldn’t make it, I’m not sure we’ll see anything on this scale again. Golf Magazine is no substitute and I wouldn’t pay for a subscription. I get it free now and have been thinking I’d like to help save the planet and just tell them-  no thanks.  I’d be really interested to hear the back story of cost vs revenues on GFW some day.