Running Opens in 2024? Take Some Inspiration From These Five Great Examples4 min read

Planning and running profitable opens every year can be a difficult undertaking given the increasing demands and expectations of golfers country-wide.

Some of the UK’s best-ran open events are facilities that have been able to offer a unique and immersive experience – from promotion through to the event itself.

Here are five Golf Genius customers that have excelled in this endeavour and as a result, have been able to attract large numbers of golfers to their opens each year.

Carnoustie Golf Links

A renowned and respected club on the Open rota, Carnoustie Golf Links also runs one of the most popular open events for amateur golfers too: the Craws Nest Tassie. Amongst local, UK and international participants, the event has been known to sell out in under 25 minutes!

Event registration is aided through a bespoke competition portal that is set-up in Golf Genius. This portal also enables Carnoustie to highlight key information, take payment, build waitlists, and allow the booking of practice rounds.

Hollinwell

By running stand out open events every year, Hollinwell has been able to attract large numbers of visiting golfers that are looking for a great course, value for money and an engaging event experience.

For each of their Open events, such as the Hollinwell Trophy and Autumn Am/Am, the club creates bespoke portals that are accessible via Golf Hub to promote each event. One the day of the competition, Hollinwell uses live leaderboards and creates personalised scorecards to deliver a digitally enhanced event experience. The Result? Highly engaged golfers who come back year after year.

“By consolidating the promotion of our Open events, Golf Hub has enabled us to easily advertise through our website and Social Media. Users are directed to a single place where they can find the information they are looking for and enter easily” – David Holmes, General Manager, Hollinwell

Chesterfield Golf Club

Chesterfield have utilised a host of Tournament Management features to ensure golfers are getting the most out of their visit to the club when playing in an open.

Running junior and men’s opens, as well as the Broom Trophy, the club have successfully incorporated technology into their operation whilst maintaining their traditions.

The club has added the ability to book into their open events directly via the BRS tee sheet, resulting in a more seamless registration process without the worry of entry forms and processing payments, which has encouraged more golfers to register for each event.

Southport & Ainsdale

As an England Golf Championships venue and previous host of The R&A Amateur Championship and Ryder Cup, Southport & Ainsdale are no strangers when it comes to delivering large scale and successful events.

From the S&A Bowl to their junior and mixed pairs opens, the club has sought different ways to offer every type of golfer a unique event experience, each powered by Golf Genius.

For their opens, they take registration online via Golf Hub, allowing golfers to access event information such as format, prices and open tee times with ease.

Lee Valley Scratch Cup

Providing an alternate angle to the traditional Open competition, but nonetheless as interesting as the rest, is the Lee Valley Scratch Cup.

Popular across Ireland, Scratch Cups combine the concept of a Club Championship with an Open competition, and the Lee Valley Scratch Cup is a standout example.

Delivered through Golf Genius Tournament Management, hundreds of golfers travel across the country to play in the event – partly because of its status as a WAGR competition, and partly because of the tour-level experience it provides them with.

“We chose Golf Genius Tournament Management due to its ability to plug into the Golf Ireland handicapping database. Whilst this was incredibly useful and time-saving, we were equally blown away by the system’s many other features and were able to run a really efficient and seamless Scratch Cup which gained really impressive feedback from golfers.”
Vincent Drinan, Tournament Director, Lee Valley Scratch Cup.

However, the story doesn’t stop at these five facilities – there are hundreds of golf clubs across Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland that are finding innovative ways to deliver a great open event experience. Through Golf Genius Tournament Management, they can create an unrivalled end-to-end golfer experience that delivers increased participation and revenue.

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To find out how Golf Genius can help elevate your opens in 2024, book a free product demonstration here