Charity golf tournaments: scoring that volunteers can actually run
A charity day is run by people who do not run golf days. The format, the scoring and the timeline should all be chosen so that nothing depends on golf expertise.
Updated 28 June 2026 · 5 min read · Flagstick team
A charity golf day is usually organised by people who are excellent at fundraising and have never run a golf competition. The design goal is therefore different from any other event on this site: nothing should require golf expertise.
Why the scramble
No handicap required. This is the decisive reason. A large fraction of a charity field will have no handicap index at all, and any format that needs one creates an administrative problem you cannot solve on the morning.
Team handicaps in a scramble can be estimated generously or skipped entirely — many charity days simply run gross scramble scoring, and it is fine, because nobody’s season depends on it.
Nobody has a bad day. A team score hides an individual’s worst holes completely. A first-time player contributes a putt on the 6th and talks about it at dinner.
It finishes on time. No searching, no putting out, no hole taking twelve minutes.
Rules and the handicap allowance, if you want one: Texas Scramble.
Why live scoring matters more here than anywhere
At a society day, if scoring takes an hour, members have a drink and wait. At a charity day, the gap between the last putt and the presentation is the fundraising window — the auction, the raffle, the speech from the beneficiary. If it starts late, people have left and the total drops.
Live scoring on players’ phones means the result exists the moment the last team finishes. No cards to collect, no volunteer adding up 20 scorecards in a corner while 80 people wait.
It also removes the single most common charity-day failure: a lost or illegible card, discovered during the presentation.
The fundraising layers
The golf is the reason people came; the structure below is where the money comes from.
| Layer | How it works | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Team entry fee | Per team of four | The base |
| Hole sponsorship | A sign on each tee | Easiest sell; do all 18 |
| Beat the pro | Pay to try to beat a shot | High margin, needs a pro |
| Mulligans | Pay for extra shots per team | Sell at registration, cap at 3 |
| Nearest the pin / longest drive | Small entry per player | Sell at registration |
| Raffle and auction | After the meal | The largest single line, usually |
| Match funding | Employer matching | Ask in the follow-up, not on the day |
Sell everything at registration. Once people are on the course you cannot reach them, and after the round they are relaxed and not carrying wallets.
The timeline
The important constraint is that the fundraising programme happens while everyone is present, which means a shotgun start.
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| −90 min | Registration, mulligan and raffle sales, coffee |
| −30 min | Welcome, the cause, format briefing, team photo |
| 0 | Shotgun |
| +4h 30 | Field in — scores already final |
| +4h 45 | Drinks, raffle tickets sold |
| +5h 15 | Meal |
| +6h 00 | The cause speaks — 10 minutes, the most important thing that happens |
| +6h 15 | Auction and raffle |
| +6h 45 | Golf prizes — short |
| +7h 00 | Close, total announced |
Note the order at the end: the cause first, the auction second, the golf prizes last. The golf prizes are the least important thing in the room and putting them first bleeds the audience before the fundraising.
Announce the total raised at the close. Always. It is the moment people remember and the reason they come back next year.
The volunteer checklist
Assume volunteers have not done this before.
Registration desk (2 people): alphabetical team sheets with starting holes, mulligan and raffle sales, cash tin and card reader, spare pens and pencils.
Starter (1 person, not playing): confirms every group knows their starting hole and the format, has the rules of the day on paper, and has a phone number for the organiser.
Course marshals (2 people, buggies): water, spare balls, and the ability to answer “is this a free drop”. Not there to enforce anything.
Scoring (1 person, not playing): does nothing at all if scoring is live, which is the point. Their real job is to have the leaderboard on a screen in the clubhouse as teams come in.
Prizes (1 person): lays out prizes during the meal so the presentation is a single pass.
Things that go wrong at charity days specifically
- Half the field has no handicap. Use a format that does not need one.
- A team is short a player. Let a three-player team play; adjust nothing. Nobody is defending a season here.
- Someone brings a corporate guest at the last minute. Have a spare team slot in the draw.
- The presentation runs 45 minutes. Rehearse it. The cause gets ten minutes, the golf gets five.
- Nobody photographs anything. Assign it, explicitly, to one person.
- The cheque is announced and nobody follows up. Send the total, the photographs and the leaderboard within 24 hours, with a link to donate for the people who could not attend.
Frequently asked questions
- What format should a charity golf tournament use?
- A Texas Scramble in teams of four. It requires no handicap, which matters because much of a charity field will not have one, it keeps inexperienced players involved, and it guarantees the round finishes on time so the fundraising programme starts when planned.
- Do charity golf tournament players need a handicap?
- No, if you use a scramble. Many charity days score the scramble gross and skip handicaps entirely, which removes the whole administrative problem of collecting handicaps from a field that largely does not have them. If you do apply a team handicap, use the standard 25/20/15/10 allowance and do not agonise over accuracy.
- How do you run scoring at a charity golf day with volunteers?
- Have players score on their own phones during the round so there is nothing to collect. That removes the hardest volunteer job — adding up twenty scorecards while eighty people wait — and means the result is final the moment the last team finishes, which is when the fundraising programme needs to start.
- What order should charity golf day prizes and speeches go in?
- The cause first, the auction and raffle second, the golf prizes last. The golf prizes are the least important thing in the room, and putting them first loses the audience before the fundraising happens. Announce the total raised at the very end.