How You Can Help
How to Run a Golf Tournament: Bring in Friends
August 2007
Jim Justen would be the first to tell you that it’s not easy to set up a golf tournament, especially for someone not trained in event planning. What he had in mind early in 2007 was to raise funds for ovarian cancer research and thus honor the memory of his wife Deborah who lost her life to this deadly cancer in 2006. Jim had already established the The Deborah L. Justen Fund for Ovarian Cancer Research to support research projects in ovarian cancer under John Kavanagh, M.D., Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at M. D. Anderson.
Thinking like the businessman he is, one of Jim’s primary objectives in setting up the tournament was to minimize costs so as to realize the maximum amount to add to the fund. And that’s where friends and colleagues came in. A friend who owns a printing firm donated the invitations. Suppliers and factory reps associated with Jim’s business, Total Plumbing, donated golf balls. Another friend donated part of the cost of the promotional golf shirts, and the local Talbot’s store donated the giveaway bags. Many of Debbie’s friends from the elementary school where she taught for 30 years volunteered to help with preparations and work the day of the tournament.
“I knew about the power of groups working and playing together. You should have heard the laughter all day long. At the end of the day everyone wanted to repeat the experience next year,” Jim said.
Jim’s goal was to raise $5,000 that he could then match, and he had to do it with the public golf club’s limitation of only 108 golfers per event. Corporate sponsors and individuals lined up to play so quickly that he could have held two tournaments. So, of course, next year he’s hoping to increase the numbers while still holding it on a Saturday. After this year’s great experience, he feels confident that he and his friends will find a way to make it happen.