Corey Herlickson, the Minnesota PGA Section Dakota Chapter president, is the PGA head professional at the Meadows Golf Course in Moorhead, Minnesota.

In 2007, the local Coldwell Banker Realtors held their first charity golf tournament benefiting the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. When they contacted me about the tournament, I wanted to be more than the golf professional on the other end of the phone line. I decided to reach out to the tournament coordinator and serve as a consultant for their event. My goal was to help make the tournament process as smooth as possible. I helped set tournament expectations for them, which needed to be realistic. They had 80 golfers in their first tournament and we worked on networking the following year and increased the playing field by 32 players. Some other areas I worked with them on were scoring, rates to charge based on their charitable donation goal, creating a valuable experience for the participants, and making tournament day run smoothly. Because of the consultation, the tournament has been a success and I decided this was something I needed to do for all new tournaments in order to increase tournament play at our facility, and make the tournaments we have currently more successful. For tournaments that have already been established, the consulting has furnished new and profitable ideas that are sometimes overshadowed by current successes. For the golfers playing in the events as well as the tournament coordinator, consulting helps to enhance the experience for them.

Corey Herlickson on the business impact of becoming an outing consultant:
The Coldwell Banker golf tournament sparked the consultation that I now provide in the planning and preparation stages before any golf tournament at our facility. Tournament coordinators for other events heard about the consulting I do and were immediately interested at hosting their events at our facility. We have had six to 10 tournaments added to our schedule, two being more than 100 players, that we are certain came to our facility because of the tournament consulting. For each of those players, the golf course retains $39.50. Of the 50 to 60 golf tournaments that we host each year, we currently consult 75 to 80 percent of the tournament coordinators to make sure the experience is as good as possible for them as well as the golfers. Consulting has helped me to build relationships with the coordinators and build trust with them. When I give them advice now, they do not question because they know I have their best interest in mind. If another PGA Professional had interest in offering tournament consulting, I would advise them to write everything down and keep a summary folder for every event that all staff can access to be of service to the coordinators when they need help. Also, be willing to help them with even the smallest details. They should understand that you will be there for any questions they may have.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email CTHerlickson@pga.com

Editor’s note: The above comments reflect the opinion and experiences of the submitting PGA Professional and are not endorsed by PGA Magazine or the PGA of America.