Kammy Maxfeldt, the 2013 LPGA Professional of the Year and a Golf Digest Top 50 woman instructor, is the PGA head professional at Birchwood Country Club in Westport, Connecticut.
This past year’s Women’s Member-Guest was our best yet at Birchwood for a multitude of reasons. As is standard with all of our club events, we created a special theme which the entire tournament was designed around. Chosen for this year’s event was Breakfast at Tiffany’s. During play, the golf course featured a cardboard cutout of Audrey Hepburn, champagne bottles in bunkers and contests centered around closest to the various props. Off the golf course, we had a photo booth set up, and many of the participants got dressed for the occasion in 1960s garb. Even with all of these perks, the most popular facet of the event was the tee gift. Instead of giving away a golf-specific gift as had been done in the past, I decided to think outside out the box this time around. In the end, I decided on Marc Joseph flats after I saw a large number of members wear those and similar shoes to and from the golf course on a daily basis. I was able to open an account with the company just for the tournament and, for flexibility, the company ended up sending us 90 pairs for our field of only 54 participants.
Of the 90 pairs sent to us, for a field of 54, we only returned five pairs! Many of the women bought an additional pair because of the price we offered for the product. The local department stores featured the same shoes at least $50 higher, and considering these shoes typically retail between $175-$195, the savings was well-received by the women! After the event concluded, I offered a handful of shoes in the golf shop for regular purchase, which was also very popular. In the end, the impact of bringing in a pre-tournament gift that was totally unrelated to golf proved incredibly successful in large part because it was exciting and unique. If you want to spark the interest of your membership during club events, looking outside the typical gifts can prove to be a fantastic option.