Bill Sampson, a past Carolinas PGA Section Golf Professional of the Year, Bill Strausbaugh Award and President’s Plaque winner, is the PGA director of golf at Old Tabby Links in Okatie, S.C.

Old Tabby Links hosts approximately 10,000 rounds of golf per year and only has a few large tournaments each season. However, some of our smaller events, such as our tennis and golf tournament, have become popular amongst our 345 members. For the past sixteen years, we have offered Ten-Go, an event that allows our members to play a round robin tennis tournament in the morning and a nine-hole golf scramble in the afternoon. In between the tennis matches and the golf tournament, we provide lunch to the participants and then offer dinner after the event. During the dinner hour, we announce the winners and speak about any other upcoming events. Holding events like Ten-Go have proven to be important at Old Tabby Links because it exposes golf to new players – in this case our tennis members.

Bill Sampson on the business impact of combining golf events with other sports:
Ten-Go has grown each year and become more and more popular. In 2012, we had approximately 40 players participate in the event and nearly all of them stayed for dinner. We charge $30 for dinner per person and an additional $15 for lunch, which results in a large increase in our daily food & beverage sales. Additionally, we have seen a very steady increase in the amount of participation for private lessons, group clinics and our ladies programs each year. Our weekly clinic participation has more than tripled in attendance as well. Our rounds of golf played have also increased, as we see more tennis members start to play golf each year.

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