Kim Kleinle is a PGA Certified Professional who teaches at Caliente Springs Resort in Desert Hot Springs, California, in the winter and Pocono Farms Country Club in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, in the summer.

When I was the head professional of a small private club, I looked for affordable ways to add value to special member tournaments like our member-guest. We had a very, very tight budget, but I didn’t want the guests to know that. As I rode around the course the first day, I took photos of each member with his guest, and some candid pictures, too. At the end of the day, I ran to a local pharmacy and printed two copies of each photo, and bought plain greeting-card photo sleeves. We placed the photos in the cards and used them as placecards for seating at the awards dinner. Everyone then had a photographic reminder of the event to take home. We taped the candid photos to the scoreboard, and we put all of the photos on a private online account and emailed the link to everyone for downloading. Of course, I took photos of the winners and runners-up, and while everyone was showering and changing for the dinner, I again ran to the pharmacy to print out 5-by-7 enlargements, which we placed in engraved photo frames. The frames had the club’s logo, the tournament name and the year. With the photos, there was no need to engrave the names, and the winners could take their prizes home with them. It went over so well that I took the idea with me to my next club, even though I had a larger budget to work with.

Kim Kleinle on the business impact of using photos to add a personal touch to tournaments:
Not only did we increase the perceived value of the tournament by giving photos, we saved money. The engraved frames had a very elegant look, yet cost less than $20 each and were “personalized” with the photos. Each year, the winners told me they were the nicest tournament prizes they ever got. Golfers really like the photographic personal touch.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email lessons@golfwithkim.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.