With more than 30 years experience of presentation evenings, we are the people to ask when it comes to advice for your event. Keeping members happy is easy when you reward them for their golfing in a tangible way, bearing in mind that many engraved awards are available from Majestic Crystal for around the price of a main course in a decent restaurant.
The simplest way of course, is to give every member the same tankard, wine glass, or tumbler with just the golf club crest. (Although maybe this doesn’t reflect well on your imagination, it does have the benefit of providing an equal prize for each of your winners, assuming they may have received something else on the date of the actual competition) Moving it up a little, you have the option of putting a year underneath. Your winners will then be able to collect a set if they so desire. The issue arises when your Club Champion receives the same as the February Medal Division 2 Winner, although this can be sorted by the size of the prize - which despite the best intentions, size does still appear to matter.
Things now become more interesting, as it is possible to engrave not only the club crest, or the year, but the competition name and year under the crest. Why not also engrave the winner’s name underneath too? For a pairs’ competition, we engrave both names and even reverse the names so each person has a piece of beautiful crystal with his or her name first.
Bearing in mind that your member is paying his subscription not only for the use of the course, the clubhouse, and the car park, the only physical record of their golfing prowess will be the prizes they win. Some people believe in golfing gear from the pro shop, which doesn’t really show much imagination, which although a safe option, maybe results in a voucher for balls or things that will be used and forgotten.
Many club managers and competition secretaries actually spend time considering the winner, and what he or she might like to display with pride at home. In the simplest form, start with your Club Champion and think what piece reflects the club’s opinion of their best – on the day – golfer.
The Majestic Crystal Etna Vase or Etna Bowl are both wonderful pieces, with modern lines and look wonderful on display, without being to large – or expensive. This gives the opportunity to take things from there, with your seven or eight Major Competition winners being presented with, for example, a large or small Barley Vase, or large Barley Bowl.
Going on from there, the rest of the weekend tournaments deserve at least an engraved Bowed Tankard for men, or a lovely Saturn Vase for ladies. (Making no apologies for gender stereotyping, there are some unavoidable facts of life – or presentation pieces.)
Medal & Stableford Winners? Lydia Goblets, Bowed Tankards, or of course the current top selling pieces, our Gin Blooms… All of these can generally be engraved with your club crest, and additional wording of your choice.
We actually have some clubs who telephone to chat, and their competitions secretaries, knowing their members really well, tell us about the winners, their age, how much they have won in the past, and even what they won last year so if, for example they won a decanter, we might send matching tumblers this year. If they won two competitions this year, instead of giving two decanters, for the smaller competition, why not give matching tumblers or wine glasses?
Mixed competitions? If the winners are, for example a couple who live in the same house, then a larger piece (Barley or Braid Bowl) with both names might be wonderful, however if they are in separate homes, obviously individual prizes would be most suitable. We always email engraving artwork generally superimposed on each piece, to enable checking and quite often, this will give you the opportunity to double check spellings, partners, dates etc.
People often consider the course to be the biggest asset of a golf club, we would beg to differ. Surely it is your members. The history on the honours boards, the spirit of everyone who has ever been in your clubhouse all contribute to the soul of the club.
If you would like to know more, why not get in touch? We will set a time to call you, and chat through your options. Just a tumbler with your crest, (easy) or thinking deeply about the quite small percentage of your hundreds of members who manage to beat their peers in the wonderful game of golf, by giving them something that they will treasure. (Intensely satisfying!)
One of our competition secretaries reports that his members really look forward to seeing what he has chosen for them – no pressure at all then.
Majestic Crystal – 01526 378676.
