It seems like that the concept of #TheOven17 is viable and working well. It is an amateur multi-day golf tournament founded in the US in 2014. This year it will be held between July 20-23. This is why I thought to talk with Ricky Potts, the host of the event about his tournament. The Toronto-based Eat Sleep Golf, a golf-focused brand development, and digital marketing agency is the presenting sponsor of the event.
What will be the #TheOven17 like?
I think Troon‘s contribution makes the tournament more attractive to the participants since they can enter into a private club, the La Paloma Country Club (a Jack Nicklaus Signature design managed by Troon Privé) and a public course the Sewailo Golf Club (7,283 yards; designed by Notah Begay III.; Tucson, Arizona). As I European, I found it really interesting that the Casino Del Sol and the Sewailo Golf Club belong to the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
These private golf clubs were really generous since they do not expect anything (not even leads or contact information) from the hosting of this event.
This time the event will start with a Champions Dinner (July 20th, Thursday) where the 3 honorary starters, the three guys that have played in every event thus far, and all past champions are invited. The prior year’s champion picks the restaurant each year.
On July 21st they will host a pairings party, as they do a blind draw for both days and this year will work with the
Borderlands Brewing Company. The month before the event the three honorary starters will go down to help
brew a beer they release the night of the event. This is really an unusual program of the tournament.
The participants will play golf on both days. Unlike in previous years, FootGolf under the lights this year. It is a great thing that live streaming (e.g. Facebook Live, Periscope etc.) will be available at both golf clubs. This is also a self-interest for event organizers and golf clubs to enable creating shareable memories. Personally, I would use drones with 4K cameras to cover better the event.
Based on the elements of the program, I assume most of the participants will be
Millennials are looking for
shareable experience and interested in
foodie culture.
Thanks to the high-speed Wi-Fi and the shareability of this experience they will appreciate it more. This generation’s estimated annual consumer spending in the US was
$1.3 trillion in 2014.
What other event organizers can learn from Ricky Potts and Eat Sleep Golf is the smart usage of a hashtag (#) to track how your event is spreading on the Internet. Last year #TheOven16 generated over 54 million impressions on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The following companies are affiliated with the event:
- Troon
- Borderlands Brewing Company
- La Paloma Country Club
- Sewailo Golf Club
- GolfBoard
- Casino Del Sol
- Tru-Roll Putters
- Vision Golf Balls
- Arccos
- GAME GOLF
