I worked in the golf business for about 20 years, and helped run various fundraiser events. As sad as it is, your #1 best bet for raking in cash is getting a couple attractive young women to either run betting games or sell raffle tickets. Guys like to show off and are much more likely to dig deep for a good looking woman.

Raffle off a Scotty Cameron putter, a new driver or something else that's new and exciting. Skills games are always popular too... like a long, impossible putt closest to the hole or a difficult pitch shot. Charge $5 or $10 for 3 attempts, always good as something before they go out or after the round is done. Winner can be a prize or you can do 50/50 of the proceeds. Beat the Pro contests are good for raising money, or if you don't have a pro, you can just have a circle around the hole for betting. Inside the circle they double their wager, outside the money is donated.

Have you all tried getting some of the coaches or local celebrities to show up and play. Let the players bid on which coach or celebrity foursome they get to play with.

I have been volunteering at a Pro/Am Jam for about eight years and they raise $350,000 plus annually. It takes a great coordinator and a lot of hard work. It is run by a management company. They have no problem filling the field. Some years, we fill two courses. The hosts of the tournament, NASCAR's Denny Hamlin & Mark Bryan of Hootie & The Blowfish do an awesome job supporting local charities in the Charleston area. Do not know how big your event is but this one is very successful in raising funds for charity. Silent auctions seem to raise a good bit of money. This one requires a lot of volunteers getting products donated. It helps if your event is a non profit. They can get a tax write off. Wishing you the best. Where do you all play your tournament? GO VOLS.

Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of bidding for local celebs to be part of a foursome. It’s not near the status you describe, though we do all the off-course auctions, etc.

Living in S Carolina but my roots are still in East Tennessee and my blood still runs orange.....Rocky Top, home sweet home to me....more time to golf on the coast of S Carolina...good luck.

Longest drive with an old hickory wood,
Closest to centre of the fairway,
Closest to the pin in two on a long par 5,
Scramble format each team gets a coloured ball and every player must take turn to use that ball at a different hole, double points scored on the score card if the ball kept in play each hole / the whole round. ️‍♂️

Have you looked into a Golf Ball Air Cannon. We use on short Par 4 and players can pay $20-25 to use the air cannon for their drive. We usually average about $70 per group with this. It's a lot of fun to short this thing!

https://golfballaircannon.com/

Always have a putting contest on the practice green before the start, keeps people more engaged.

If it is a serious crowd, work with the pro to see if they can get an equipment manufacturer out to demo new products.

I personally think the "marshmellow" drive is superlame, so avoid that.

Like Brock I worked for years in the industry and put together many events. There are many good ideas here but you have to know the players.

Who is your audience? If this is an event where you get a good number of women then the attractive young women won't help much. You can sell extra mulligans, gimme putts, or a number of extras. I used to have a buddy who did long drive stuff and we used to bring him out on a long par 5. Pay to use his drive. If he didn't put one in play at worse you would have 220 into the green. On average he would get people inside 200 yrds for second shot.