Last spring was a tough one in the Northeast, with unprecedented rain affecting player and foot traffic in our golf shop. As the owner of my golf shop and having lost out on many early spring sales, I decided to conduct a raffle. It was easy!
Members would buy a ticket for $100, and they’d have one chance in the raffle. The best part of the raffle format is that the value of the ticket each member purchased would be redistributed to the member in pro shop credit. So, they pay $100 for each raffle opportunity, and they’d get $100 in shop credit. If they bought four tickets, they received $400 in golf shop credit. For the raffle I conducted in 2025, we offered three prizes: a Titleist GT Driver, a Titleist Golf Bag and a Titleist Vokey Wedge.
I ran this raffle for the month of April, and members were able to purchase multiple tickets to increase their chances of winning a prize. When I sent it to the members, I was hoping to generate about $5,000, figuring that my costs for the prizes were approximately $800-$900, leaving me a good return. In the first week alone, I had already brought in $7,500. By the end of the month, I brought in a little over $13,000.
This was a homerun, and I will be doing it again in April 2026. This allowed members who were planning on making a big-ticket purchase to put some money up early and have a chance at some nice prizes. It also provided me with some much-needed cash flow during a time when the product was on the shelves and people were not at the club to make purchases due to the weather. I call it a Can’t Lose Raffle because, whether it’s me and my golf shop OR our participating members, everybody wins!
Mike D’Agostino, the 2026 Deacon Palmer Award winner and nine-time Western New York PGA Section Special Awards winner, is the Honorary President of the Western New York PGA Section and the PGA of America Head Golf Professional and golf shop owner at Penfield (NY) Country Club.