"We will consider your comments"

This is what you get when you ask Him for sponsorship:

Thank you for contacting Team Tiger! We will consider your comments, so please keep sending us your thoughts!

ABC

Since we received positive feedbacks from R&A, ADH, DGV and OEGV, we thought we might as well go all the way. So, FISU, PGA, EU have been contacted for general info regarding sponsorship and support today. Won't be relevant for 2009 though. NCAA and GCAA haven't reacted yet in almost a month. The EU was a bit faster. It took them less than 3 hours:

> -----Original-Nachricht-----
> Subject: RE: Sportförderung
> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:11:15 +0100
> From:
> To:
>
> Sehr geehrter Herr Berst,
>
> wir danken Ihnen für Ihre Nachricht. (...)

 MFG!

EDIT 1: To be fair, the EU has a higher budget and thus a bigger staff. It's aquivalent to around 235 Euros per head of the European population.  

EDIT 2: Alright, the Bavarian state government has an even better reaction time. Less than two hours according to the clock. Unfortunatelly they don't sponsor university sport events.

Funds from the European Sport Commission

Chris dug something out that might be of interest for us organizers. Obviously there is was EU-money out there that tournaments like ours could have applied for in 2009 (DOH!). Not really sure though, since the PREPARATORY ACTION IN THE FIELD OF SPORT, CALL FOR PROPOSALS, EAC/21/2009, (OPEN CALL)-document doesn't come easy to read. Eventually their FAQ help. Would be great if they set up the sponsorship-program again for 2011.

Arden: Two more teams

We've got a bit more cash from the Uni Warwick so we can afford two more teams now. Steve has invited Leeds Met and Hull to enter, making currently two groups of 5 and two groups of 4. Leeds Met and Hull were both the first two reserves, and also played at the 2009 Arden Qualifier. It is certainly good for the event to have more teams.

...wir wollen nur spielen!

Die Studenten des Unigolfteams Lüneburg machen eine tolle Arbeit. Sie veranstalten mit dem Student Masters nicht nur ein eigenes, sehr erfolgreiches Turnier, sondern bringen mit ihrer Unigolftour auch Anstoß, Entwicklungshilfe, Rückenwind und Ordnung in den Hochschulgolfsport. Am Wochenende hat Val sie auf der Hanse-Golf in Hamburg besucht. Und ist mitten in einen Dreh hineingestolpert...

Brief update (2)

What happend this week? Well, the webpage for the Austrian qualifier is up and running. The menu needs some polishing, the picture-flashs on the webpages differ, depending which browser you use. Weird.

We had a meet with Audi. Their headquarter again was an amazing visit. They will sponsor the tournament, which is awesome.

Then we had a couple of talks to the various representatives of the Ingolstadt campus. Students' union, university sport, alumni association. Long story short: A little more appreciation would be nice!

Below you'll see the 2010 fundraiser poster. The plan is to sell this poster for 3 GDP/5 € a piece, revenues will go either in the Alps Qualifier or will be saved for the 2001-saison.

 

Good bye, UK-qualifier button!

Told ya! The boys are working on the website. Latest feature: A scroll down menu bar, indicated with the ">>". Looks great!

Arden: The more the merrier

The Arden Qualifier has received more interest than we originally expected (and our expectations were quite confident). We have emailed the 16 team captains we currently have and asked them the following:

1. Do you mind 4 extra teams joining, giving them the chance to play in Germany should they qualify (with no extra spaces available)
2. 4 teams play but they can't qualify for Germany but can still win SMUK prizes.
3. 4 teams play, and if some finish in qualifying spots they go to top of the reserve list if any spaces become available
4. We stick to 16 teams

Had 4 replies so far, all said the more the merrier.

News from the other side of the globe

A couple of days ago we were contacted by a unigolf team from far far away. Today we mailed again back and forth.

Hey guys!!

I’m excited to accept your invite!!! Please forward the details on how to formally enter. And how do i find out about the "bring your own sponsor program"? We are currently in the process of working on an itinerary, and may need your help with getting around Germany, I assume we fly into to Munich? If so how do we get from there to the tournament?

Cheers,
University of Tasmania Golf Team

--------------

Hey guys,

great to hear from you! Well, with the SM being a private tournament after all we accept entries on a handshake-basis. This reduces workload for all of us and has worked fine in the past. If you are accepting the invite, do so, and we'll plan with your team.

We are still sitting exams until the end of the week and then probably need a couple of days to celebrate... long story short: we don’t have the 2010-entry forms updated yet. So you may either use the attached 2009-form or give us a couple of days to produce the new one. Basics (rules, costs, program...) won’t change. Either way, if you say you come, go ahead and make plans. We stick to our words.

Bring your own sponsor: Here's some info. You may also want to read through these ideas.

Yep, you'd fly into Munich, it's 70 km south of Ingolstadt. Normally you'd get full shuttle service starting on the SM-Thursday. I assume you will be arriving a tat earlier, so either we pick you up with our private cars, or you take the public transport with is as fast, very reliable (this is the punctuality and rules country), so very easy. Depending on when you arrive one of us could take your clubs at the airport and store them in Ingolstadt while you go end explore Munich. I am sure we will work something out.

There is a Facebook-group where you could start making some Aussie-noise. Let us get back to you in a bit with a name and an email-address of one of us, who will help you with all travel/tourism-related questions.

Cheers
Orga-Team

Guess we'll need to polish our strine. This would do for a start!

Finally! Alps, here we come...

It took a bit longer than we thought (that's why among other things like exams) and it was even less fun then we expected. Today we designed and texted the webpage for our Alps Qualifier. The website-guy has received a couple of files tonight. Since we got at him with an 8pounds parcel full of sweets last week he should upload them tres rapidamente! Following the website logic you should be able to see the Alps Qualifier-webpage here. Very keen to see if our ideas look good!

Sponsoring: Image of Golf

[in German]
Einige Zitate aus einem Artikel, den wir beim Aufräumen unseres Turnierbüros gefunden haben:

"Golf hat das Image, ein exklusiver Sport zu sein, der nicht allen zugänglich ist und auch nicht sein will. Und der kein Geheimnis daraus macht, dass er Geld kostet. Genau das macht den Golfsport für Sponsoren aus dem Premium-Segment attraktiv. (...) Neben dem Image der Exklusivität (...) gilt Golf außerdem als "sympathisch", erfordert "Technik & Präzision", bietet die Möglichkeit, "sich in schöner Natur und an der frischen Luft aufzuhalten" und "garantiert  Erholung, Entspannung und Ruhe."

Dieses Image ist sicherlich 6 Jahre nach der Erhebung nicht mehr ohne weiteres gültig. Insbesondere unter uns Studenten dürfte sich mittlerweile rumgesprochen haben, dass Jahresmitgliedschaften für Golfclubs teilweise weniger kosten als für Discount-Fitnessclubs, zumindest solange man Student ist.

Quelle: Kadelke, Jan (2006): Der Deutsche Golf Verband e.V. (DGV) — Etablierung des Golfsports als integrierte Marketing- und Vertriebs-Plattform. In: Braun et al. (2006): Marketing- und Vertriebspower durch Sponsoring. Springer, Berlin, 2006, S. 282-283.

Follow up: SM09-winners successful in Argentina

Two of the four Birmingham Girls played well in South America. Read on!

You know what's John doing (1)

The idea came up that we could start a series of updates on individuals that have been involved in the Students Matchplay tournament, be it golfers or staff. Alex joined the Orgateam in 2007 and co-hosted the finals in 2008. He then started his printing-company http://www.myprinting.de/, took a year of from university, constantly turned attractive job offers down, and wrote his final exams in spring 2009. Rumour has it that his business idea was a direct consequence of his disappointment of various online poster and photo-services he had worked with during the preparation of the SM07 and SM08. Good for us! Whenever we need posters printed, we turn to him and get the best quality for an amazing prize (which is for free but we are not supposed to talk aboout it). You'll see his posters usually on tee 1, were we merit the past winners.

Nice problem to have...

In close to five years of organizing the Students Matchplay tournaments we learned that there are three distinct groups of golf teams. Group 1-teams are the early-enterers. They commit to the tournament already a couple of month ahead of the date, sometimes as early as the winter (!!) before, and pay the earliest. Group 2-teams enter early without naming specific players, often due to scheduled team trials, and pay at or after the deadline. Group 3-teams enter early, confirm their entry at each occasion, dont pay and dont show up and produce all sorts of costs (e.g. empty hotel rooms, not needed rental car...).

Apparently there are also Group 4 and 5-teams. Group 4-teams are late-enterers. Group 5-teams are silent, they reduce the entry-process to only the wire transfer. With the Arden Qualifier being filled by Group 1 and 2-teams, many requests by Group 4-teams and two Group 5-surprise payments we are now trying to get extra tee-times and rooms. And extra budget, since the entry fee doesn't cover the costs per person. If you have any idea, let us know.

Brief update (1)

Steve (Warwick/SMUK) is happy. His tournament is filled, inaugural meeting with his SMUK-orgateam went well, so everything is set and ready to roll. Val (Ingolstadt/SM) is not happy. Had to cancel two meetings regarding sponsorship and official unisport accreditation, so no dearly needed positive results on these sides. The IT-guy is in the worst of all moods. Stumbled over his feet, broke the server, apparently also one of his toes and spilled his tea on it (the server). So the launch of the SMAT-Website needs to be delayed. Which is not that great. Even more important: Please. Please. PLEASE. Let's not have to do all these brochures all over again.

FAQ: Only three players from my university - can we play?

Yes! Bring a fourth player along. If you don't, you'll be asigned a fourth player. He/she plays uncompetitively in your team, it's just to keep the amount of players an even number. So your stroke play team score that you need for the match play finals is calculated by aggregating the single gross scores of the original three players. The match play match of your fourth player is automatically lost.

"Operation Baguette" - let's find some French golf teams!

Last year the Championnat de Golf Universitiare de France and the Students Matchplay unfortunatelly fell on the same date. This year however the French tournament is one week later, on around the 30th of June! With this in mind we contacted a couple of French university golfers in the past days. The feedback is quite promising. Would be great if they'd make it to Ingolstadt, wouldn't it?

February 6, 2010 -GolfbloggerUK

How about that! The GolfbloggerUK has published a post about our tournament. 150.000 unique visitors and 600.000 hits from 138 countries (per month stats) will certainly bring attention to our tournament!

Great-tournament-weekend

The US Open are scheduled on 14-20 June 2010;
The British Amateur Championships: 14-19 June 2010;
The FIFA Soccer World Cup: Germany's set on the 18 June 2010;

and - of course

The Students Matchplay:  18-19 June 2010.

First thought: we picked the single best great-tournament-weekend, which is awesome. Second though: we picked the single best great-tournament-weekend, that's why we need ahelluva load of plasmas.

The SMUK/Arden Qualifier field

That was a bit faster than we thought. The field is filled. The 16 teams are:

Warwick, Birmingham, Lougborough, Cardiff, Buckinghamshire New, Leeds, Essex, Liverpool, Newport, Oxford, Cambridge, Central Lancs, Manchester, Hull Durham, Kingston Surrey, Brunel.

Exeter, a two time champion (2007, 2008), haven't entered their team.

Edit 02/18/10: Infact we got the entry form and money of Durham first so they are playing instead. Apologies for the mistake. Communication across borders sometimes takes it toll...

Sources for your team funding (III)

Our goal is to make your costs irrelevant for your decision to play at the Students Matchplay tournaments. So, in case there aren't any on-campus or off-campus sources, we can help.

This year we will start the "Bring your own Sponsor"-program, to give you a better chance to find your own sponsorship. We can also help by reducing tournament fees, covering air fares, and waiting for payment, like we've done in the past. Keep in mind though, that we don't have much ourselves, and if the money doesn't come right out of our own pockets, it's taken from the tournament budget. In this case we will need to cut costs/program elsewhere. Which is absolutely fine if it makes the field more competitive. 

Arden Qualifier 75% filled

Five more teams in 10 days, and 4 entries pending. The SMUK/Arden Qualifier, which is hosted on March 29-30, should be filled by the middle of next week. Teams are encouraged to send in their entry forms asap, should they want to play and eventually qualify for the big event on the Wittelsbacher down in Munich/Germany.

Confirmed entries are so far:  Warwick, Central Lancashire, Leeds, Liverpool, Newport, Buckinghamshire New, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham Men, Kingston Surrey, Hull and Oxford.

EDIT: "Lufbra" have now entered too. Thats the biggest sports university in the UK now on board!