You’re not alone if you’ve ever been running late to a corporate or charity golf tournament and arrived at the check-in only to discover that your shirt size is no longer available.
Bummer.
Ultimately, you’re either stuck settling for a size you’ll never wear or forced to go without a nice piece of swag your entry fee helped fund.
Worse yet, with some apparel brands costing well over $100 for a polo shirt, all of those extra, unwanted sizes really add to the cost of the event for organizers at tens of thousands of golf tournaments across the country.
Now, a Texas-based web-based solution company founded in January 2023 has streamlined the process for golf tournament organizers.
Frocket allows tournament clients to easily collect apparel sizes — including men’s, men’s tall and women’s — from an unlimited number of entrants with an app. With Frocket, users can also create and send customized emails to their guests, track responses, and quickly generate a master spreadsheet of all the shirt sizes needed.
To date, Frocket managing director Robert Weinberg says the company has already managed the shirt distribution for more than 1,000 clients in just 15 months of business.
“As far as scale goes, we’ve done everything from a 20-person event to a 20,000-plus companywide function to where they needed to hand out shirts to all its employees,” Weinberg says.
“And again, if a golfer shows up at the check-in table who is your biggest client or your charity’s biggest benefactor, you really want them to have a shirt bearing your company logo. You don’t want to say ‘Gee, I know you’re a large, but is an X-large OK?” Remember, polyester doesn’t really shrink.”
In the past, golf course tournament organizers figured out sizes in two ways. They either guessed using some sort of scale with 10% being smalls, 15% being mediums and so forth, or they might ask a few people in the office for input and roll on.
“The challenge with that is there’s no rhyme or reason to it. And I can tell you that 99.9% of the time they’re never going to get it right.”
Frocket’s app will even inform golfers if a certain brand of polo fits big or small in order for golfers to make the proper selection.
Weinberg, who has 25 years of experience in the promotional products industry, expected business to be robust from the start. Frocket charges just 20 cents or less per guest, with no subscription fee.
“We expected it to go like gangbusters because we’ve priced it where it’s stupid not to use it,” he says. “Let’s just say we’re talking about a hypothetical 72-person golf event and the organizers are handing out $100 shirts, why take a chance of getting a shirt and a size that people aren’t going to need and spending that extra money when for basically $14 you can get precisely the sizes that people need?”
ODDS AND ENDS
A new study is out on the best states for golfers and Florida tops the list. The study, carried out by luggage shipping company My Baggage, analyzed the distribution of golf courses, driving ranges, tournaments and golf coaches per 100,000 residents in every state, alongside the number of platinum clubs. Based on this data, My Baggage assigned a score to each location and ranked them accordingly. With 1,131 golf courses, the most in any state, Florida also has the highest number of available PGA coaches, standing at 329 instructors. Florida also boasts the most Platinum Clubs in America, with 12 listed in the 2023-2024 ranking — double that of California. This list includes renowned places like Seminole, Old Marsh and Adios golf clubs. The rest of the top five includes Colorado, Arizona, South Carolina and, surprisingly, Wyoming. Louisiana placed last in the study. … Anchored by Memorial Day weekend, PGA of America golf professionals nationwide and Folds of Honor — an organization that provides academic scholarships to families of fallen or disabled military service members and first responders — will again celebrate Patriot Golf Days. Already, more than 200,000 golfers have played rounds in 2024 in support of Patriot Golf Days. Over the last 17 years, Patriot Golf Days has grown to encompass a variety of fundraising efforts that involve PGA of America pros and golfers in all 50 states and 41 PGA of America sections. These include rounding up green fees, donations at the counter, hosting golf tournaments or participating in Hero100 Golf Marathons. The Memorial Day weekend events have raised more than $84 million and funded more than 16,800 scholarships to help the families of veterans and first responders.To donate or register for Patriot Golf Days, visit PatriotGolfDays.com.