Golfing at Michigan City Municipal Golf Course on any given weekend is a great way to enjoy a timeless sport in the great outdoors, but if the typical golfing experience was not enough on its own to lure people onto the course, the 91st Annual Golf Tournament certainly was. This year’s tournament took place over the July 24-25 and July 31-August 1 weekends, and the four-day event boasted a record-breaking high in attendance with 125 golfers partaking in the tournament.
“A couple years ago, the tournament was down to around only 50 golfers. I loved playing in the tournament, so I kind of volunteered to get a committee together to talk about ideas of how to make the tournament better,” said Marty Nieman, tournament director of the event. “The club pro, Chris Magnuson, said he thought that would be a good idea, so we all worked together in the past couple of years to raise it up to 125 golfers.”
Once Nieman began volunteering to help organize this event, the attendance grew from 50 his first-year golfing at the tournament to 100 the following year and 125 this year. One key advantage that boosted the number of golfers at this event for the past two years was the lowering of participation costs through the support of Horizon Bank.
“Horizon Bank became our corporate sponsor last year, which has been a big help because we’ve been allowed to actually really reduce the rates of golf for four rounds. A player can for four days over two weekends only pay $100 for four rounds of golf,” Nieman said.
According to Nieman, Horizon Bank’s sponsorship of the event reaped benefits beyond the event itself. It also helped bring people to the golf course year-round and further demonstrate Horizon Bank’s commitment to the community.
“It says that they really care about their community to reach out and help the Michigan City Municipal Golf Course,” he said. “It makes it a more popular course for people to come and play even beyond the tournament, so I think it’s very generous of them to help with increasing the golf course’s popularity.”
With Horizon Bank’s sponsorship of the fun-packed tournament as well as GreatNews.Life’s advertisement and coverage of the event, Nieman has been happy to see the numbers grow over the years.
“I talked to a handful of golfers from Portage and Valparaiso that didn’t realize the tournament was going until GreatNews.Life publicized it. That’s how they found out, and they came and joined in. That really helped increase our numbers,” Nieman said.
During the first weekend, Nieman said what really entices people to participate is if you sign up, you can pick your own course and the people you want to golf with. Playing golf with friends is a fun, pressure-free way to kick off the tournament before diving into the more serious competition in which the tournament leaders determine a champion.
At the competition, participants not only have the opportunity to enjoy playing on beautiful courses with friends, but they also have a chance to win prizes and prize money on top. Nieman is excited to continue finding ways to bolster this annual tournament next year.
“I’m looking forward to next year because we have more ideas about how to make this even more popular,” he said. “Horizon Bank and GreatNews.Life have really been helpful in making this all work out.”
To learn more about how Horizon Bank supports its communities, visit https://www.horizonbank.com/