Unlike most leagues we here at Hittin Links believe players should get a behind the scenes glance at what it takes to operate this league all year long both financially, physically and mentally.  We strive to give our members the best experience possible while also keeping the cost as low as possible to keep our events open and available to all. Even more than the events, when joining this league players become part of a MASSIVE community of involved members that love the game and you build your friend circle 10 fold! So when players join, not only do you gain access to high organized, fun and competitive tournaments, but you also get access to the best network of individuals like you that love many of the same things and being a part of such an awesome community is priceless.

For background, while Hittin Links operates with a board as is standard for USGA and NCGA Associate Leagues, the board members are really only used for brief discussions and voting on changes to the Tour functions or tournament operations. All of our Board members including Tour President Jeremy work regular 9-5 jobs, have families, friends and hobbies like all of our members.  But please note that 95% of the operations are performed and handled by President and Commissioner Jeremy Howard.  His deep love of the game, commitment to growing an amazing community and giving our members the golf experience of a lifetime keep Jeremy fueled to continue building and growing the Hittin Links brand!

Hittin Links operates as a Non Profit to lessen the tax blow of the large business operations taxes at the end of the year, but all other constant annual operational costs are just the same as any other business. As per Non profit law, we do build in a small fee (Commissioner Fee) into membership and tournament fees to ensure that Jeremy is at least partly compensated for the amount of work it takes to run this league all year long to ensure at least his golf and gas are covered.

OPERATIONAL BREAKDOWN:

• On average Jeremy spends about 20 hours a week working on all things Hittin Links in addition to 45-50 hours on his 9-5 job.  Tasks include:
  • Daily/Weekly Website Maintenance (Hittin Links website is custom built from the ground up)
  • Daily Social Media Maintenance (Instagram, Tiktok and Youtube)
  • Daily Discord maintenance
  • Daily/weekly preparations for future events
  • Daily/Weekly planning of events and future of the Tour
  • Daily/Weekly email updates and correspondence with members
  • Weekly “HR” with members due to tons of different personalities and complaints
  • Daily “IT” to help members with issues processing on website and event registrations
  • Daily review of Unknown Golf registrations and event setups
  • Daily review of Hittin Links Tour credits event registrations and transfers to Unknown
  • Weekly New member review and correspondence
  • Weekly planning of Travel events
  • And much much more
• In addition it takes about 6 hours of dedicated pre tournament prep on tournament weekends
  • Finalizing Unknown Event page to ensure tournament is setup properly.
  • Building/Designing and Printing out all scorecards and Tournament graphics for display
  • Prize fund completion and check creation
  • Trophy organizing and prepping for ceremony
  • Loading and storing all equipment for event
  • Last minute questions/concerns for members
• It also takes about 12-14 hours working on Tournament days on course.
  • 4 hours of prep before tournament starts to set everything up
  • 5 hours of playing in event
  • 4 hours of post tournament organization and ceremony coordination

COST BREAKDOWN:

• Tour Membership fees:
  • 40% – NCGA handicap for season
  • 15% – Tour Membership Package new members
  • 10% – Unknown Golf Live Scoring and Management for all events
  • 10% – Website / Social Media / Unknown Management operational costs
  • 10% – Dedicated fee to hold and payout for End of Season Champions
  • 5% – Tour Management operational costs like equipment upgrades and replacements
  • 5% – Stripe processing fees
  • 5% – Commissioner Fee for member maintanance
• Tournament Fees:
  • 70-80% – Costs paid to golf course for green fees, cart, range balls and Unknown Golf processing and tournament fees
  • 20-30% – Prize fund for event with dedicated funds used to pay for all trophies or awards, prizes (not provided by sponsors) and cover Tour credits won for each contest.
  • 5-10% – Commissioner fee varying based amount of work required by size of tournament and covers the cost of the Commissioners Golf registration fee and Gas/vehicle costs.
  • 3-5% – Dedicated fee to hold and payout for End of Season Champions and Hole in One Insurance payout
  • 5% – Stripe processing fees
• Travel Event Fees:
  • To keep costs as affordable as possible we charge players the exact cost of green fees for each event.
  • The $69 event deposit covers the following:
    • 80% – prize fund to pay out on contests of the event
    • 15% – Commisioner Fee to cover a fraction of the costs of planning large travel events
    • 5% – Stripe processing fees

For those that have ever tried to put together a golf event with your friends you know how much effort that took to make that happen.  Now take that effort and multiply 100x and you got the operational effort to make Hittin Links operate at such a high level on a day to day basis.  So please be patient with us while we keep this train rolling and please understand this league was not built or run for a profit, it is purely built and run for the love of the game and our amazing Hittin Links community.

Should you have any questions or concerns with the above structure please don’t hesitate to reach out to management at jhoward@hittinlinks.com