Golf tourney grows savvy about business recruitment

Now in its ninth consecutive year, the Reno Tahoe Open is one of the main sporting events in northern Nevada. As the tournament has matured local sponsors have become savvier about using the PGA Tour event as a business tool.

Sierra Pacific Power Company is a foundation sponsor. Charlene Booth, major account executive, says the tournament provides Sierra Pacific with an excellent venue from which to extend invitations to its major commercial customers and community leaders.

"It is a great avenue, and I hope all business get involved," she says. "It is a win-win for everyone. It helps enhance relationships, and it gives back to the community." Booth says the Reno Tahoe Open Foundation has donated more than $1.5 million to local charities.

Tournament director Jim Kline says invite lists the first few years seemed to be put together haphazardly, and corporate suites often were full but not packed. "At first they weren't really sure how to use them (their invitations)," he says.

Sponsors have since learned to use the tournament to their advantage. One lucrative business incentive is an invitation to Wednesday's Pro-Am, where three amateurs are matched for an 18-hole round with a PGA professional. Ty Vukelich, vice president of corporate marketing for Reno-based Employers Holdings Inc., finds sales and marketing opportunities are built into each day of the tournament. "Our business relationships are based on shared experience, familiarity and trust," he says.

David Funk, president of Nevada Security Bank, also uses the bank's sponsor suite to woo current and potential customers. "It is a great way to market your company, and it has been very successful for us," he says.

Invites to the tournament also are extended to hard-working employees and loyal vendors, as well as awarded in company raffles. Keenan Roan is an underwriter in Newbury Park, Calif. Roan and seven others will be attending the RTO as prizewinners of a raffle put on by Employers. "I'm bringing my family along, too," Roan says.

Oftentimes the person extending the invitation will caddy for the player, Kline says.

"It is a week where you can cement relationships with existing customers. The Pro-Am is a sport where you and the customer can do what the players are doing. You can't go on the field and play baseball with Barry Bonds, but you can play with PGA professionals. Golf in general has always been good to business. It's not often you get to spend five hours of uninterrupted time with a client, and doing it in the company of a PGA pro just adds to it."

Course host Montreaux is using the tournament to showcase its neighborhoods, two semi-custom homes and two spec homes during the Montreaux Home Tour.