Motor home golf tournament quadruples in size in just three years

A provincial golf tournament open exclusively to the highly mobile owners and occupants of motor homes and camper vans has grown in popularity by 400 percent in just three years – placing it squarely on the must do map for free-spirited golfers driving around the country.

A trio of South Canterbury golf clubs held their first New Zealand Motor Caravan Association (NZMCA) golf tournament in 2022 – attracting 24 players who turned up in their convoy of mobile dwellings. The three-day tournament is held on consecutive days at Geraldine Golf Club, Temuka Golf Club and Pleasant Point Golf Club.

The championship, called the South Island Motor Caravan Golf Tournament, doubled in size in 2023 – signing up 50 players, as well a sponsor. Now this year’s tournament, taking place this month, is set to feature some 100 golfers taking to the greens and fairways. As part of the tournament’s registration criteria, all players must be members of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association.

Geraldine Golf Club general manager and event founder/organiser, Chris Phillips, said that establishing and growing the NZMCA tournament had delivered a regular mini tourism-boom for not only the three participating golf clubs, but also the wider South Canterbury region.

“The motorhome tournament slots in perfectly with the clubs’ regular weekly event calendars and therefore creates minimal disruption to memberships,’’ Phillips said.

``However, having some 100 guests at the clubs on a day when they would expect to welcome in maybe 30 or 40 players has a positive impact on not only the green fees' budget, but also bar and kitchen revenues.

Caption: A motor home golfer practices his putting.

“We’ve found previously that motor home owners, when staying overnight in an urban location, tend to pack up and be on their way relatively early too – so again, most members wouldn’t even know they had been on the course the day before.”

Throughout the tournament, motor home owners base their vehicle at the Geraldine Golf Club, and then are transported by coach daily to the two other courses, before playing the final day’s 18-holes at Geraldine.

Entry into the competition is $195 – with each of the clubs receiving a budget of $20 per player for food, while also retaining any bar takings. The three clubs do not charge green fees for players in the tournament.

The event’s growing popularity has seen Geraldine Golf Club negotiate with an adjoining farmland owner to utilise spare paddocks as over-flow parking for the flotilla of self-contained residential vehicles during their stay in the locale.

Golf New Zealand district golf development office Tom Wilson applauded the clubs’ revenue-generating initiative, and said the concept could easily be replicated throughout New Zealand.

Said Wilson: “I can certainly see the concept working in many of New Zealand’s provinces with say three clubs collaboratively joining together to have motorhome and campervan players rotating from course to course over a relatively short travelling distance.''

The Geraldine/Temuka/Pleasant Point golf tournament comes as the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association is communicating with golf clubs throughout New Zealand asking if they would like to offer overnight parking to members as a way of generating additional revenue.

Operating since 1991 under the marketing moniker of Park over Property (POP), the NZMCA’s free-to-join accommodation programme showcases some 2200 locations nationwide where members can park up and, pertinently for golf clubs, visit club rooms for a meal or beverage, and of course hit their fairways for a round of golf.

Geraldine Golf Club has been part of the POP scheme for several years now, and manager Chris Phillips said the initiative generated $1000 of income last year - charging NZMCA members $10 a night for the duration of their stay in the club’s car park. That charge is waived if motorhome members pay green fees for a round at the club. The NZMCA has more than 117,000 members driving some 54,000 vehicles all over New Zealand.

New Zealand Motor Caravan Association club manager Gillian Rutherford said golf clubs could individually structure service charges within the POP scheme – such as offering discounts for green fees, or offsetting overnight stay rates into either green fees or food and beverage spend.