Golf outing side games: mulligans, skins, and the add-ons that raise the most money

With the game's best chasing the Claret Jug this week, side action is on every golfer's mind — and that instinct is exactly what a smart fundraiser should tap into. The registration fee gets people in the door. The golf outing side games are where a charity event quietly doubles its take, one $20 mulligan packet at a time. Done well, they add real money without adding real work, and players happily pay because the extras make the round more fun.

The short version: side games are optional, low-friction ways to spend money on the course beyond the entry fee. Price them cheap, sell them everywhere, and make paying effortless. Here are the ones that consistently move the needle.

The core golf outing side games worth running

You do not need a dozen. Four or five well-run games out-earn a cluttered menu every time.

• Mulligans. The single highest-margin add-on in golf. Sell a packet of two or three do-overs for a flat price — $20 is the standard. There is no cost to you, and nearly every player buys at least one packet. This alone can rival a mid-tier sponsorship.
• Skins. Groups or teams buy into a pot; the best score on each hole wins that hole's share. Take a fixed buy-in per team, keep a percentage for the cause, and pay out the rest. It rewards good play and keeps competitive golfers engaged to the last hole.
• Closest to the pin / longest drive. Designate a par-3 and a wide par-5. Players pay a small entry to be eligible, a marker sits by the hole, and the winner takes a prize (or the honor). Cheap to run, easy to sell at registration.
• Putting contest. Set up a practice-green challenge before or after the round. A few dollars a putt, a chance at a headline prize. It fills the pre-shotgun downtime that otherwise goes to waste.
• Hole-in-one prize. The showpiece. A sponsor or an insurance policy covers a big-ticket reward — a car, a cash prize, a trip — on a specific par-3. You are not on the hook for the payout; the insurer is. It gives the day a genuine "what if" thrill and a great sponsor tie-in.

How to price side games so people actually buy

The mistake most organizers make is pricing side games like real gambling. They are not. They are impulse buys wrapped in a good cause.

Keep every individual price low enough that saying yes takes no thought — $20 mulligan packets, $10 to enter closest-to-the-pin, $5 a putt. The magic is in the aggregate. A field of 100 players buying one mulligan packet each is $2,000 you did not have to chase a sponsor for. Bundle the extras into a single "fun pack" at registration and the attach rate climbs even higher, because it is one decision instead of five.

One rule: never let side games slow down play. If collecting money creates a bottleneck at the first tee, you have traded pace for pennies. That trade is never worth it during a shotgun start, when every group launches at once.

Collecting the money without the clipboard chaos

This is where side games either shine or fall apart. Cash in a shoebox means someone reconciling crumpled bills at 6 p.m., unsold packets nobody tracked, and no idea which game actually earned. If you have ever run a scramble this way, you know the feeling — and our charity scramble guide covers the broader event flow that surrounds these add-ons.

The better path is to sell side games the same way you sell registration: online, up front, with a clear receipt. Let players buy mulligans and contest entries when they sign up, add a QR code at the registration table for day-of impulse buys, and let the system tally who bought what. You walk away knowing your side-game revenue to the dollar, and your volunteers spend the morning greeting players instead of making change.

Turn side games into repeatable revenue

The events that grow year over year treat side games as a line item they plan, not an afterthought they improvise. Pick your four or five, set the prices, assign the holes, and print the signage a week out. Then look at the numbers afterward: which games sold, which flopped, what the attach rate was. That is how a $2,000 mulligan year becomes a $3,500 one.

Greenside Golf lets organizers sell mulligans, skins buy-ins, and contest entries right inside online registration, then reports exactly what each add-on brought in — so the fun stuff on the course turns into clean, countable dollars for the cause. The side games stay a highlight of the day; the accounting takes care of itself.

Run a lean menu, price it for impulse, collect it online, and measure what worked. Do that and the side games stop being loose change in a bucket and start being one of the most reliable fundraising levers you have.