Outside the Box: Golf Themed Party

Our office is under construction. EVERYTHING is being renovated. It was a hit-or-miss situation of whether we would even have an office party.

Dust, rugs being replaced, construction boxes, employees' office supplies and furniture in the halls. A new addition being added. Basically--a mess.

But the business partner in charge of the design and renovation knew how important the party was to the firm, so he moved MOUNTAINS to get as much "stuff" out of the way." The contractor hustled to complete the new addition.

Between the two, they cleared enough clutter out of the way for us to have the party.

So, I adapted the theme of Pebble Beach Golf Tournament. Above you see the Seventeen Mile Drive Golf Holes. Since we usually use the building lobby for the party, and we now have glass windows in our conference room that look out onto the lobby, I put my ocean side golf posters there.

Someone from upstairs, who works for another firm, came downstairs when we were setting up and said, "Hey, that's Seventeen Mile Drive. I've been there." I was so tickled.

It took me forever to build those four posters to simulate the place. I finally found an ocean clipart, after YEARS of searching, that looks REAL.

Pebble Beach has a CLASSIC CAR event every year, which my family once attended. So, I wanted to include that in the posters AND the golf holes. There were three of them

in the lobby. The cars I ordered on Amazon. They are for toddlers and are remote controlled. The staff had to shoot their golf balls under them.

I brought out my ocean rugs again. I used the big turtle and whale, both as props, and prizes. The little cars went as prizes, as well, in the "Hole in One" raffle.

Third Classic Car Hold with view to new office extension across the lobby

I also ordered a set of curved hoops from Amazon, along with all of the grass mats and golf holes. I supplemented these with my son's block set from his childhood. Since the theme was set in California, most of my silk palm trees came into use. The sides of

each hole are made from solid rubber noodles, that I also bought in bulk on Amazon.

I took one of them to Home Depot with me to fit straight and 90 degree PVC fittings for them. The greens came in 3' x 9' lengths, so they were a good length for miniature golf holes. I also made PVC poles with wooden signs on them telling you the location of the hole and the number.

Please excuse the screen shot of this photo.

Not only do you get to see this golf hole, but you get to see the new rug that had just been put down in our new office extension. I found the tiny stool at an antique barn, and I knew at the time that it would be perfect for a golf obstacle. You can also see in the picture the "teen-aged" size golf clubs, I also bought in bulk on Amazon. I had a tin can at each hole with soft-ish golf balls. I went through about eight different types of balls to get ones that weren't too soft, but not too hard I didn't want anyone to break any of the glass or dent any of the newly painted walls.

I brought out my mama bear and her three babies for this obstacle. You've seen them before at MANY of my parties. Since Yosemite is in California, I used it as the theme

for this side of the new office.

Since it was "Santa's Candy Cane California Golf Tournament" We put candy canes and white battery operated lights on all of the trees. Notice the fox in the background. I laughed when I kept thinking about the "FOX HOLE" and its play on words.

I also bought two golf hole sets. They came as puzzle pieces I bought on line. They had been designed by fourth graders. They are perfect for small areas. Above you can see my two foxes as obstacles. These holes come with small peg obstacles. You can also see the skunk hole in the back. I gave all of the holes away, along with the clubs and the cans of golf balls as prizes. BUT NOT MY ANIMALS.

In the above photo, you can see the deer and the bear. I had four of the big posters in our new office extension space's conference room. I made the centerpieces simple to go along with this Yosemite themed area. I used grass mats, along with my little trees I collect, and log cabins. I had miniature golf carts among the cabins.

So, in order to tie the construction into the renovation AND Christmas, I added Monterrey, California to the theme. I used the famous Canning Factory building as the focal point to these posters. I added a dump truck and crane to the posters, along with some green trees that looked similar to Christmas trees. These two posters, along with two more,

were back to back with the Seventeen Mile Ocean Drive Golf Posters. But, you can still see through them to catch the fun in the lobby. I placed the DJ out in the lobby, to catch people moving back and forth across it to our new office space on the other side (ie. the extension).

I rented tables and green clothes for the buffet.

Here is Santa on a construction crane. The envelopes taped to the window are part of a large group filled with either cash or a card that said PRIZE on it. Your golf card was your raffle ticket.

There were two golf holes in this conference room, along with the buffet. I used a deer, a ride on dump toy, and my large Jenga set as obstacles.

I couldn't decide on a Monterrey centerpiece. My mind went blank. The night before the party, I thought about using water, since the city was on the water. So I just covered the table with a blue vinyl cloth and my water runner and boats. Keeping with the Santa theme, he is in the middle boat with gifts, and elves are in the other two boats. I added greenery to each boat with miniature lights on each. We always lined the wall behind buffet with brown paper to protect the wall. We added construction signs to it in order to stay with the theme.

I had four posters in the main lobby of our office space of the Pebble Beach Golf course.

I digitized the club house from a photo.

Say goodbye to the red chairs. They are being replaced with blue ultra-modern ones.

If you look closely in the back, there are still racks of construction supply stacks. I just added some small construction trucks and signs here. Notice the sailor in one of them.

I usually have a game involving wheels, trikes, bikes, etc. I chose a STATIONARY bike for this year's game. The object of the game was to pick up as many golf balls from the green with the golf ball retriever stick and knock them into the box. This was done while continuing to peddle for one minute. IT WAS HARD. I used larger pool noodles to help keep the balls contained. There was a lot of effort and laughter at this challenge.

Also in this Pebble Beach area were two chipping boards. We used my husband's real golf chipping clubs. Each hole had a points value attached to it.

There was a large poster on the glass opposite this where the names and scores were listed. What people didn't know was that I just gave an extra prize raffle ticket to anyone who played. I added an extra extra raffle ticket for the top scorers.

I decided NOT to bake for the office parties anymore. So, we had the first official holiday bake off with huge cash prizes for the winners. The staff went all out with their entrees.

I set the dessert buffet up in the new conference room. Every entry had to be hand-made with a name and description.