Prize Indemnity Insurance - Hole-in-one Insurance

Hole-in-one Insurance

One of the earliest and most common forms of prize indemnity insurance is hole-in-one insurance, which began to gain prominence during the early 1980s. Hole-in-one insurance, often purchased by a golf tournament host or sponsor, reimburses tournament organizers for the cost of awarding a hole-in-one prize in the event a tournament participant successfully hits a hole-in-one during the tournament. According to the newspaper USA Today, the odds of an amateur golfer hitting a hole in one are about 1 in 12,500. These low odds allow golf tournaments to offer expensive prizes to golfers able to hit a hole-in-one during tournament play. In order to be able to afford such expensive prizes, tournament hosts can purchase prize indemnity coverage to protect themselves from having to pay for the prize from their own funds.

Typically, these hole-in-one contests operate as part of a marketing promotion. In many instances, golf tournament hosts will offer a hole-in-one prize to promote a tournament sponsor. For example, if a tournament is being sponsored by a car dealership, the tournament might offer a new car from that dealership as the prize for hitting a hole-in-one. The relationship between the tournament host and the sponsor is usually set up to provide advertising for the sponsor, prominently displaying the sponsor's name next to the prize during the tournament.

Companies that provide hole-in-one insurance may provide signs or other accessories to help the tournament host promote the hole-in-one prize. The insurance contract between the golf tournament and insurance company will detail rules such as: which holes on the course the prize will be insured on, how to verify the hole-in-one was achieved legitimately, and what to do if a contestant hits a hole-in-one on a hole other than the insured hole. Variables that affect the cost of the hole-in-one insurance include: the number of participants in the tournament, the skill of the participants (amateur vs. professional golfers), the length of the insured hole, and the value of the prize being offered.