Client Success: Birdies for the Brave

Accurate and Scalable Military Verification

Proudly supported by the PGA TOUR, Birdies for the Brave is a national military outreach initiative dedicated to honoring and showing appreciation to the courageous men and women of the United States Armed Forces and their families.

Birdies for the Brave was originally created in 2006 by PGA TOUR player, Phil Mickelson, and his wife, Amy, to support combat-wounded veterans. The PGA TOUR subsequently adopted the program, and expanded it to include a wide variety of military outreach and appreciation activities during PGA TOUR events, as well as a series of fundraising events conducted at the PGA TOUR’s Tournament Players Clubs (TPCs) and partner courses across the nation – an effort that has raised more than $15 million for non-profit military homefront groups that are supported by PGA TOUR players, which provide direct support to military members, veterans, and their families ranging from financial aid, rehabilitation services, counseling and housing to educational scholarships and career development.

Challenge:

Birdies for the Brave has offered free or discounted admission to events like the Honda Classic and THE PLAYERS Championship to service members and veterans for years. The problem was that the volunteers working the gates were assigned to check proof of service, and they weren’t always familiar with military ID’s and paperwork. Over 75,000 people volunteer to check tickets at hundreds of events each year, and training them on military ID identification wasn’t feasible. On top of that, as Marc Raiken, Public Relations and Community Outreach Coordinator, told The Register-Guard, “[We] also tried having people apply online for vouchers that they could download and use for admission. But those were getting resold.”

Solution:

SheerID created a custom portal for Birdies for the Brave where members of the military community can check to see what golf tournaments and events are coming up and receive a unique, downloadable voucher to present at the gate if they’d like to attend an event in their area. Before the downloadable voucher is presented, service members, military retirees, and veterans fill out a brief form, and SheerID instantly, accurately verifies their military status. Military attendees simply present their vouchers to the volunteers at the gate.

Benefits:

In the first few months of the partnership, more than 10,000 golf fans with military affiliations received free or discounted tickets to watch pros golf and enjoy complimentary food and drinks. Now the popularity of the Birdies for the Brave program is on the rise.

• Traffic to the Birdies for the Brave ticket portal, hosted by SheerID, increased 804% in one year.
• 81% of people who attempted to access free or discounted admission qualified for the offer.
• The number of tournaments that use SheerID for verification doubled in the past year.
• The number of vouchers distributed by SheerID quadrupled in one year.
• Traffic to the Birdies for the Brave ticket portal, which is hosted by SheerID, has increased 171% in one year.
• 33% of visitors to https://birdiesforthebrave.sheerid.com/ complete the verification process.
• In one year, military personnel received $3.7M worth of Birdies for the Brave admission vouchers.
• SheerID prevented over $400K worth of fraud in one year.

Birdies for the Brave has worked with SheerID for three years as our verification solution for our military ticketing programs. We value our relationship and appreciate what they do for us and the military community.

-Anne Davis, Director of PR & Community Outreach, PGA TOUR