By Peter Owen HE would never describe himself as a gambling man, but there’s something about Melbourne Cup week that has had a defining effect on the career of Headland Golf Club general manager Matt Lang. A Victorian, Lang fell in love with Queensland’s Sunshine Coast while holidaying every year at Mooloolaba with his family […]
By Michael Davis NEW Flinders general manager John McKay was on the first tee at the picturesque Mornington Peninsula club weeks before he officially started in the role. It was the club championship and he spent six hours making sure he met everyone personally. So before he even started work, the members knew him and […]
A SEDATE walk around the headland that rings the entire 18 holes will only make you agree with the late, great Australian golfer Peter Thomson, a five-time winner of the British Open. Thomson once described Long Reef as the best site of any golf course in Sydney. You don’t need to convince Ben Russell, the […]
THE pandemic certainly changed the golfing environment in New South Wales. And while it has confined most golfers in Sydney to playing in their own local government area, it actually has had some benefits, of a different kind, for some clubs. Take Bayview Golf Club on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, for instance, and their general manager […]
By Michael Davis BONAVENTURE Tai has taken a circuitous route to the manager’s position at the Chalambar Golf and Bowls Club in Ararat about 200 kilometres west of Melbourne. Born in the Cook Islands, he worked in accommodation and hospitality before moving to New Zealand in the 1990s where he worked in beverage and hospitality […]
A Scotsman with an accent as broad as the 45 holes he overlooks at Victoria’s 13th Beach Golf Links, general manager Craig Skimming exhorts the belief of fitness. “I like to keep fit so I do some mountain biking, beach walks and I have done a couple of half marathons,” said Skimming, who has been […]
ASHGROVE Golf Club, just nine kilometres from Brisbane’s CBD, lives up to its reputation as being a friendly club, and general manager Michael Ronan ensures that the members and guests enjoy service with a smile. Ronan, a golf fanatic and a very good player, has been at the helm at Ashgrove GC for seven years. […]
CEO of Sandhurst Club Tim Gledhill runs one of Melbourne’s largest and most successful clubs. While Sandhurst Club cannot be compared with the majority of clubs, the sheer scale of its facility dwarfs most others. It boasts two championship 18-hole layouts, members’ bar, café with an outdoor piazza, restaurant, function centre, health club including a […]
HE’S a direct descendant of Vice-Admiral William Bligh, is fluent in German and is the boss of Queensland’s oldest golf club. Four years ago, Mitch Bligh took on the role of general manager at Townsville Golf Club and is justifiably proud of his work and the club’s progress after it was smashed by floods a […]
ALLAN Harris has been at the helm at Noosa Golf Club for 12 years and, although his pathway to the top job was “unusual”, hard work and common sense has paid dividends. Harris’s working life began in the timber industry at Mount Gambier in South Australia and later Victoria and Queensland where he held a […]
How are golf club members responding to membership renewals during this chaotic Covid-19 situation? How are you responding? Here’s a very insightful opinion piece from Ian Cottle, GM of Burleigh Golf Club on this very topic: The last six to eight weeks has seen incredible change both here in Australia, and around the globe, with […]
IT was inevitable Mark Brady, the general manager at Noosa Springs Golf and Spa Resort, would end up with a career in sport. A sports fanatic from a young age, Brady first worked in the banking industry (10 years) followed by a role as a sales administrator that lasted five years. He then set […]
Here is a recap of the latest news from Golf Management Australia ‘One GMA’ progress Over the past 12 months, GMA has undertaken a project to develop a more ‘unified’ approach to GMA-related activities across the country,with the project progressing well to date. The project has involved consultation with each state executive over the past […]
QUALIFIED accountant Johnathon Zirkler, who did his PGA traineeship at Toowoomba Golf Club at Middle Ridge on Queensland’s Darling Downs, has returned to his old stomping ground as general manager. Inside Golf caught up with Zirkler to find out about his transition into golf club management. What has been your career path to managing Toowoomba […]
Devilbend Golf Club on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula lives on thanks to the local council who granted the club a new 21-year lease that will take them through to 2039. And in further good news the club’s former general manager Tim O’Sullivan has returned to take charge. O’Sullivan was general manager at Devilbend GC from 2004-2010 […]
NON-GOLFER Wendy Carey never thought she would carry the title “general manager” when she started a part-time job at Beerwah Golf Club on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. “I had never been involved in golf when I started working here and I certainly had no idea it would lead to the manager’s job,” she said. After […]
IT’S been a year since Josh Madden joined Toowoomba Golf Club as general manager and in that time he has worked diligently to create, build and complement a great team that is working together and is on the same page when it comes to the golf club’s direction. “When I arrived here, one of the […]
WANTIMA Country Club in Brisbane’s northern suburbs lives up to its reputation as being a family-friendly club and general manager Andy Lowen ensures his members and guests enjoy service with a smile. Wantima also happens to be PGA Tour player Cameron Smith’s home club. As a three-year-old, Smith starting honing his skills around Wantima where […]
AFTER 12 months at the helm, Tracey-Lea Tiley has settled beautifully in the general manager’s role at Links Hole Island Golf Club on the Gold Coast. As the leader of a multi-million dollar business, she revels in her work and happily puts in 11-hour days to ensure the club runs smoothly. “This is my second […]
WHEN Marcus Sullivan started as a golf shop assistant at Arundel Hills Country Club 20 years ago, not even he could imagine he would return one day as the club’s general manager. It’s been almost a year since Sullivan parked himself behind the GM’s desk and in that time he has overseen a number of […]
Wendy Perry has a lot on her plate as general manager of Byron Bay Golf Club, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Ms Perry, who has been at the helm at Byron Bay Golf Club for two years following a four-year stint as administration manager, has the club industry running through her veins. […]
CALOUNDRA Golf Club has been one of the Queensland Sunshine Coast’s golfing institutions since 1951 and remains a traditional club with a healthy membership. The club’s general manager Jason Looker has been at Caloundra for a decade and, along with a strong management committee and staff, keeps the operation running like a well-oiled machine. Looker […]
ELEVEN Golf Management Australia (GMA) general managers attended the Club Managers’ Association of America’s 89th World Conference on Club Management and Club Business Expo in San Diego, California and returned home inspired and loaded with new ideas. The were: Aaron Muirhead (Nudgee Golf Club), Scott Wagstaff (Carbrook Golf Club), Barnaby Sumner (Oatlands Golf Club), Michael […]
MAROOCHY RIVER Golf Club general manager Charlie McGill still remembers having less than $50 in his pocket when he arrived from his native Scotland to start a new life in Australia. That was 33 years ago. Of course, today he has a few more bob in his pocket along with the Golf Management Australia (Qld) […]
BALLINA Golf and Sports Club general manager Mark Whiting was halfway through an interview with Inside Golf when he excused himself to answer a telephone ringing in the background. Soon he returned to apologise for his short absence. “The office manager had to take her dog to the vet so while I’m talking to you […]
BRETT Holland, the general manager at Coolangatta & Tweed Heads Golf Club, is not one to allow the grass to grow under his feet. More than a decade ago, as GM at Murwillumbah Golf Club, he recognised the golf industry was in decline and implemented major changes at the northern New South Wales club. Today […]
IN the mid-1980s, Mark Holland quit professional tennis to start a career that has led to managing some of the best golf clubs and resorts around the world. For the past 30 years, he has plied his management skills in the Middle East (Abu Dhabi and Kuwait), Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, Macau, Fiji and Australia where […]
HEADLAND Golf Club general manager Ben Dobson has returned from his fact-finding mission to Melbourne’s Kingston Heath Golf Club armed with a plethora of good ideas. Dobson, who has been at the helm at Headland for seven years, spent three valuable days at Kingston Heath shadowing general manager Gregg Chapple. There, he was able to […]
IAN Cottle, general manager of Burleigh Golf Club on the Gold Coast, doesn’t believe it takes too long to play a round of golf. “I enjoy the four-or-so hours it takes to play a round,” he said. “Sometimes when playing nine holes you can feel like you are just getting warmed up.” Inside Golf caught […]
DAVID Scott is a shining example of the emerging new age of PGA golf club professionals in the Australian golf industry. Scott, the Deputy General Manager of Riverside Oaks – one of Australia’s biggest and leading golf resort-residential-playing complexes—is a graduate of the PGA’s International Golf Institute and the follow-on PGA club Traineeship. In less […]
HE’S held a number of interesting jobs in his working life, but Magenta Shores Golf and Country Club general manager Roger Morris reckons his current position is right up there with the rest of them. Morris started his career working in international hotels before landing key positions at The Australian Golf Club and Castle Hill Country […]
Just four months into the top job at The Heritage Golf and Country Club, General Manager Wayne Sutherland has vowed to give the club’s members the best value golf and lifestyle offering since the venue’s inception in 1999. The Heritage was sold again recently for a reported price tag just shy of $18 million and […]
WHEN Melissa Ellis took on the general manager’s role at Castle Hill Country Club two years ago, a few bold members gave her the moniker “non-golfing sheila” but it didn’t take long for the sobriquet to wear off. “I came from a non-golfing background so when I first started here that’s what they called me, […]
AS a nightclub bouncer, prison officer and pub manager, Aaron Muirhead knew a thing or two about keeping people in check. But having spent close to a decade in irksome jobs he decided to change careers and now works as the general manager at Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane. The prison system and the pub […]
COULD more dialogue between the game’s governing bodies and public golf course operators be a solution to growing the game? It’s a view put forward by Matt Day. The general manager of Perth’s Wembley Golf Course says the attitude towards public golf courses needs addressing and sees an opportunity for Golf Australia and the PGA […]
BEING a golf club manager and a rules expert can be equally challenging, says Scott Wagstaff. Scott is the general manager at Carbrook Golf Club in Brisbane’s southeast and each year acts as a rules official at the Australian Open so he should know. The 37-year-old, known as the Shark Whisperer by some of his […]
CAIRNS Golf Club’s past president Paul Chirio says the Tropical North Queensland club is in safe hands following the appointment of Nerida Wilson as the club’s first woman president in its 90-year history. “The club has had its financial challenges in recent years, but with Nerida at the helm, and with a new board, we […]
ANGLESEA Golf Club general manager Rachel Kane lives in the heart of Geelong footy territory and many of the club’s members are Cats fans, but that hasn’t stopped her splashing Hawthorn memorabilia around her office following the Hawks grand final victory. “You should see my office window, it has flags, posters and scarves in it,” […]
