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Golf Club Manager

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Fore!

Next time you're teeing up at your favorite golf course, take a moment to think about the whole operation -- the employees, the food, the budgeting, the promotions and the advertising. It's up to the general manager to make sure all of it runs smoothly.

Ted Parker manages a golf course in Denver. He began his career by majoring in recreation at college. After graduating, he did an internship as a recreation director.

"They built a golf course at the same location where I was working. I started working with the golf course."

Parker enjoys the freedom and the ability to work outside much of the time. He also likes the interaction and communication with other people. The only stress comes from time management. There are many demands on his time.

Parker's day begins with administrative work. "I do the budgets and cash receipts. When you work for a city, you have reporting work to take care of every day. People think it's a glamorous job where you get to play golf all the time. But I may go three to five days without touching a golf club.

"This is a seven-day-a-week job. You don't get a lot of days off. Golf courses are open from sunup to sundown." In the off season, Parker has to buy merchandise, train staff, travel to conferences and bring in new systems. "It can be a tough deal. It puts strain on families -- on marriages sometimes."

Carolyn Slade isn't a professional golfer, but she sure loves running a club. "I started out as an engineer. I developed recreational components, trails and leisure ponds. I was working for the municipality and...they seconded me to manage the facility for them because of the skills that I had exhibited.

"I've taken some golf management training courses now, but I didn't have that background when I started. The one area I wasn't familiar with was food and beverage management. I had to gain skills in that area in particular.

"People view this as a recreation, but it's really a business. You need to be a strong financial manager, have a lot of leadership skills and people skills.

"It's a very exciting and rewarding job," says Slade. "You have an opportunity to impact other people's lives by providing service to them. It helps shape the young people of today. It helps ensure that people have entertainment, peace, have some place to go where they feel comfortable to do something they enjoy. We work very hard at reminding ourselves that we're providing a service that people really need.

"As a general manager, you have people you can draw on. You have a food and beverage manager, a golf professional, a comptroller, a golf superintendent. You bring them all together to make the project work."

A typical day for Slade? "It depends on what day it is! I spend a large part of my day meeting with the staff, viewing what had happened, talking to customers, reviewing the financial component of the organization. The most important thing is making sure that the people that you're working with are there and understand that you care for them, and that without them things wouldn't be working well.

"When you manage people, you have to ensure that these people understand the expectation that you have of them. Some take longer than others to come to this realization, and that can be stressful. It's also stressful at times when you have to be tough and make customers understand that there are rules and regulations regarding the use of the facility, and that these regulations have to be observed."

Slade stresses that club management isn't an entry-level position. "You could work your way into it. You must also know that there isn't a lot of glory here. Your name will not be in lights. But there is certainly opportunity and it's very rewarding."

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