Working Full Time at a Golf Course

[TheLauncher]

It would seem like any golf fanatic's dream, but is it really?

I have recently become aware of a job opening at a local club that would entail supervisory type duties (not a professional ) and anywhere from 45-60 hours a week. Salary is for the golf season and comparable to that at my current job.

My biggest reservation is that spending all that time at the club will not only cut into my golf time (no more weeknight twilight rounds) and perhaps even jeopardize my relationship with the course I love by making it my place of work, rather than a place solely of recreation. I just have a feeling that after 50 hours working at the course I will less inclined to spend another 15-20 hours playing there, as I'm accustomed to doing.

Are there any full time golf club employees that could speak to these concerns? Has your game gotten better or worse since working at a club? Has your enjoyment of the game suffered due to full time exposure to the business end of the game?

[Gioguy21]

I worked at a local golf course in the summer a few years in a row when i wasn't playin summer baseball. Won't lie i miss that job everytime i wake up at 430 in the am to go to the job i have now. Will it take up a lot of your time? yes, but the perks are worth it. The ability to get some free lessons here or there for one...and the place i worked at allowed for employees to play as many holes as they wanted on the maintenance days (as long as you could wait here and there for a green to clear due to work, moving pins, etc)...if you're getting paid the same as you do now...how ISN"T it a trade up?

[colin007]

where are you from in upstate NY? im in albany

[Yanks Fan]

I'm not salary but usually from April through October, I'll get 30-40 hours a week. I gotta say, it helped my game a ton. Free range, free chip/putt, $5 rounds but free now for me. I still find time to play 3-5 times a week. It's a sweet gig for me. Over the summer I'll usually be at the course more than I'm at home lol.

EDIT: you also meet a bunch of people which have helped me with golf and with potentially finding a job when I finish up college.

[DaSportsGuy]

At my home course, all the employees get a free membership. I wish I could work there but with baseball I don't have the time so to pay for my membership I just sell golf balls and umpire for the local little league.

[right handed phil mickelson]

Completely helped my game. I've been working at my home course (part time of course because I'm still in high school) for about 3 months now. I'm the range picker and I do the cart barn when they need me. Pretty much all the hard work. I get to go on the range as much as I want on days off (and after work sometimes). I get to play for free and since my friends all work there I can play with them. My handicap has dropped about 2 strokes in the 3 months that I've worked here. My high school golf coach, and good friend, is a teaching professional there so I get some free lessons whenever anything is going wrong with my swing that I can't fix (and when I get great advice from iacas that I don't choose to listen to ;)). I say go for it. If I wasn't in school I would probably be doing something like that (that's just like secretary work, right? Because I type anywhere from 100-110 wpm). But yes I say really go for it. If all you're doing besides work is golfing, it can only have perks.

[Bullitt5339]

No experience, but I would have the same concerns as you do. It's like the mechanic that drives the biggest piece of junk car because he's tired of seeing cars all day at work, so his gets neglected. I'd be worried about the same thing happening to golf with me.

[pxc]

What would you do in the off-season? Does your current position have a similar number of weekly hours?

[MuscleBack Sauce]

this intrigues me because my friend just got a job as an assistant pro at a course and I was envious that he would be able to play and hit balls virtually for free. Tell me more about this supervisory work

[TheLauncher]

My current job is 40 hours a week, so this would be more, but I would have time in the off season to pick up other work, or just enjoy winter .

The job entails running the small, circa 1900's course, pretty much from A- Z. So, there's a lot of responsibility, some of which I'm familiar with from my time there over the past few years.

The idea of hitting the range in my down time is very appealing, but having to work 50-60 hours a week sending out golfers while I'm stuck inside isn't.

Basically it amounts to a lateral move with the only perks being the pleasant working atmosphere of my beloved course. It seems natural as a golf nut to dream of a career in the game (I'm not making the tour ), but now that the opportunity is here I fear it may damage my relationship with the game.

[TheLauncher]

Colin, I am about two hours south of Albany.

[joshiemac25]

First, if I had an opportunity to work at a local course at a pay rate similar to what I make now, I would do so in a heartbeat... I am not certain it could make me dislike the game or the course, as I spend enough time there already. The only question I have for you doing this at your home course is whether or not you will be able to go there and not work? I work at a college, and I also frequent the athletic facilities outside of work hours, but the students always come up and ask questions related to work... so I am not sure you will be able to escape that.

Second, 2 hours South of Albany is Upstate?.... hahahaha, I live 4 hours north of Albany, practically in Canada, so it is funny to see someone call 2 hours south of Albany Upstate!!!

Best of luck in your decision. Weigh your options and ask lots of questions of people in similar situations if you can find them...

[TheLauncher]

I'm about three hours from the Big City. It just seems that if you say you are form NY, many assume you mean NYC. And where I am, well, there's really nothing about it that resembles a city.

[bong_crosby]

My friend works at a golf course in the pro shop. He took the job thinking along the same lines as you; free range balls and green fees, he'd be able to sneak out for the occasional chip 'n putt, he'd have time after work for a couple holes. In the end, he plays much less than he did when he wasn't working for the course. After spending 8 to 10 hours there, the last thing he wants to do is hang around for another four hours and then have to come back and do it all over again the next day.

They had an opening at the course and I told him I was thinking about applying just for the benefits and he told me I'm much better off just being a player. A golf course is a great atmosphere to work, I've worked at several in my younger days, but I'd be very leery of mixing work with play. Just my two cents.

[Ben]

My current job is 40 hours a week, so this would be more, but I would have time in the off season to pick up other work, or just enjoy winter

Wow, so from little previous golf job experience to, what sounds to me like, GM or Director of Golf at a club? That's a heck of a step, and like you are thinking, quite an undertaking. Is it a privately owned club? Or part of a large golf management company's holdings? You'll probably find yourself submerged in work at the latter. If it is privately owned, I'm sure you'll be busy for some time, just trying to get used to the ins and outs of the job as a whole. But once you've become comfortable in your position, you'd probably start to work in golf time.

[PhilsRHman]

I have some very similar experience to share. I spent 8 years through high school, college and even after I had a full time job working at a local club. The first few years I worked 30 hours or so a week in the cart barn, and loved it. Worked my shift, headed to the range or course after. Had such a great time, played 5-6 times a week (hitting balls at least), became close with the pros, really fell in love with the sport and the industry.

Then as I was getting close to finishing college, I became the prime guy and was working 5 long days a week for the summer, and I can tell you that the last thing I wanted to do was finish my shift and spend another minute there. Mainly it was because I knew two things: I'd have to be back at 6 the next morning, and I knew we were short staffed and I'd get dragged into cleaning carts or doing some other form of the job when I wrapped up. Or the pro would see me at the range and ask me to pick it when I finished. That was the year I realized I didn't want to go into the business because I knew it would ruin my passion for the game.

The job you describe sounds like the sort of thing you won't be able to "clock out" from. You'll be on your day off and someone will call in sick. Or something in the clubhouse will break. Or they can't find rolls of register tape. Or the handicap computer crashed. Essentially you're going to be on call all the time. Suddenly your 50 hour week with 20 hours of play/practice becomes a 70 hour week.

On the other hand, the better job you do as a manager, the more you can arrange the job so that you can play and practice. Hire good people who won't bug you when you're not working. I'm tempted all the time to find a job in the golf business just to be around it. The benefits are insane -- from the knowledge gained being in the pro shop, to the free play and practice (both at your course and at others who will usually extend professional courtesy), to the huge discounts on equipment and clothes.

And what's the worst that happens? After a year if you hate it, move on. But if you never give it a shot you'll never know. I'd love to know more about the job itself, it sounds interesting. And like Ben mentioned, it sounds quite advanced for having no golf experienced. If it's a shop manager who works the register, oversees schedules, etc., but who reports to the pro, it could be a nice fit and would mean a little less responsibility and the ability to get "off the clock" easier.

[TheLauncher]

Is it a privately owned club? Or part of a large golf management company's holdings?

It's a privately owned club that is leased and run by a committee of members, open to the public. Honestly, in this economic climate, in our area, it's struggling to survive, hence my reservations. I want to ensure the longevity of the course, but I am unsure if I want to sacrifice my personal enjoyment of it to that end.

to put it bluntly and to adress Phil's points as well, they don't eactly have money to throw around, i.e. the perks wont be quite so grand as suggested. So ultimately I have to justify to myself (and I'm hoping my golf brethren can help here) that my enjoyment of and improvement in the game itself supercedes my responsibility to ensure the smooth running of the club.

[colin007]

Colin, I am about two hours south of Albany.

lol, to us up here youre "downstate"...