Country Club Manager Career
Country Club Manager Career
The Real Poop
Quiz time. Do you:
(1) ...forget that there are ways to wear a sweater, other than tying it around your shoulders like an accessory?
(2) ...like making people feel excluded if they're not part of your social group?
(3) ...relish the thought of making roughly $56,000, which is about the same average salary as an elementary school teacher?
If you answered "Yes" to all of the above, you might have the makings of a country club manager.
Allow us to explain.
Country clubs have a long history in this country, though they don't actually have that much to do with the country. If anything, they have a lot more to do with golf. The first country clubs, including "The Country Club," were established alongside the creation of the United States Golf Association in the late 1890s.
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, country clubs gained reputations as watering holes for bored, rich people who had too much money and time on their hands. Where did you go when you wanted a cigar and a fine scotch? That's right, the country club.
Now part of a $23 billion-dollar industry (source), the modern country club looks a little different. For starters, public golf courses can no longer legally keep out women and people of color, which they did for way too long (source). However, they can (and often do) still charge astronomical membership fees, sometimes up to $100,000 dollars in initiation fees alone (source). Because, you know, who doesn't have that kind of money just lying around?
While membership demographics haven't changed that much, today's country club members certainly carry different expectations. Forget rib-eye steak and potato wedges. Nowadays, it's all about fusion teriyaki, mango, and mixed greens salads. Instead of drowning your sorrows in glass after glass of whiskey, modern club-goers are sweating it out in brand new gyms. Alongside their spouse and kids. Horrific, we know.
Nowadays, the job of a country club manager is even trickier than just coordinating fabulous menus and making sure the gym towels get washed. With the economic downturn of 2008, memberships at country clubs started to dry up (source). As a result, country club managers needed to get proactive.
They walk a fine line between pleasing members stuck in the past (but who currently pay their salaries) and appealing to future members (who will pay their salaries). Balancing the books has never been as tough as it is today.
Managers need to find ways to cut back on extravagant amenities and stick to tight budgets without sacrificing the lux experience that appeals to rich, picky patrons (who know what they like and aren't afraid to speak up about it). If the chicken in Lady Frances Fancypants' Caesar salad isn't perfectly grilled, guess who's gonna hear about it?
Yup, the country club manager.
Never mind that he's already busy instructing that day's wait staff on the restaurant menu, attending to the chef's complaints about the new broiler, and tracking down the gardener to mow the unfinished section of the golf course. Obviously, the country club manager will take ten minutes out of his or her day to chat personally with Lady Frances Fancypants. He'll also take another ten minutes out of his day to hear Lord Francis Fancypants drone on and on about his new golf clubs.
A country club manager needs the patience of a Tibetan monk and the eye for style of a nineteenth-century, Harvard-educated heir to "old money" shipbuilders. It requires the shrewd, budget-balancing business skills of a Wall Street banker along with the ruthlessly competitive drive to seek out and destroy all other possible rivals. You'll also need enough passion to make putting up with all of the hassle and grief worth that meager $56,000 in average salary (source).
It's also a difficult job to get into. You'll need a Bachelor's degree and a strong record of public relations skills. Even then, the job pool is tiny. There are only about 4,000 private golf clubs left in the United States, and seemingly fewer every week (source). Sadly, country clubs aren't in the habit of posting "HELP WANTED" signs.
This isn't Luigi's Family-Style Pizzeria. Even if they are looking for help, country clubs rarely need to fill managerial positions. If you want a job in a country club, become a server or a landscaper. Country clubs actually need more than one of those.
Bottom line: Even if you checked yes to all the questions above, and even if you think you can put up with demanding country club snobs, there are plenty of similar managerial positions in more steady and profitable industries. If our warnings only make you hungrier to take on the challenge of working in the hectic, ultra exclusive world of country clubs, then this guide has you covered.