Shaun Smith’s life, and certainly his career, has revolved around golf in one way or another; working his way through the ranks — from the pro shop to the clubhouse bar — he’s done everything but actually play professionally.
“I was a golfer from a very young age, and I guess if you want to work in golf you’ve got a couple of choices: you either have to be good enough to be a golf professional, which I’m not, or you can work in the golf administration side of things. So I’ve worked in golf clubs, more or less, with a couple of diversions, ever since I left school.”
Shaun is now the general manager of Beverley Park Golf Club, following his previous GM role with Kingston Beach Golf Club in Hobart and a year at Royal Queensland Golf Course before that. Not surprisingly, managing a golf course leaves little time for playing it. “I haven’t been playing golf as much as I should, but it gives me a fresh pair of eyes on the course when I do. I get a different perspective; instead of hearing about it, I get to see it for myself.”
What he does see on a regular basis is the growth of Beverley Park Golf Club. “We’re finding the place is becoming far more family friendly and community driven. For example, on Sunday we had some music here and there was a group of about 20 local residents who came to pass the time over a couple of drinks, some food, and listen to some music — it was good!”
Locals, and indeed everyone is most welcome at Beverley Park Golf Club. “Golf has an image problem that is causing all manner of grief at the moment; it is seen by a lot of people as elitist, when nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve just had a guy walk past wearing a hi-vis work shirt; we’ve got a group of ladies on the 18th green whom I’m quite sure are not multimillionaires,” Shaun points out. “Golf is a great equalizer: you can spend as much or as little as you like to play the game. Golf is a great leveller between all demographics.”
“We’ve got a women’s pathways program which we’re currently in the process of remodelling at the moment. Basically, that’s a way to introduce golf to women; for one reason or another, a lot of women don’t take up golf until a little later in life and that’s a shame. That’s something we need to address and push along, and it’s definitely a good opportunity for us to increase our female membership,” Shaun explains.
“What I love about being at a golf club, whether someone is here as a once-off or whether they’re here for 30 years as a member, is giving them the best experience possible. I like doing the little one-percent things for people which they may not even notice, but I know they happened,” Shaun says. “That’s one thing in particular I’ve always loved about doing event management: just giving people the best experience I can.”
