I’m in the middle of my first season as GM at Malone Golf Club in upstate New York after spending parts of 10 previous years here, sandwiched around stints at Grayhawk Golf Club in Arizona and Sittler Golf with the Kline Family in Pennsylvania. I first came to Malone as an intern from SUNY Delhi in 2011 and worked for Derek Sprague, who would go on to serve as President of the PGA of America.
Located just 10 miles from the Canadian border, our golf season generally runs from mid-April to the end of October, and our F&B services extend through the holidays and the New Year’s celebration. We kick off each new season with our popular Easter Brunch and welcome many of our 430 members back to the club for such spring events and golf as the weather allows.
All of our golf and F&B events take a team effort to meet members’ expectations. With 35,000-40,000 rounds of golf played within a rather brief 35-week season, our staff must work closely with our Board of Directors. Once we get going in April, we try to facilitate as many events and opportunities for engagement as possible for our members. This takes a lot of coordination.
Understanding that it’s sometimes easy to get caught up in operations and overlook some goals and benchmarks you’ve set along the way, the constant team environment that we’ve created among our staff, including our F&B Directors, as well as our Board of Directors helps me move forward operationally with an eye on the service and financial goals we’ve set for the facility. We’re able to lean on each other and do a good job keeping each other accountable to stay on track with our responsibilities and duties. This collaboration is also very beneficial when working on capital projects that help lead the club into the future. Having a staff that you can rely on at the face-to-face level with members helps our management team and Board of Directors give careful consideration to these high-level goals and projects.
Our front-of-the-house manager and Events Coordinator, Heather Larche, shares F&B operational responsibilities with our back-of-the-house manager and Head Chef, Ashley Savoir. On the golf side, I serve as PGA of America Director of Golf, in addition to GM, and have a great Head Professional in PGA of America Associate Professional Tom Rancour. He is aided by PGA Associate and Lead Assistant Kris Clark.
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention our club's administrative assistant, Michelle Caswell. She works diligently to ensure constant communication between departments and helps all of us with the behind-the-scenes work. She plays a very important role on our team.
However, I lean the most on Dustin Beauregard, our Superintendent who has a wealth of general manager experience from previous jobs he’s had in the industry. My communication and collaboration with Dustin is vital. With 36 holes at our semi-private facility, one 18-hole layout is dedicated to members and the other to public play - that alternates every day. It’s nice for golfers to play different courses within each week, but logistically takes much coordination.
We also host 25-35 outings and events that take all hands on deck planning to provide the high level of service and member experience.
We’re a busy club with a lot of moving parts. So, as a team, we have formal meetings monthly but talk or text on pertinent issues daily. I’m lucky to have an excellent team and Board of Directors who help make the operation successful.
Scott Delair, a SUNY Delhi Graduate, is the PGA of America General Manager at Malone (NY) Golf Club.