HEALTH & LIFEST YLE
KNOW YOUR PGA
PRO
1. When did you qualify as a PGA Professional? 2002. 2. What made you choose this career? I absolutely love golf and everything associated with golf! My last few years in school when everyone sort of chose a career or what they going to do after school, my option A, was golf, my option B, was also golf. My dad used to laugh at me...no back up plan...only golf! 3. Has it always been golf for you? Mostly yes. I managed to get involved in software development a few years ago and did a few non-golf developments, but I never stopped working in the golf industry. 4. Did you ever play or did you ever want to play on tour? Yes I played on the Sunshine Tour for a few years and also through my PGA membership I played in a few PGA Championships 5. Who has been you mentor in the golfing industry? It started with Adrienne Thorne in Metropolitan – who taught me basically everything I know today about running a business. 6. You have been at Pecanwood for a while now, what are your biggest challenges at a residential golf estate? My biggest challenge is to keep our members happy with the end product. The nature of our business at Pecanwood is we run a semi-private club with 95% of our members also being residents – they play golf 3 times a week, eat at the restaurant 4 times a week and use the facilities
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Morne Botha - General Manager Pecanwood Golf & Country Club
on a daily basis, therefor we constantly need to make sure the end product is always on par, which is a good challenge! 7. Describe a typical work day for a PGA Club Professional? I love being involved in all the divisions and keep my finger on the pulse at all times. My day starts with a course inspection, followed up by a staff meeting to check our goals for the day, I then proceed with my to do list and make sure I respond to all my mails. I try and balance meetings with board members and senior management on a daily basis but also set up meetings outside of busy times at the club, for instance I know when golfers check-in and I know when its busy in the clubhouse, in those times I want to be around my members to engage with them, I don’t want to be in meetings then. I finish the day with another drive around in the estate to check that all tasks were done, setup our to do list for the following day and then go and have a coffee with my members in the clubhouse. 8. During the current lockdown we find ourselves in due to the Covid-19 virus, how do you keep yourself busy? I must say the lockdown is keeping me busier than ever before, many great webinars to learn from other countries and industries – trying to figure out the new normal. I meet with our board members almost daily to ensure we make the right moves to survive this unprecedented time.
www.sagolftrader.co.za
May | June 2020
