More than Just a Golf Guy - Rob Oosterhuis, PGA (March Member Spotlight)
"You're just a golf guy."
For Rob Oosterhuis, PGA General Manager/COO at Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club, this is what he often heard as a PGA Member looking to become a General Manager.
Oosterhuis has enjoyed a career filled with various experiences worldwide, proving to be far more than, "just a golf guy." He is most notably a life-long learner, fascinated with "figuring out what you don't know."
This fixation has allowed Oosterhuis to earn his PGA Membership and his Certified Club Manager and Certified Chief Executive Licenses as a Member of the CMAA (Club Management Association of America). With these credentials, Oosterhuis sat on the Board of Directors for the Southern California PGA Section and The Golden State Chapter of the CMAA.
Born in London, England, Oosterhuis grew up in South Africa before moving to Santa Barabra, California, at an early age. He is the son of Peter Oosterhuis, a long-time Touring Professional and current broadcaster.
Oosterhuis attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played on the golf team and studied history. His initial plans were to become a history professor or pursue a law degree, but his fascination with learning clicked with golf.
While attending UCLA, Oosterhuis spent summers working Nike Golf camps in Lake Tahoe and Pebble Beach. "That's where I kind of got the bug for the instructional side of things," Oosterhuis said.
After graduating, Oosterhuis moved to Texas to work at The Four Seasons TPC Las Colinas, making $8 an hour before eventually becoming Head Golf Professional in just three years.
Shortly after earning his Class-A PGA Membership in 2003, Oosterhuis received a call from The Four Seasons Hotel General Manager, asking Oosterhuis what he thought about Costa Rica. Oosterhuis responded, "Not a whole lot other than the project being built down there."
Eventually, Oosterhuis was offered the Director of Golf position at The Four Seasons Costa Rica. While quick to accept the position, Oosterhuis can now look back with perspective: At 30 years old, a new PGA Member who had never served in a Director of Golf role, Oosterhuis took a leap of faith, and moved to another country to build a golf department from the ground up.
He was all in.
Oosterhuis recalls the experience being unlike anything else - from interacting and working with people from different cultures, hiring individuals with no prior golf experience, breaking language barriers and playing an integral role in the entire build of a luxury resort and golf experience, the first the country had ever seen.
"Golf was still sort of an unknown quantity in Costa Rica, and I just looked at it as an adventure," Oosterhuis said. "We were the first real, at least on that scale, luxury product in the country. You couldn't go anywhere without everybody knowing about the hotel, which was cool."
While the experience was incredible, Oosterhuis did look at the position as a means to an end and an invaluable experience that set the framework for the rest of his career.
"My way of thinking was, whatever the next thing is, I can't get on to the next thing until I get that. I can't be a Director of Golf at a multi-facility property or whatever, make a giant leap in terms of membership or compensation without getting that on the resume and learning about it," he explained.
Oosterhuis' next adventure took him back to California to work for JC Golf, a premiere golf management company. There, he was more entrenched in the business side of golf, something he always wanted to learn more about.
"I just love the business side of golf, and that's what JC did for me," Oosterhuis explained. "I learned so many more layers of the business with math, psychology, everything you can use to try and formulate decisions."
From JC Golf, Oosterhuis returned to The Four Seasons family to manage the entire operation for Montecito Club in Santa Barbara, California, a facility featuring a main club and a beach club. This was incredibly special for Oosterhuis as Montecito was the club where he initially learned the game.
Oosterhuis described this time as the most fun ever had while being a significant learning experience. When talking with a fellow General Manager, Oosterhuis was given valuable advice.
"Don't lean into the things that you already know; lean into those things that you don't know and get the feel, education, and understanding for them."
That conversation prompted Oosterhuis to dive more into the food and beverage world, where he began sitting in every meeting, asking questions to become more familiar with the ever-changing dynamic of food and beverage. At the same time, Oosterhuis joined the CMAA and earned status as a Certified Club Manager.
"I realized that there was a lot I didn't know about private clubs, and this was going to be another of those things where you can call me the golf guy all you want, but I'm also going to have this credential," he said.
With all the experience of his previous roles, his PGA and CMAA Membership, Oosterhuis was hired in 2016 as the General Manager/CEO at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California.
Sherwood was the host site of the PowerShares QQQ Championship and ZOZO Championship on the PGA TOUR Champions which allowed Oosterhuis to see firsthand how a TOUR-level event is operated and all the moving parts included.
This experience helped Oosterhuis understand the most effective ways of leading a team.
"When it comes to big-picture decisions and discussions, you're the one that has to make the decisions," he explained. “That's when I learned to develop a core group of leaders and lean on them for their advice and feedback."
After nearly five years at Sherwood, Oosterhuis and his family were ready to change locations and circled south Florida as a target where Oosterhuis was offered the General Manager/COO position at Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club, a facility he was well suited for.
"You take away a few tennis courts and add in a few boat slips, and you're basically talking about the same club," he said, laughing. "So, from a comfort standpoint, I was very comfortable entering this environment."
Outside of the club itself, the wealth of intelligence offered in south Florida as a premier destination for golf and club professionals has continued to intrigue Oosterhuis.
With over 25 years of golf and club industry experience, Oosterhuis is still fascinated with learning more and encouraging others to learn beyond their jobs.
"It is fulfilling to learn more, Oosterhuis said. "The most important thing is knowing what you don't know."
As a PGA Member and a CMAA Member with his Certified Club Manager and Certified Club Executive licenses, Oosterhuis is a prime example of someone who took the positive out of every position, leading him to where he is today.
"Be the first person to put your hand up," he said. "Usually, something good happens that way.”
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