Unlocking Opportunities: PGA Members excelling as General Managers - Brian Bartolec, Ken Kosak & Rob Oosterhuis
PGA of America Golf Professionals are coined as experts in the game and business of golf, whose mission is to grow the game we all love.
At more than 30,000 strong, the PGA of America offers an extensive network of professionals to lean on, ask questions, seek advice, and collaborate with. Opportunities to network can come at the Chapter, Section, and National levels, all designed to elevate the PGA Professional.
As golf department heads, PGA Professionals play an integral role in facilities, and PGA Professionals in high management roles are becoming increasingly more prevalent.
Outside of being PGA General Managers, one thing stands out for Brian Bartolec of Shadow Wood Country Club, Ken Kosak of Broken Sound Club, and Rob Oosterhuis of Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club – they are all involved with the Club Management Association of America (CMAA) and all three sit on the CMAA Florida Chapter Board of Directors.
As the Corporate Director of Golf Operations for JC Golf in San Diego early in his career, Oosterhuis was given more responsibility within food and beverage and marketing, two areas he was interested in but professionally inexperienced.
Shortly after, Oosterhuis began overseeing several high-end properties for the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara, California, and at this point Oosterhuis knew he needed to learn more in order to complete his role at a high level.
"I need to understand the private club world better," Oosterhuis told himself. "It's more about trying to expand my knowledge in other areas, as it pertains to finance, governance, and food and beverage. Then, as I got more involved, I realized how expansive their (CMAA) learning platforms were."
By the age of 28, Bartolec had become a PGA General Manager of TPC at Eagle Trace and as the facility was purchased in 2014 by a new management company, Bartolec was encouraged by the board to join the CMAA.
Unfamiliar with the Association, Bartolec joined and began attending summer educational classes that proved beneficial. After three years as General Manager of TPC at Eagle Trace, Bartolec moved to Pelican Marsh and eventually to his current General Manager position at Shadow Country Club.
“In both of these roles as the GM, the members and the board members were very in favor of me continuing to do both the Club Managers Association and the PGA,” Bartolec explained.
For Bartolec, who has spent three years on the Florida Chapter Board, education opportunities, specifically within finance, were a huge help as a young professional early on.
"You have to have some type of financial acumen because of the pressure for budgeting, creating budgets, running a golf operation, and you need to know how to hire someone, train them, and schedule," explained Bartolec. "For all those things, you can go to classes at the CMAA, which are very helpful.
As a young professional with Troon, Kosak worked as a General Manager in Dubai in the early 2000s. While abroad, Kosak was exposed to a completely different set of dynamics outside traditional golf. As a result, Kosak was introduced to the CMAA.
“For me, it was interest in self-improvement, self-knowledge, and adding extra tools to the toolbox”, Kosak explained.
While all three professionals above serve in General Manager roles, their backgrounds and start as PGA Professionals demonstrate a career path that might have been unexpected at times, but ultimately led them to the top of their profession.
"It offers so many different perspectives, and each time I go to an event, I come back with half a dozen new ideas to work with," said Oosterhuis.
As more PGA professionals ascend to the role of General Manager, this group of PGA members can serve as a valuable resource for those who may be unsure or unfamiliar with the General Manager role at a facility. For all three, the start was golf and the PGA of America membership.
"No one can take away your golf knowledge; those are the things you are expected to know as a PGA Member," Kosak reiterated. "If you have that knowledge and all these other tools to work off as well from the CMAA, that makes you an incredible resource, and if they know you have this additional bandwidth of skills that you can offer, the sky's the limit."
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