Club Champions – Garforth Golf Club, with Stuart Carnie

We spoke to Stuart Carnie, Managing Secretary of Garforth Golf Club, about how golf clubs benefit their wider communities and the club’s recent flood insurance claim.

Stuart talks to us about his history within the sport of golf, and how he likes to operate Garforth Golf Club. Stuart discusses the importance of having a cohesive team, building relationships, and understanding your membership base.

Stuart Carnie is one of our Club Champions; he also highlights some other club champions who make up Garforth Golf Club. Read on to learn more about the Yorkshire-based club, or click to see our Club Champions campaign here.

Stuart Carnie on his day to day duties as Managing Secretary of Garforth Golf Club:

“As Managing Secretary of Garforth Golf Club, my main responsibility is the day to day running of the golf club – that includes the bar, the golf course, and the organisation of competitions. I provide a facility for our paying members to come and enjoy.”

“I report into a group of directors, of which there are 12. My day can be very varied; no day is ever the same. I am a point of call for members, alongside Victoria [Allison, Assistant Managing Secretary].”

“The staff I mainly see day to day are the Head Greenkeeper, Catering Manager, the Head Pro and the professionals in the pro shop. They all report into me. We have weekly team-meetings where we go through our diaries for the week – it’s at 10 o’clock every week and lasts up to 45 minutes. We discuss any issues in their departments, and I talk through resolutions with them. In this way, we all work cohesively as one team.”

Tell us about the wide range of services and societies involved at Garforth Golf Club, and what challenges you have faced this year:

“We have a 700 strong membership, that’s both social members and playing members. We are busy all year round. This year has been challenging and we’ve had to be closed on a few days, just because of the weather.”

“Having course closures does affect the club financially, especially Saturday and Sunday where we get most of our bar sales. We get 200 golfers on a weekend, 90% have a drink behind the bar.”

“At Garforth, bar sales make up over 50% [of our total sales]. We don’t offer a venue hire service, but we host a lot of members functions. We do 4 to 5 weddings a year – which are requested by members – I know other courses do more. Some clubs rely on venue hire income, but because we’ve got such a sound membership base we are able to set out our budgets for the year.”

“We are not greedy. We could have a wedding every weekend if we wished to, and if we advertised it, but that would be at a detriment to the members. Members pay for access to our facilities, and so a wedding or christening event would negatively affect their experience.”

Tell us your personal story with golf:

“I took the game of golf up at 13. As a junior I reached a handicap of 2. I came out of college not knowing what I wanted to do, and I saw a brochure for a Golf and Leisure Club Management course in Preston. After university I went to work for Marriott Hotels in Manchester which is a group of country club golf venues. I spent sixteen years working for Marriott, then was made redundant in 2018 when they were taken over, and found myself in private golf club management. I’ve managed three golf clubs, and I’ve been at Garforth Golf Club now for three years.”

“I had no interest in teaching. I knew I wasn’t good enough to make it in a playing capacity. But I was interested in golf and wanted to stay within the sport. I’ve been lucky enough to host challenge tour events, Euro tour events; and more recently at Garforth; Yorkshire Country matches and elite amateur matches. These are big events – the course will shut for the day, there will be a big dinner, officials from the Yorkshire union will come – it’s great fun.”

Tell us about the recent events or visiting parties you’ve had at the club:

“We’ve just won the Leeds and District Junior Team Championships. We have a strong junior section, led by Steve Carlisle our current club captain – he does a great job. We have about 30 juniors across all the junior categories and intermediates. However our average membership age is around 60-70 years old, which for a private golf club is pretty standard.”

“We do take on a lot of away days for certain golf clubs, as well as society groups whose members use our facilities on an annual basis.”

“A typical away day would include a sandwich and 18 holes of golf, then enjoying a drink in the environment of the bar, as well as a meal of their choice. This can vary from a formal sit-down meal to an informal buffet or barbeque. Our caterer, John [Kirk, Catering Manager], is fantastic! We also offer a quick try in the sim room where we play nearest-the-pin or another interactive game, which would need to be negotiated beforehand.”

What was the resulting impact of your recent claim?

“We had a flood recently, straight after Christmas on the 27th December 2023. Because of extensive rainfall the car park flooded, and our trolley store where member’s store their trolleys, which is based a floor beneath the clubhouse, it flooded.”

“Investigators found out that the drainage channel into the neighbouring farmer’s field had been partially-blocked and needed to be jet washed away. Whilst the water was residing, we had to pay contractors from Wakefield to come and pump it away into tankers. We used the insurance claim to cover the cost of hiring these contractors.”

“The process was straightforward: We put a claim in, the loss adjustor came to see us, I was with him for half an hour, and he took some photographs. It was a very easy and straightforward process.”

Read more about Garforth’s claim here:

How does Garforth Golf Club serve the wider community?

“We often put on dinners for societies and groups based in the local community. We provide a service and support the community through vouchers and special offers for charity events. These will need to be discussed with either me or Victoria, but it’s certainly an option.”

What conservational efforts do you make on the course?

“We have to be conservationists as golf course managers – Those who don’t, it’s to their detriment. At Garforth Golf Club, we have deer, many species of bird, birds-of-prey, and more.”

“We have a beck that runs through the golf course. It’s quite a wet golf course because we are clay-based, hence the heavy rain and course closures. We are currently engaging with water management companies in regards to drainage of the golf course because I think we are all aware that the winters are getting warmer and wetter.”

“This past winter was a 1 in 100 episode, but we’ll see it become more frequent. We’ve been looking at ways in which we can store water through the summer, so when we get droughts, we can use the stored water for irrigation. We will essentially become self-sustainable.”

What projects does the club have coming up, and how has this been affected by the cost of inflation?

“Garforth is a forward-thinking golf club. We are looking at improving sustainability going forward, and that involves all departments of the club.”

“Financially the club is in a good position. We have a 5 year and 10 year financial plan for the club, highlighting where we want to be. This would involve the car park, club house maintenance, for example we have new bi-fold doors we’ve just installed.”

“Machinery needs constant review. We have a 5 year and 10 year plan for greenkeeping equipment and machinery, we look to replace certain pieces of kit each year. And everything is bought in, we don’t do contracting.”

“Everything has shot up in price. Our maintenance budget has increased significantly, and that’s because of supplier costs on such things as fertiliser and materials. The bar as well, we’ve now changed brewery suppliers from Heineken to Carlsberg.”

“To reduce costs and become more self-sufficient we’ve been exploring solar panels. On the fields at the far side of the driving range we are looking at putting up a solar farm. This would generate our own power that can also be sold on to local farmers. We are in the process of solar panel installation on the roof our clubhouse and premise’ buildings. In fact, I have a call this afternoon about solar power production at the club.”

What’s the best thing about Garforth Golf Club?

“We’ve got an excellent reputation. Garforth is a well run golf club, run by our directors and our board. We have a strong team of departmental heads. It’s a sound ship. And I believe we provide a good members’ club for 700 people; even for social members who are unable to physically play golf, we’ve got a great social calendar designed for them. It’s a busy busy place.”

“Also, Richard, our head greenkeeper, he’s been with Garforth for only 2 years, but has made a massive impact on the golf course. He doesn’t just cut the grass – He firmly believes his job is a science. He’s a club champion, as are the whole team, they are all fantastic and we have a great relationship.”

“The course should be mentioned as well; it’s loved by our members. It’s not particularly long, not too much walking between tees. The course is a traditional park-land flat well-maintained golf course, and when the weather is kind to us, it stays in great condition. Indeed, we’ve had a lot of positive feedback about the quality of the course.”

Thank you to Stuart for his time and openness. We wish him and the whole team at Garforth Golf Club every success.