After leaving a senior role in education, Matt Brooke has brought structure, leadership and a sharp strategic eye to Enmore Park.
Swapping teaching for golf club management might look like a giant leap from the outside, but for Matt Brooke, the move felt like a natural next step.
After qualifying as a maths teacher and progressing into senior leadership, he had built deep experience in line management, pastoral work and leadership development. But after Covid, he found himself reassessing where his energy was going and where he could make the biggest impact.
Having taken up golf and joined Landsdown in 2021, an opportunity soon arose at the Bath venue to join the board. With the General Manager role vacant and the club facing financial challenges, Matt saw a chance both to help and to broaden his own experience. He joined the board under the title of Treasurer but, in reality, was leading on business development and trying to drive new revenue into the club.
“Education got a lot more difficult post-Covid, and I was looking at different opportunities,” he explained. “At the same time, I was doing more at my golf club, Lansdown in Bath, and I was enjoying that a lot more. I was doing 10 to 15 hours a week on top of teaching, working in the holidays, and I just found it more dynamic and more exciting.”
That involvement at Lansdown gave him an early route into club governance and business development. Matt helped to deliver significant green fee growth and oversaw improved commercial performance, and the experience made his mind up that a GM role was what he wanted. He applied at Enmore Park and, despite some self-doubt over his suitability, the board there knew they had their man.
“I felt like I was applying for it with lots of gaps,” Matt admitted. “But I was undervaluing the strengths that other people could clearly see. I think one of the things the board liked was that I had a lot of line management experience already. When I was in school leadership, I was managing more people than I do now as a GM. I also brought some commercial thinking from what I had done at Lansdown.”
That mix of leadership, commercial awareness and comfort with compliance has shaped much of his first year. Some of the biggest gains have not been flashy projects, but the quieter work of putting processes, responsibilities and stronger governance in place.
“Coming from education, which is a really heavily compliant industry, I think I brought that mindset with me. Health and safety, HR, legal responsibilities – there were areas where we needed to be much more on top of things. A lot of my first-year impact has been bringing in that mindset of following processes and making sure we meet our responsibilities.”
Just as important has been the way he has worked with the board. Rather than treating governance gaps as a frustration, Matt has seen board development as part of the job.
“I think sometimes GMs can be annoyed that their board maybe do not have the knowledge they need them to have, but I partly see that as part of my role. If people are coming onto a board relatively new, then part of my job is to help develop that awareness. We have brought in induction processes, mandatory governance training and more structure around what board responsibilities actually are.”
That approach reflects one of the clearest development themes in Matt’s story: the importance of communication, especially when stepping into a club where changes are needed. He is open about the fact that some conversations have required challenge as well as diplomacy.
“I think communication is the biggest thing. It is about explaining the consequences of inaction. If you do not put things in place to treat staff well, they probably are not going to stay. If you are not compliant in areas like health and safety, those are the kinds of things that erode trust.”
Alongside the operational reset, Matt has also helped shape Enmore Park’s longer-term identity. A newly agreed five-year plan positions the club as a premier members’ golf club, with course quality, member experience, social culture, revenue growth, financial stability and leadership all sitting at the centre.
“For us, it is about delivering on the golf course and making that as strong as it can be, but it is also about having a package around that which makes people want to be members. Golf is growing, but membership is declining. So the question is: what are you offering that makes people want to commit to your club?”
That bigger-picture thinking also shapes his own development. Matt recently completed GCMA Level 1 Accreditation and describes the process as both affirming and revealing.
“It validates who I am, but it also forces you to step back and reflect. Going through the evidence-gathering and talking it all through made me realise where some of the gaps were. It is easy just to keep ploughing on, but taking time to reflect properly is really useful.”
He also reads widely, particularly around leadership, and his latest book is on retention and culture. That habit is feeding into practical questions at Enmore Park around how members engage, how long they stay and what support they need once the initial joining process is over.
For anyone considering a move into club management, Matt believes one skill matters more than most.
“The key challenge is managing people in areas where you’re not the technical expert. While I don’t claim specialist knowledge in every department, I have no knowledge about how to cut fairways or greens but I can work with our Course Manager to secure improvement in this key area. I bring strong people management, support, and a focus on moving things forward. That is probably the most important skill I have brought to the role.”
And as for whether the career change has been vindicated, Matt insists there has never been a moment’s doubt.
“I love this job. I have not had a day where I have thought I made the wrong decision. I have more autonomy, I can see the impact of what I am doing much more quickly. There is so much you can get out of this job. I don’t see myself ever going back.”
Key Takeaways
- Transferable skills matter. Matt’s move from education shows that leadership, communication, compliance awareness and line management can be just as valuable as traditional golf industry experience.
- Good governance needs active leadership. One of the clearest lessons from his first year is that GMs cannot just complain about weak governance – they often need to help boards understand their responsibilities and put better structures in place.
- Development should be practical and reflective. From GCMA Accreditation to reading beyond golf, Matt’s approach shows the value of stepping back, identifying gaps and applying learning directly to live club challenges.
