{"id":818706,"date":"2026-07-23T12:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818706\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:41:15","slug":"retiring-45-year-st-enodoc-club-pro-on-how-golf-has-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818706\/","title":{"rendered":"Retiring 45-Year St Enodoc Club Pro On How Golf Has Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Nick Williams took the head pro job at St Enodoc Golf Club<\/a> in Cornwall, Ronald Reagan<\/a> had recently been sworn in as US President, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer had just announced their engagement and forthcoming marriage and Tom Watson was about to win The Masters<\/a>\u2026 Get the picture? It was a while ago!<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t get it from the clues, Nick moved into the role as St Enodoc\u2019s head professional in early 1981. Now, after 45 years in the position, he is stepping down and will officially retire in October.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nick\u2019s has been an incredible career and he has seen both St Enodoc Golf Club and the role of the club professional change significantly during the last five decades.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From<\/p>\n

I had the chance to speak with Nick to find out more about his time at the famous Cornish club, to hear about the highlights and the challenges of his career and to find out what he plans to do next.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Nick\n<\/p>\n

Nick Williams on the 17th tee St Enodoc<\/p>\n

(Image credit: St Enodoc)<\/p>\n

How did you come to take the job at St Enodoc?<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

I started on the 16th of March 1981. I had been the head teaching pro at St Mellion<\/a>. I was just 24 at the time. A couple of the members at St Enodoc used to come for coaching and they encouraged me to apply for the head pro job at their club.<\/p>\n

It had come up as another long-serving St Enodoc professional, Ernie Goodman, was stepping down (Goodman was head pro from 1956 to 1981).<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the Golf Monthly newsletter to stay up to date with all the latest tour news, equipment news, reviews, head-to-heads and buyer\u2019s guides from our team of experienced experts.<\/p>\n

I came for an interview and after discussions they decided the job was mine.<\/p>\n

What was the club like then? <\/p>\n

I wondered what I\u2019d got myself in for at first. It was all rather old-fashioned. Lots of Brigadiers and Colonels. Not much golf was played. They probably played more bridge! A medal competition<\/a> would only get about 10 entrants.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

It was the 1980s but the club was still in the 1950s or 60s. They didn\u2019t really think about the commercial side of things \u2013 I remember asking the secretary about the annual take on green fees \u2013 He didn\u2019t know the answer.<\/p>\n

It was quite a shock coming from St Mellion which was a far more business-like set-up.<\/p>\n

And how has it changed?<\/p>\n

When I came in, I wanted to help move the club forwards. To start coaching and bringing youngsters into the fold.<\/p>\n

It was quite a challenge as there wasn\u2019t the infrastructure here. I had multiple responsibilities and one of them was to look after course set-up \u2013 decide on the pins, sort out the standard scratch, that sort of thing. There was a lot to do.<\/p>\n

But gradually we started to see younger people joining the club. Committees<\/a> changed, people died. As with everything, things changed and moved on.<\/p>\n

It’s gone from a little committee run club to a managed situation where it\u2019s run commercially.<\/p>\n

But the course will never change. We are just custodians of the golf course, and it will always be there \u2013 it is so natural.<\/p>\n

And St Enodoc became popular with visitors. How did that evolve?<\/p>\n

I think the rise in interest and visitor numbers was as a direct result of improvements to the course that took place in the early 80s.<\/p>\n

When I started, it was a lovely little course on the Cornwall coast, but it wasn\u2019t well known. Only the members and the regular holidaymakers to the area knew about it.<\/p>\n

But we got a great new greenkeeper in Stuart Diamond and he did an excellent job. Peter McEvoy<\/a> came and oversaw alterations, and the layout was turned into a highly playable, competition-worthy one.<\/p>\n

The condition improved and people started to take note. The committee began to see the benefits of attracting visitors. It enabled them to subsidise the membership and keep annual subscriptions low.<\/p>\n

The course continued to be improved upon, and visitor numbers increased. More people became aware of St Enodoc and the process continued that way.<\/p>\n

What have you enjoyed most, and found most rewarding about your time as pro at St Enodoc?<\/p>\n

I think the most rewarding part is I work somewhere everybody wants to come. People come here during the precious time they have away from their city jobs.<\/p>\n

I live here all the time. I can walk out of my office and be on the beach within 5 minutes walking my dogs!<\/p>\n

And what have been the biggest challenges?<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s always the business side of things. Encouraging more people to come here, to use the course, to make use of the shop.<\/p>\n

40 years ago, the club pro<\/a> was a jack of all trades. He wore different hats. He had to be a retailer, a coach, a player, an expert on club repairs, a people person and an administrator. There was a lot to do!<\/p>\n

Now, a professional is more specialised. Either they are a great fitter, a great player, a great coach or manager. Rarely are they more than one of those things. I think my era of the old-fashioned club professional is dying out.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t see many who run a shop, have a director of golf style role and get through Open qualifying!<\/p>\n

\n

\"Nick\n<\/p>\n

Nick Williams on 8th tee St Enodoc<\/p>\n

(Image credit: St Enodoc)<\/p>\n

As a player, did you have competitive success?<\/p>\n

I played in a lot of the local and regional events. I nearly went on the European Tour in the 1980s when I was offered a sponsorship. But I felt it was too risky at that time \u2013 prize money was nothing like it is today.<\/p>\n

I reckoned I wasn\u2019t quite good enough to beat Seve Ballesteros!<\/p>\n

So I played around the region and enjoyed success in pro-ams and local tournaments. I suppose you could say it was like playing in the Championship rather than the Premiership!<\/p>\n

I played in Open Final Qualifying<\/a> in 1991 and narrowly missed out on making it into the field for Royal Birkdale<\/a> that year.<\/p>\n

What are the standout moments when you think back on 45 years at St Enodoc?<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s the people you meet. I\u2019ve met celebrities, film stars \u2013 Hugh Grant springs to mind. I\u2019ve met people I would never have spoken to were it not for this job. It\u2019s great in that respect.<\/p>\n

I also had the chance to play with Tom Watson which was a highlight.<\/p>\n

The general manager Tuck Clagett was good friends with Tom and the five-time Open champ came for a game. We played a round and that was a great honour. He\u2019s a lover of links golf and it was great to see him plot his way round this course.<\/p>\n

But, generally speaking, I\u2019ve just loved meeting and getting to know the members. Going away with them to play in pro-ams or to Portugal or Spain for instance. I have great memories from those trips.<\/p>\n

One of my favourite memories is playing in the Magnolia Cup over in Atlanta. It\u2019s a sort of Ryder Cup between club pros from here and the USA. I was captain of the West of England golf association at that point. We played Peach Tree, East Lake, Atlanta Country Club \u2013 That was special.<\/p>\n

What is it that makes St Enodoc such a special place to play and simply to visit?<\/p>\n

Its natural beauty. The course has been redesigned several times, but really \u2013 the James Braid layout is still there. He used all the natural features of the area.<\/p>\n

A lot of courses look manufactured these days. But you come to St Enodoc and it’s so natural running beside the estuary and then looking out to sea. The views are just fantastic and on a nice sunny day, there’s not a better place in the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a wonderful place to work all my life, and I hope to keep on enjoying it when I retire.<\/p>\n

There are some courses that have a unique character to them \u2013 St Andrews or Muirfield for instance, you stand on the first tee and feel something different. St Enodoc has that too. It\u2019s an electrifying place<\/p>\n

What are your plans for retirement?<\/p>\n

Funnily enough I do things other than golf as well! I\u2019m a keen saltwater fisherman. I have my own little boat and go out fishing on the sea. I really enjoy that.<\/p>\n

But I will continue to play golf. In fact, I think I will still play the odd pro-am. We go to Portugal in the winter and I\u2019d like to keep doing that.<\/p>\n

I will keep my toes dipped in the golfing water. But I won\u2019t be too sad to be away from the 12 hour days at the golf club!<\/p>\n

Overall, I\u2019ll just continue enjoying St Enodoc!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Nick Williams took the head pro job at St Enodoc Golf Club in Cornwall, Ronald Reagan had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-818706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}