One of Glasgow’s “classic” city golf clubs has confirmed the appointment of a new general manager in the latest stage of a low-key effort to chip away at its old-fashioned image.
Andrew McIntyre officially took the helm at Pollok Golf Club this week, having arrived from Hilton Park. His brief is to be the visible and member-facing leader of a refreshed senior team that includes new course manager Chris McGee and a new front‑of‑house manager responsible for bar and catering. Mr Christie explains how this fits into the bigger picture of Pollock’s evolution.
(Image: Damian Shields)
Your own members have described Pollok as attempting to shed its “stuffy” image – is that a fair assessment?
That’s what it used to be like. It was very much a gentlemen’s club, and it was very much the elite business people of Glasgow – lawyers, judges – and it was a bit Muirfield‑like in the type of membership we used to have. It was all the professions: lawyers, chartered accountants, that type.
No club can rely on just that type of member now. So we are open to everybody – ladies, juniors, gentlemen. We have quite a large contingent of Chinese members, and we have Asian members; it’s completely mixed – ladies, juniors, everything. So we’ve opened it up to everybody and it’s really, really working.
How has that been achieved?
The big thing is just changing the mindset. It was a bit stuffy before, but it’s changed considerably over the last 10 years. We’ve opened the doors, we’re welcoming people in, we’ve got new lady members and a steady membership overall.
We’ve also become much more relaxed about people coming up to the club to play. If someone’s working in town and wants a game of golf, they just have to look at the phone – there is a space. There’s always space and they’ll be welcome; if there wasn’t a space they’d be welcome to join somebody else.
Andrew McIntyre, Pollok’s new general manager, began his career as an assistant professional at Ranfurly Castle Golf Club and has also worked at Cameron House, Mar Hall, and latterly Hilton Park (Image: Supplied)
When and why did you open up to female membership?
Ladies were brought in about 10 or 11 years ago now – I can’t give you the exact date, but it’s about 10 years ago.
It was a conscious decision at that time because the R&A had said to Glasgow Golf Club at Killermont and to Western Gailes that it wasn’t acceptable for clubs these days to have a solely male membership. And our own members really wanted to have lady members as well – we really did – and it was time for that change.
I think the switch was when the R&A were discussing it with other clubs and said, “You won’t get your Open Championship if you don’t have lady members.” At that point we said, “No, we are changing now.” So we were very quick to react on that, quicker than many others.
What does your membership look like today?
Ordinary membership is 520 and is capped at 550, to preserve easy tee access for the people who pay the full fee. Total membership is around 580, and it’s been steady at that level for the last three years.
Play out of the bunker along the 1st (Image: Supplied)
We haven’t lost members other than through age or people no longer able to play, and they’re being replaced by new members coming in. There’s quite an active new membership at the moment, and we’re now a much more diverse club. We’ve got 28 women in our ladies’ section, and we’d like to double that.
What are you looking for from Andrew McIntyre, your new general manager?
We interviewed thoroughly to get the right guy and we used CCL, a specific golf recruitment company – that’s how we’ve ended up with Andrew. He’s coming from Hilton Park, where he was manager of two courses and quite a large membership.
The people that will report to him will be the course manager and our front‑of‑house manager, and he’ll be face‑to‑face with the membership, which has not happened as often as we would have liked with the last manager. Andrew will be more involved with the members, if he’s got enough time to do it, because we’re trying to make a lot of changes at the club to continue what we’ve been doing.
What’s the five-year plan for the clubhouse?
We’ve already spent about £100,000 on a new kitchen as part of that plan. The next big step is a substantial lounge refurbishment that we’re targeting to have completed by 2027, subject to member approval.
A new front-of-house manager will be starting later in May (Image: Supplied)
Alongside that, we’ve appointed a new front‑of‑house manager – not just bar, but bar and catering – and she starts on the 25th of May. It’s all about lifting the clubhouse to the same standard as the golf course and making it somewhere people really want to spend time.
So what do you hope the club will look and feel like in five year’s time?
As far as the course goes at the moment, it’s a premier club. No matter who the members are – whether it’s male or female and diverse, whatever it is – it’s still the premier club in the west of Scotland.
Where do we want to be in five years’ time? The club still wants to be prestigious, it still wants to be seen as the best. So it’s not going to lose any of these tags, but it’s going to be open and people are going to want to join it. That’s what I want it to be.
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(Image: Damian Shields)