GMA Benchmarking Presentation at National Conference

The GMA Golf Club Benchmarking tool has become a popular and efficient product for GMA members looking to have all the data they need at their fingertips.

Apart from a greatly increased input of information from clubs, the member only Premium level popularity has increased with nearly 20% more GMA members now embracing the wizardry of this tool.

A number of members may still not have had the opportunity to fully embrace this product, so GMA is ensuring that this will have its own timeslot at the up-coming GMA National Conference to be held at Jupiters Gold Coast from Sunday 30th August to Thursday 3rd September.

GMA Director, and General Manager of Huntingdale Golf Club in Melbourne, Stewart Fenton (pictured left) will be providing members with the latest up to date information of how and why GMA Golf Club Benchmarking was introduced, and will walk members through the many strengths of this tool.

Huntingdale Golf Club is located in the famous Melbourne Sandbelt and perhaps is most well known as the home of the Australian Masters Golf Tournament for 30 years from 1979 to 2008. Stewart has been in this position for the past seven years.

Prior to this appointment Stewart was General Manager of Pennant Hills Golf Club and Bonnie Doon Golf Club in Sydney. Stewart began his career in golf as Assistant Manager to coincidentally his fellow speaker David Burton at NSW Golf Club.

Stewart is a Chartered Accountant and has recently completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors intensive course with the support of his Club making him a qualified company director. Stewart is on the Board of GMA where he was responsible for the delivery of the Benchmarking project as well as Chairman of the Membership portfolio. Stewart is also on the Board of GMV (Sponsorship Portfolio) and is the Golf Club Manager representative on the Golf Australia Club Support Sub Committee and Female Participation Sub Committee.  

To follow, former GMA President and current General Manager of New South Wales Golf Club, David Burton, (pictured left) will present a demonstration of the power of the clustering tool, where clubs can analyse their figures and information against other specifically selected clubs who also agree to be included in the cluster.

David has been a strong driver and advocate of the GMA Golf Club Benchmarking product and has been instrumental in working with other Sydney based golf club managers to develop and implement clustering arrangements and outcomes.

The Australian Benchmarking concept began when David asked Ray Cronin, co founder of Club Benchmarking, if he could have a brief chat with him after sitting in on the benchmarking presentation at the CMAA Conference in San Diego in 2013.  Dozens of emails and 15 skype calls later and here were are, talking about the benchmarking application in Australia.

Many of you already know David.  For those of you that are new to the industry, David accepted the role of General Manager at New South Wales GC in 1996.  He is the Past President of Golf Management Australia, past Director on the Board of the Australian Golf Industry Council, a current Director on the Board of Golf Management Australia (NSW Division) as well as a Director of another company outside of golf.  David, just barely holding on to his A grade golfing status with a handicap of 12,  holds an undergraduate degree in business, a Chartered Accountancy designation as well as a post-graduate Diploma in Professional Golf Management.

David was employed in the business and finance sector for nine years when he made the switch to the golf industry 18 years ago when moving to Sydney.  During his time at NSW GC, he has been involved in the development of several strategic plans, six professional golf tournaments including the Australian Open, multiple building developments including clubhouse, works depot, halfway house, a dam and golf academy, a new constitution and a number of natural disasters including floods, fires and breached dams (and therefore lawsuits!).  The club has experienced very strong improvements in course quality, amenities and services over the last 17 years.  This has been acknowledged in the Australian and International golfing fraternity. The result is a club, which has a 13 year waitoing list for individual membership as well as a waiting list for corporate memberships and a prominent world ranking.

David has been involved in several conference forums and speaking on strategic planning in clubs in Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand.  He has hosted the International Symposium at the Club Managers Association of America Annual Conference in San Diego in 2013.  He also undertook a ‘Golf Odyssey’ in June 2012 which included playing 40 games in 32 days in England, Scotland and Ireland, without the use of a golf cart. The Odyssey was covered by five golfing publications throughout the world and the highlights he presented at the CMAA conference. 

A mad ice hockey fan and Canadian native, he says he is trying to get Australia to enter a team into the next winter Olympics but admits it is an uphill battle.

Early Bird Registrations for the Conference are proceeding well, and the number of delegates booked to date exceeds the number registered at the same time in 2013.

Early Bird Registration (and a significant saving for a full GMA member of $275.00) can be activated by going to www.gma.org.au and following the links.

For any enquiries regarding pricing and registration categories available, please contact GMA Executive Officer, David Allen at eo@gma.org.au or phone 0410 225 545.

If  you have any issues involving registration difficulties, please email to GMAregistrations@emgevents.com.au