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The golf club secretary is the officer who keeps a club legal, minuted and properly governed: constitution, committees, compliance and correspondence, while the general manager, where one exists, runs the trading business. At many clubs one person still does both jobs, which is exactly why the title confuses outsiders.
The role is old but not fading. England’s 1,815 affiliated golf clubs, on England Golf figures, each need someone accountable for rules, records and regulatory duties whatever the nameplate says, and the governance load has grown with employment law, safeguarding, licensing and data protection. Regulators do not distinguish between a hobby committee and a business; the duties are the same.
Here is what a golf club secretary does now, how the job splits from modern management, and what clubs should look for when the role next falls vacant, because it will, usually at the least convenient moment.
What a golf club secretary does now
The spine of the job is the committee cycle. The secretary prepares agendas and papers, records minutes that would survive a dispute, tracks actions between meetings and services the annual general meeting, where rule changes and elections must be run exactly by the book. The AGM alone can consume weeks: notices issued on time, proxies handled correctly, resolutions worded so they do what their proposers intend.
Around that sit the registers: membership records, applications, resignations and transfers, correspondence with members, the county and the national union, discipline and complaints handled with due process, insurance renewals, and the club’s official filings where it is incorporated. Some secretaries also oversee competitions and handicapping, though many clubs now delegate those to committees or staff.
The job description is dry; the reality is diplomatic. A good golf club secretary is the institutional memory of the place and the person who can tell a past captain no without starting a civil war. That memory is not nostalgia; it is knowing why a rule exists before a new committee deletes it.
Governance and compliance
Legal structure sets the workload. Members’ clubs may be unincorporated associations or limited companies, proprietary venues sit inside trading companies, and each form carries different duties around filings, liability and meetings. The secretary is typically the officer who understands which rules apply and keeps the paperwork aligned with them.
Compliance has widened far beyond the constitution: bar licensing, employment obligations for staff, safeguarding where juniors are coached, health and safety across a site full of machinery, and data protection over decades of member records. None of this needs inventing; it needs maintaining, on a calendar, with evidence.
The safeguard is boring and effective: an annual compliance calendar, named owners for each duty, and minutes that record not just decisions but the reasons for them, which is what protects volunteer directors when hindsight arrives.
The split with the general manager
The traditional secretary-manager ran everything from subscriptions to staff rotas. The modern division separates governance from trading: the secretary serves the board and the constitution, while the general manager runs revenue, staff and service. The GCMA supports both camps, managers and secretaries, which tells you how mixed the real world remains.
Titles blur in practice: secretary-manager, club secretary, company secretary, operations director. What matters is not the nameplate but the accountability map: who answers to the members for the rules, and who answers to the board for the results. Clubs in trouble usually turn out to have muddled the two. A simple test works: if the boiler fails it is the manager’s problem; if the AGM is inquorate it is the secretary’s.
The commercial side the manager runs, the tee sheet, the bar and kitchen, the staffing structure, is covered across our operator guides; the secretary’s job is to make sure the board governing it all is quorate, informed and on record.
The commercial pressure on the golf club secretary
Governance still touches money constantly. The secretary drafts the papers when subscriptions are set, and the modelling behind that decision is the subject of our subscription economics guide. Lease renewals, loan covenants and land questions cross the desk too, and our guide to golf course leases and freeholds shows how much can hang on clauses agreed decades ago.
Boards now expect management-grade reporting: risk registers, policy reviews, project papers for capital spending, member consultations run properly. The volunteer tradition survives at smaller clubs, but the standard expected has quietly professionalised everywhere. Even where the secretary holds no budget, the quality of the board papers shapes every financial decision the club makes.
Hiring a golf club secretary in 2026
The market splits three ways: volunteer secretaries at small members’ clubs, paid part-time roles in the middle, and full-time professionals, often carrying the manager’s duties too, at larger venues. The skills that matter are constitutional literacy, minute-taking accuracy, regulatory awareness and diplomacy under provocation. Pay follows scale and duties, and honest clubs benchmark the package against the real workload rather than the title.
Succession is the quiet risk. Many clubs depend on one long-serving officer, and the handover of institutional knowledge deserves a year, not a fortnight. When the vacancy comes, write the role honestly, governance, management or both, and advertise it where golf’s administrators actually look, starting with our jobs board.
Frequently asked questions
What does a golf club secretary do?
The secretary runs the club’s governance: committees, minutes, membership records, rule changes, compliance and official correspondence. At many clubs the role also absorbs day-to-day management, depending on size and structure.
Is a golf club secretary the same as a general manager?
Not quite. The secretary serves the constitution and the board; the general manager runs the trading operation. Many clubs combine the two in one secretary-manager post, but the accountabilities remain distinct.
Do all golf clubs still need a secretary?
The duties always exist even where the title does not. Incorporated clubs have statutory obligations, members’ clubs have constitutional ones, and proprietary venues fold the work into company administration. Someone must own it either way.
What qualifications does a golf club secretary need?
There is no single mandatory qualification. Clubs look for governance experience, administrative accuracy and familiarity with club law and regulation, and bodies such as the GCMA provide training and peer support for those in post.
Sources: England Golf; GCMA.
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