Where Brand Meets Belonging: Lessons from a Private Club Golf Professional
As Head Golf Professional at The Club at Golden Valley, Jake Vogt’s days are not spent the way most people imagine.
He is not teaching swing mechanics or running tournaments. He is orchestrating member experience. Staying one or two steps ahead of what members want next. Anticipating needs before they surface. Creating the kind of excitement that turns satisfaction into genuine attachment.
This is what the golf pro role has become at top private clubs: not managing golf instruction and events, but designing belonging.
We sat down with Jake to understand how he thinks about his role and what he has learned about creating member value. What follows are insights that inform how we think about where brand lives and how belonging gets created in clubs.
The Pro’s Real Job: Orchestrating Experience
Most people think golf professionals manage golf instruction and events.
Jake sees it differently.
“In a private facility, it is being one, two, three steps ahead of your member. You are always trying to think of what they might want next. Have their bag ready. Greet their guests. Think about merchandising. Adjust signage for tournaments coming up. You are always trying to stay as many steps ahead as you can so members can embrace our club’s lifestyle.”
This is not about golf. This is about creating an environment where members feel known, anticipated, cared for.
It is the difference between a club that provides amenities and a club that creates belonging.
What this means for club leaders:
The best frontline staff do not see themselves as managing operations. They see themselves as orchestrating experiences that create attachment.
When you hire for roles like golf professional, you are not just hiring someone to run events or manage the shop. You are hiring someone who understands that their role is creating the conditions for belonging.
Frame it that way from the start.
The Pro Makes Decisive Calls That Shape Culture
Jake believes in making clear, decisive operational calls rather than hedging or phasing things in gradually.
When the club evolved its identity, he faced a choice many golf pros face: keep old merchandise alongside new, or make a clean transition?
He chose clarity.
“We removed all the old identity from the floor. There was no option to keep both. I told my vendors: remove the old mark from your systems entirely. We made a clean break. When members came in asking for club merchandise, they received the new identity. That was the only choice.”
This decisiveness comes from understanding that ambiguity creates confusion. Members need clarity about who the club is and where it is heading.
When you give members options to stay in the past, some will. When you present the future as the path forward, they move with you.
What this means for club leaders:
Frontline staff make operational decisions every day that either reinforce or undermine strategic direction.
When you give your team clarity and permission to make bold moves, change happens naturally. When you hedge or phase things in timidly, you create confusion.
The golf professionals who succeed understand their decisions shape culture, not just operations.
New Members Become Cultural Ambassadors
Jake has observed something important about how clubs evolve.
Newer members embrace change and new direction immediately. They arrive with no attachment to how things used to be. They see the club as it is now and decide if it fits them.
When they love what they find, they become ambassadors. They talk about the club with genuine enthusiasm. They bring friends. They recruit the next generation of members.
Tenured members take longer. Change challenges their sense of continuity. But Jake has learned that tenured members watch how newer members respond. When they see enthusiasm, energy, and pride, they come around.
“For our members who have been here a long time, change can be challenging. But they see the club excelling. They see it becoming more vibrant.”
And here is what clubs often miss: those new members become your best recruiters. They bring in the next round of members. They are your most effective salespeople because their enthusiasm is genuine and their networks are active.
What this means for club leaders:
New members are an asset as clubs evolve. They have no baggage. They arrive ready to embrace who you are becoming.
When you immerse new members in your identity from day one, they become ambassadors. They model the culture you are building. Their enthusiasm creates momentum that shifts the broader membership over time.
Do not focus all your energy on convincing skeptical members. Focus on giving new members a clear, compelling identity to buy into.
Every Guest Represents a Future Member
Jake has a clear philosophy about guest experience: treat every guest like they could become a member.
This is not a sales tactic. It is a mindset about hospitality.
He described visiting other clubs where the experience makes guests feel invisible. The cart attendant looks past you. The person behind the counter is indifferent. You never quite feel welcome.
Jake’s approach is different. Guests receive the same level of care and attention as members. Because the experience they have determines whether they ever want to return or join.
“That hospitality is intentional. Every guest represents a potential member. We approach them that way from the moment they arrive.”
What this means for club leaders:
How your staff interact with guests reveals your culture more than any marketing material ever will.
Some clubs extend genuine hospitality that makes guests feel they belong. Others signal, through a series of small moments, that guests are secondary.
That difference comes from the top. It is a philosophy that either gets communicated and modeled or it does not.
If you want members who feel genuine belonging, start by showing guests what that belonging looks like.
Brand Lives in Cross-Functional Collaboration
One of Jake’s examples illustrates how brand becomes real in operations.
A group is on hole twelve. They call in. They missed the halfway house. Can they get some beverages?
Jake calls the bartender. The bartender assembles the order. Jake sends a staff member to deliver it to the twelfth hole.
“We work as a team to create exceptional experiences. That member and their group never had to think twice about it. The problem was solved seamlessly.”
This is not about brand guidelines or visual identity. This is about departments working together because everyone understands what creates belonging.
Jake described clubs where you can tell departments are siloed. You leave the golf area and walk into food and beverage, and it feels like a completely different club. Different standards. Different energy. Different level of care.
At clubs where identity is clear, the experience feels consistent. You are at this club no matter where you are in the building.
What this means for club leaders:
Brand clarity does not just change what things look like. It changes how departments work together.
When everyone understands who the club is and what creates belonging, collaboration happens naturally. Staff know what standards to uphold. They know what the member experience should feel like. They make decisions that align without needing constant direction.
This is why identity work matters operationally, not just visually.
The Pro’s Advice: Build Relationships Across Departments
We asked Jake what advice he would give young golf professionals trying to elevate their role.
His answer was immediate: “Build relationships across the entire operation. Know your food and beverage team. Know your grounds crew. Take time to connect with your concierge. When you need to hand off a member’s needs, those relationships ensure it gets handled with the same level of care you would provide yourself. You know exactly who to call and trust they will deliver.”
This is leadership at the operational level.
It is understanding that creating great member experiences requires cross-functional trust and collaboration. It requires knowing who to call when a member has a need. It requires relationships that make seamless service possible.
What this means for club leaders:
The staff who create the best member experiences are the ones who understand the club holistically, not just their department.
When you hire and develop staff, emphasize cross-functional collaboration as a core competency. Help them see that their role is not managing their silo. It is contributing to the whole member experience.
The clubs that feel seamless are the ones where staff know each other, trust each other, and work together to solve member needs quickly.
Moving Forward
Brand does not live in boardrooms or brand guidelines.
It lives in the pro shop when a staff member greets a guest like a future member. It lives at the first tee when someone anticipates what a member needs before they ask. It lives on the golf course when departments collaborate seamlessly to solve a simple request.
Jake Vogt taught us that the golf pro role has evolved. It is no longer about only managing golf instruction and events. It is about orchestrating experiences that create belonging.
The professionals who understand this think one or two steps ahead. They make decisive operational calls that shape culture. They build relationships across departments. They treat every guest as a potential member.
When frontline staff understand that their role is creating belonging, not just managing operations, members feel the difference. They feel known. They feel anticipated. They feel they belong to something special.
That is where brand meets belonging.
We help clubs turn strategic clarity into operational culture.
Schedule a 30-minute introductory call. We will show you how frontline decisions create the belonging members feel every day. Not ready to talk? Explore additional resources at sussner.com/action
Brand lives in the moments your staff create. Make those moments count.
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