Andr\u00e9s S\u00e1nchez, manager of Atalaya Golf & Country Club, explains to us how a top US course is run.<\/p>\n
Updated training, even more so during these times of greater competition, is the key to facing new challenges in managing any business, including \u2013 of course \u2013 a golf course. That is why so many golf club managers make sure they stay abreast of latest management models. Andre\u0301s Sa\u0301nchez, manager of Atalaya Golf & Country Club, is one of these professionals. He has had the good fortune to see and learn first-hand how one of the United States\u2019 most renowned golf clubs, Congressional Golf & Country Club in Washington, is managed.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cMy American dream, a great opportunity,\u201d explains S\u00e1nchez, \u201cwas granted to me by Atalaya Golf and the CMAA (Course Manager Association of America) through executive member Jeffrey Kreafle, who is also CEO of the Congressional Country Club. After undertaking several courses over the past four years with the CMAE (its European \u201csister\u201d association), I needed practical experience at a US golf course to see how their operational management, their economic model, was over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The destination was not just any course, but Congressional Country Club, which is 100 per cent private, founded in 1924 by Members of Congress in Washington, with two 18-hole courses, pools, a gymnasium, four restaurants and 3,500 members. \u201cIt\u2019s managed in a very professional way,\u201d says Sa\u0301nchez, \u201clike a major company, with an extensive organisational chart, general manager, assistant to the general manager and 24 department heads.\u201d<\/p>\n