23-year-old named as youngest golf club secretary in the UK

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir June 13, 2018 08:35

West Essex Golf Club has appointed James Levick as its new secretary – someone who, at 23, is believed to be the youngest manager of a golf club in the country.

In 2014, driven by a trend towards appointing increasingly younger managers, The Golf Business conducted a search for the UK’s youngest golf club manager and found it to be Ellie Green, secretary of Epping Golf Club, also in Essex, who was also 23 years old.

It is thought that James has now taken on that title. He is also the youngest secretary of West Essex Golf Club in its 118-year history.

“This is an absolute honour for me to take up this role, we have already had a successful few years and with more around the corner – West Essex will be driving itself forward to becoming the number one club in Essex,” he said.

James Levick

At only 18 years old James left his home in Cornwall to take up a role in West Essex’s golf shop with the head professional and Fellow member of the PGA, Chris Baron.

“We could see from his experience in the shop that James is a driven and self-motivated individual. His customer service and engagement with members and guests was unquestionable,” said Chris.

At 20 he moved to the golf office as assistant to the secretary, where his skills in sales and social media interaction ‘flourished’, according to the club, as he helped drive membership sales up by 104 in his first year.

“Active use across Facebook, Twitter, regular email newsletters and the new development of the website pages raised the profile in such a short time,” added Chris.

“A Sabbatical shortly followed down under in Australia where he spent a winter working within the golf industry for Golf Australia.

“More was to follow. James and the professional team developed outreached events at local village fetes and school sports days. Then, as the London skylines can be seen from numerous locations around the course, we created ‘The London Open’, a professional order of merit that has brought local residents and the larger community of London businesses into West Essex. It’s now in its third year and has attracted leading European tour players such as Oli Fisher, Simon Khan, Raymond Russell, Robbie Coles and Mark Davis. The London Open tournament is growing fast. So much so James has decided to take another step forward and merge the PGA event with the ladies’ PGA from 2019 and then the senior and juniors from 2020.”

James said his immediate focus will be to continue driving membership sales, overseeing all club activities and future club developments, which will include the reconstruction of both practice grounds, a clubhouse refurbishment and bunker construction.

“We are lucky to have him on board. He is far beyond his years, his vision within the industry is incredible and his drive to take West Essex to the top of the tree is his sole focus,” concluded Chris.

Update: After this story was published we were alerted that another 23-year-old, Jack Venn (pictured), is a golf club manager: Boringdon Park Golf Club in Plymouth. Jack, who has just turned 24, is slightly older than James and is probably the second oldest golf club manager in the UK.

 

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir June 13, 2018 08:35
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6 Comments

  1. Simon June 14, 16:46

    Congratulations very impressive indeed good luck in the role

    Reply to this comment
  2. elizabeth June 14, 11:05

    Delighted other young people are becoming secretaries.. #loveourjob

    Reply to this comment
  3. matt June 13, 12:43

    Having played junior golf with James I can say he is the right man for the job. Very switched on and organised

    Reply to this comment
  4. Nora June 13, 11:06

    Age means nothing nowadays. We got millionaires entrepreneurs as young as college student! Good on him.

    Reply to this comment
  5. Liam June 12, 13:21

    Congratulations James, it’s great to see young people getting involved in the game. I was 23 when I took over as Club Captain at Drax Golf Club back in January of this year

    Reply to this comment
  6. Helen June 12, 12:30

    Congratulations James, look forward to seeing you over the summer sometime.

    Reply to this comment
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