AS a young boy growing up in Kent in the UK, Steve Lamerton used to sneak onto the Royal St George’s course near his home and play a few holes.
“I fell in love with links golf almost straight away, just love the game,” says the urbane expatriate Englishman who recently landed in the general manager’s role at the superb Flinders golf course on the Mornington Peninsula.
He became pretty good at the game too. In fact, with the confidence of youth he thought he could make a living from golf professionally and briefly gave it a go.
He was off “plus something or other” at the time but it took him just six weeks to realise the chasm between good low handicap players and professional golfers was indeed immense.
A university degree in mathematics and computing beckoned and a later a post graduate course in leisure management which led to a 30-plus year career in golf all over the world.
His most recent gig before retiring to Byron Bay was as executive manager at the exquisite NSW Golf Club at La Perouse.
“I thought that’s it. I’ve always loved Byron Bay so I moved there and was semi-retired. Then we travelled to Flinders over Christmas and we fell in love with the place. As soon as people drive into Flinders they immediately relax. We decided to move here and it just so happened that the GM’s job at Flinders was coming up at the time.”
The Flinders course offers a links golf experience on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
Flinders is very different from places he has managed like the Greg Norman-designed Nirwana Bali, at one-time the number one resort in Asia.
That was until Donald Trump, in partnership with an Indonesian developer, bought the joint lock stock and barrel and razed it to the ground. It lies idle at the moment although a Phil Mickelson course is said the be on the drawing board. It would appear MAGA could be taking precedence at the moment.
Back in Australia, Steve has managed a number of venues – Noosa Springs, Hope Island and Indooroopilly in Brisbane.
At Indooroopilly, he gave Ross Perrett and Karrie Web the nod to revamp the course over Gary Player and Robert Trent Jones junior.
“Karrie Webb will become the pre-eminent course designer in the world if she is not already. And (world renowned architect) Ross Perrett’s record speaks for itself. He is a very, very talented man.”
The day Steve took the Flinders job he was offered the same gig at Royal Sydney which had courted him for the position of CEO.
To say Royal Sydney was a different beast from Flinders is an understatement.
“It has 250 staff, even two full time florists and a membership of 6000.”
Flinders, he says, is golf as it was meant to be played.
Steve Lamerton, General Manager at the Flinders Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
“It is a lovely links course with ocean views on every hole. It can be walked quite easily but in the wind defies you to play to your handicap.
“It’s golf as it should be played and reminds me of St Andrews in Scotland. It has a piece of land open to the public.
“It has a one-way road through it. People stroll through all the time. They come for picnics and we welcome them as golf goes on around them.
“It is a piece of land that is just meant for golf.”
And above all, Flinders founders in the 1920’s had the foresight to make sure by act of parliament that the land is used for golf in perpetuity, keeping it out of the hands of rapacious developers.
Steve considers himself fortunate to continue to spend his life in golf. “It has never felt like work,” he says.
Clearly Flinders is the absolute icing on the cake.
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