How To Become A Golf Course Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a golf course manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a golf course manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.41 an hour? That's $52,858 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 189,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreGolf Course ManagerUS Average

Salary

4.1

Avg. Salary $52,858

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.6

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.47%

Asian 6.40%

Black or African American 6.22%

Hispanic or Latino 15.31%

Unknown 4.34%

White 67.26%

Gender

female 24.31%

male 75.69%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

9.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.2

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.6

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a golf course manager

Explore golf course manager education requirements

Most common golf course manager degrees

Bachelor's

61.7 %

Associate

18.4 %

Master's

9.3 %

Start to develop specific golf course manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Pro Shop	22.97%
Course Maintenance	8.27%
Mowing	7.39%
Instructional Materials	6.11%
Course Management	5.93%

Complete relevant golf course manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New golf course managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a golf course manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real golf course manager resumes.

Research golf course manager duties and responsibilities

Develop and manage all pesticide, weed, fertilizer, and cultural programs for turf grass and landscape plants.
Locate, excavate, and repair buried PVC and metal pipe.
Operate greens and fairway mowers, sand trap rake and other associate maintenance duties.
Implement POS and club billing system increasing efficiency, and eliminating extra cost from off site billing.

Apply for golf course manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a golf course manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do golf course managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Golf course manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019

Pros

I like to tell tell people that a be manager a room to maltreat people under you. Also like been humble even though I am heading people because they can contribute ideas that makes you Excel in your position