Jason Glanz, the likeable GM at Eagle Ridge Golf Course on the Mornington Peninsula, says he didn’t leave anything in the locker when it came to having a full-time crack at playing golf for a living.
“My problem was that I never made the cut in an event on the main Australian Tour in the three or so years I played it full-time.
“I could always qualify, which you always had to do on the Monday or Tuesday back then. I used to shoot three or four under to get into the field. But my problem was putting. I was a terrible putter and had the yips big time in the end.”
So much so that he was using the dreaded ‘broomstick’ putter by the time he stepped away and looked for a career away from golf.
He had made ends meet by playing the pro-am circuits including the legendary ‘troppo tour’ in northern Queensland. He won a few times, too – including successive events one weekend in Melbourne
“I probably didn’t take it too seriously. I Just thought I was having a good time and was enjoying having fun playing golf.”
He had gained a Bachelor of Computing degree at Monash University so he knew he had other career options.
Eagle Ridge General Manager Jason Glanz.
By the time he was 30, it dawned upon Jason that he had “no money, nowhere to live” and the only thing he owned was a fairly ordinary car.
His first crack on Tour lasted 12 months before he was offered a traineeship under Metropolitan’s Ross Anderson who had succeeded the legendary Brian Twite at the elite sandbelt club.
Another three years on tour followed before he stepped away to purchase a manufacturing business with his family.
“When we sold it, I took a job teaching golf and working for Ian Denny at Amstel.
“I learnt a lot from Ian, He’s a great guy and a good operator,” Jason says.
A stint running Devil Bend and teaching amateurs preceded his time at Eagle Ridge where he landed as operations manager in 2015. He replaced the veteran GM, Wayne Lucas, when Lucas retired.
“Golf is thriving on the Mornington Peninsula and everywhere else since Covid. And we have been part of that like almost every other golf venue. The game is experiencing an unprecedented boom in numbers playing the game and we have to make sure the game harnesses the surge and hangs onto it,” Jason says.
Eagle Ridge has gone from hosting 21-22,000 rounds annually to 45-55,000 in the year just gone.
It has not happened by chance. With the competition so strong – there are 30 or so courses on the peninsula – Eagle Ridge has deliberately set out to be a course where young people can have fun and still play a round. “We have a much younger demographic here and we don’t enforce dress standards as rigidly as some of our neighbours,” Jason says.
“We have bucks’ parties and lots of young guys playing in big groups. By and large they are all respectful of the game, the course and the facilities.”
The 11th hole at the Eagle Ridge Golf course.
With revenue up 40 per cent the Chinese owners of Eagle Ridge have invested heavily in the course and clubhouse in recent years and also introduced a state-of-the-art motorised fleet of carts which even plays your favourite music during a round at the touch of a button.
Another real winner for the club has been its emergence as a premier live music venue on the Mornington Peninsula.
Live music had died on the Mornington Peninsula during the pandemic. But it is thriving again thanks to the involvement of guru Steve Myles. “It has been a real hit with the younger golfers who can now meet their girlfriends and wives for a drink after they have played golf rather than being absent from home for eight hours.
“I’ve been in golf most of my life and have my dream job. Working in golf, hosting live music – which I have always loved – and running a bar.
Eagle Ridge has 40 staff – eight full-time on the course where chief super Scott Balloch has been for 40 years.
“He does a great job and that was especially the case when we had no staff during Covid,” Jason says.
Eagle Ridge is alive and well under the guidance of yet another club GM who has come through the professional playing ranks.
