An inset day tends to be welcomed by pupils, affording them a bonus day free of the classroom, but is cursed by parents, left with the inconvenience of making additional child care arrangements.

Neither nine-year-old Molly Pavey nor her father John could have imagined that one of her inset days would see him play the inadvertent role of successful careers adviser.

It was the moment the now 24-year-old general manager of Bramshaw Golf Club, in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, was introduced to the sport for which she had such a natural aptitude that she would become a county champion in her teens.

“My dad used to play, and we had an inset day and he was, ‘What do I do with you?’ kind of thing,” recalls Torbay-born Pavey. “So he took me to the driving range, at a little local nine-hole course, and that was it really.”

Was it actually the case of the avid golfing father just musing, ‘What can I do that Molly can tag along with me? I know, I’d like to go and hit some golf balls’? “Absolutely,” she laughs.

No matter the motive for her father’s choice, she is grateful that it led to a deep love of the game at which she would both quickly excel and subsequently embrace as an occupational vehicle albeit not one travelling down the road towards tour pro despite having such aspirations after winning the Devon women’s championship at just 16.

“I had thought about the possibility of trying to become a tournament pro by going down the route of American college, but I didn’t feel I was quite good enough,” she says.

“I think when I was under 18 I was quite a big fish in a small pond, especially living in Devon as well. However, I played in quite a lot of national and regional events and, when you open your eyes to that, the level is so much higher than a lot of people think.”

She quickly assessed that she did not have the drive or patience to devote herself to the practice she knew was required to succeed at the top.

“I think when you get to that point there’s no point chasing something that maybe your heart isn’t fully in.”

However, she did feel, having also shown an affinity for other sports, including football and tennis, before she applied herself solely to golf, that she could find fulfilment by pursuing a career that involved sports.

The work ethic that has seen her achieve the admirable accomplishment of becoming general manager at Hampshire’s oldest club by her mid-twenties was responsible for her working no fewer than three jobs to pay her way at Bournemouth University, where she gained a degree in Sports Psychology and Coaching Sciences.

Spells at Harrow House International College and Clayesmore School were undertaken with a view to gaining a postgraduate certificate in education, the end goal being becoming a sports teacher, but she reveals: “The pupils can be really challenging at times and I realised that possibly the teaching route wasn’t for me. I very much respect people who work in education, especially private schools, because it is challenging.

“I was then at a bit of a crossroads and I thought, ‘What do I do from here?’ and I thought, ‘I know golf; let’s give this a go’.

“I started at Dudsbury Golf Club as golf operations assistant. It was quite heavy front-facing, and then obviously a bit of admin, which always comes with golf clubs.

“It was a real eye opener as to how a golf club runs and what goes on behind the scenes. Having been a member of a golf club for years, you see it as a customer, but you don’t necessarily see it as an operator, so it was really interesting to see and understand how golf clubs work.”

She stepped up to work as golf operations manager at Meyrick Park in Bournemouth – part of The Club Company’s portfolio – leaving there in August 2022 to take up the same position at Bramshaw. Promotion to assistant general manager just under a year later was followed by further elevation to her current role in October last year.

Her ascent to the position In just over two years in the industry has probably placed her among the youngest golf club general managers in the UK.

“I would have thought I probably am, but I’ve not really thought about it because that’s a bit scary,” says Pavey, whose record and politely confident demeanour both suggest that apprehension would trouble her no more than would a one-foot putt.

She credits those in charge at Bramshaw for their attitude that sees youth as an asset and not a liability.

“Our owners are really developmental, they want us to be the very best that we can be, which is really refreshing in a place of work.

“I think you can either go for a lifestyle along with a job or the job is your lifestyle. I think it’s quite easy for golf clubs to facilitate that because all day you’re talking to people, you’re meeting new people, and we’re quite a young team at Bramshaw.

“I’d say our average age is between 30 and 35. We are a young team, which is nice because we’re all developing together.

“Our oldest member of staff is 55, and he’s our head chef. Our head greenkeeper is only 39, so to be a head greenkeeper before you’re 40, I’d say, is quite an achievement.”

Bramshaw, home to golf since 1865 when its exotically named land owner Philip de Crespigny produced a track for his guests, became a club 15 years later and has two layouts – The Manor and The Forest. The club provides the esoteric aspect of golfers finding on occasions that sharing the fairways with them are members of the New Forest’s ‘Big Five’ – pigs, cattle, sheep, horses and deer.

“We say to the visitors ‘have you seen the Big Five today?’,” says Pavey. “The Forest Course is all common land so they have full rights there. We know when spring’s around the corner because we always see the pigs and all the baby pigs as well.”

As of February, after a few hours spent if not big-game hunting then hunting for their best game, players will be able to watch from a new, enlarged balcony overlooking the last green as those behind them complete their rounds.

“One of the investments that the company are doing is extending the balcony right out, which will seat about 80 people, and we should have that come the end of February, along with a new swing studio,” says Pavey. “There’s a lot going on at the club.

“The balcony will overlook the 18th green so it will be fantastic for a bit of banter with the guys as they come off the course.”

Despite work restricting her opportunities to play as much as she would like, Pavey manages to maintain an impressive handicap of one and, having been cleared to play in the women’s club championship last year, won it.

“I’m not sure how well that went down,” she laughs, but it is easy to believe that the rapport and reputation her hard work and diligence have built at Bramshaw in a short space of time meant that no one will have begrudged her what seems likely to be a unique double of being both a club’s general manager and its club champion.