Members of a certain vintage are inclined to cling on to some golf club traditions with blind devotion because ‘we’ve always done it like that’. Similarly, they may be dismissive of new ideas because ‘that’s not what we do at this club’.

We have surely all heard such sentiments expressed at our club; we may even have heard ourselves expressing them.

Such reluctance to relinquish the past and an accompanying resistance to change could be because, as golfers, if you’ll pardon the pun, we occasionally can’t see the woods for the tees. Which is why many clubs might do well to take the path trodden in the past decade at Drumpellier Golf Club, near Glasgow, Scotland, in appointing a non-golfer as general manager to bring an unblinkered view to the post. Well, former non-golfer, of which more later.

Kerry Shields began working at Drumpellier ten years ago as a part-time member of the bar staff, was elevated to bar manager fairly swiftly and then – having made a huge success of that – just before COVID cast its global pall she was offered and ultimately accepted her current post.

“During my two years as general manager, I think it’s really helped that I’m not a golfer because I don’t look at things from a golfer’s perspective,” says Shields. “I look at it from just a person coming into the clubhouse.

“Necessarily, yes, of course we want to get golfers in here, that is the ideal, but we have a really successful social membership as well because we do different things outwith,” she explains.

The 31-year-old breathed new life instantly into Drumpellier’s social calendar with the first function she organised, a karaoke, when 130 attendees were fed the familiar pre-round staple of bacon rolls.

Black tie occasions at the club are a thing of the past (pauses for gasps around the UK to fade out before continuing typing) with Shields commenting: “When it came to these and the dances, they were dying out anyway. People weren’t attending.

“There was an older crowd of members who enjoyed them, which was fair enough, but the younger people were not coming to them, nor did they want to. Even the big dinners now, there isn’t a formal event.

“We try to organise tribute nights and stuff like that. Our bar manager, Robyn Curran, is brilliant and she has organised a psychic night, and she’s already sold over 50 tickets for it.

“What we’ve been noticing with that is a lot of members’ wives have bought tickets to come with their friends, so on that night we’ll have stuff out on the tables about social membership.”

Shields is a firm believer that she needs to run Drumpellier both as a golf club and as a business. “The two do go hand in hand,” she insists. “What I always say to the people who want to keep this golf club completely exclusive is, ‘be my guest.

“However, you need to be prepared to be in this golf club supporting every single thing we do’ – and they’re not prepared to do that. Some want to dictate what everyone should be wearing, what they should be doing. You have to move with the times.”

Switching from being a colleague to a boss carried the advantage of knowing her staff, but she was aware that she could retain a mutual manner of friendliness without needing to be friends. “It isn’t easy making that transition from being everybody’s friend. I am not here to be friends with anybody. I’m here to do the best for Drumpellier Golf Club and to make sure the club is always performing how we want it to be, and sometimes you don’t get on with some people.

“But I think the thing we have here is that we’ve all got respect for each other and I’m very, very good to the staff because I’ve been there, I’ve seen how it is to be treated a certain way. I always put myself in a situation of, ‘when I was behind the bar, how would I have liked someone to come down and done this or that?’”

An additional benefit of being a non-golfer is that she is able to act as a conduit for passing on concerns about the course without being expected to pass judgement on their merits.

“It benefited me that I wasn’t a golfer because members wouldn’t see me and then want to talk about their round of golf. They wouldn’t worry me about the golf course. They would email me about it, but I wouldn’t stand and get into an argument about bunkers, about greens, because that’s not my forte.

“I’ve got a head greenkeeper Colin Powrie who’s done it for 30 odd years who knows exactly the answers to give them. I think general managers can spread themselves too thin, trying to be on top of too many things.”

The past tense of being a non-golfer applies because, when Drumpellier took part in the Ladies Get Into Golf initiative, she attended with her mother and a friend – and now plays once a week, although not as yet under the guiding hand of partner Gordon Robertson, the club’s professional, who has still to give her a lesson.

“I came along to the Ladies Get Into Golf event run by our assistant pro Aidan Mcauley and I enjoyed it.

“I’m always on the phone,” admits Shields, “and very rarely do you see me without my phone in my back pocket or in my hand, and I don’t want to be that person who is constantly on the phone.

“So when I’m out there playing golf I didn’t even take my phone. I was just out, trying to hit balls, and you’re out getting a bit of fresh air and I get to catch up with my friend as well, finding out all the stuff that you’d be texting them about.

“I’m also getting my exercise in, so it ticks a few boxes for me.”

The sessions impressively converted half of the dozen other attendees into members on a six-month trial basis. “The existing lady ladies members here have been extremely good.

“They come in at the end of the sessions and organise a Texas Scramble. Two lady members take two new ladies out and play seven holes and then all come into the clubhouse afterwards.

“We are just trying to make people feel included and even if they don’t become a playing member at the end of the six months, hopefully they will become a social member.”

Sunday is the one day of the week that Shields, Gordon and three-year-old daughter Orla get to spend time together. More of that time in the future may be devoted to golf as “my wee girl’s now got her own wee clubs, proper clubs with headcovers on them.

“Everything we do is all altered around Orla, just to suit her,” she says. “Sundays are the only day we get the three of us together, so we always have plans and they all come around Orla. There is some mum guilt,” she confesses.

Plans at the club include moving towards being more sustainable and reducing energy costs where possible. “We have just finished getting a solar panel put on the roof,” outlines Shields. “Before in the golf club, everything used to be on constantly, now everything in the clubhouse is on a timer. All the lights come on automatically when you walk in.”