When former US Marine Traci Irons Izzo applied for a part-time job with her local golf course driving a beverage cart, little did she realise she was setting in motion a career that would later see her as one of the few female Certified Chief Executives in the sport.

Now, Irons Izzo is general manager and chief operating officer at Heritage Palms Golf & Country Club, in Florida, a world away from dishing up sodas to sweaty executives.

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Irons Izzo, 51, established her reputation in Florida before returning to the Great Lake State, and then back to Florida, where she was in increasing demand as her reputation grew.

But it all started at 23, when, with her then-husband and two children, she moved into a property at Champions Club, at Julington Creek, where her husband was a member.

She recalled: “I was keen to do something part-time, get out of the house, and make a little money, so I accepted a beverage cart position.

“But within a couple of weeks, the head professional, and the owner came to me and said, ‘We see something in you. Are you interested in learning this business?’ And I thought, what the hell? Why not? And so, I took the position as food and beverage director.

“They took me under their wing, because I didn’t have any experience in club management or even food and beverage management. But I used to be in the Marine Corps and that taught me a lot about initiative and integrity. And I picked everything up very easily. They treated me really well.

“I spent four years there before my husband and I decided to move back to Detroit, and, soon after, we divorced. In this business, for most of the time, I’ve been a single mum of three children.”

Which makes the success she’s had seem all the more creditable. She enjoyed spells at Tam-O-Shanter Country Club, Knollwood Country Club – where she first experienced an interim role as GM – Forest Lake Country Club, and Great Oaks Country Club in her home state, before returning to Florida at Copperleaf Golf Club, in Bonita Springs. It was in August 2021 she took on her present role at Heritage Palms, in Fort Myers.

And, since 2001, she has actively involved herself in local and national committees within the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA).

Not satisfied with just the four letters, Irons Izzo is also entitled to use the initials CCM (Certified Club Manager), CCE (Certified Chief Executive), and CAM (Community Association Manager) after her name, making her unusual, if not unique, among female general managers in the industry.

It was at Great Oaks where her creative thinking and influence really made her stand out from the crowd. When she joined in 2013 the club had a problem with membership retention; when she left, five years later, it had its first waiting list.

She explained: “We had a trial membership. We allowed members, or prospective members, to try the club for 30 days, without becoming a member. It was up to us, the staff, the members, to welcome them so that they felt comfortable and might want to stay there.”

With her children grown up and in homes of their own Irons Izzo had her heart set on heading to Florida so the move to Copperleaf was a natural progression.

She said: “I interviewed at other clubs in Florida for about a year or so before that happened. When I accepted that position, I knew it was a three-to-five-year plan. They said, ‘We know this is not going to be your end club, but we want you to put some time and effort into it’. And they did okay. It was great.

“COVID was there for about a year while I was. I’ll give the CMAA credit, because a lot of us worked together and talked about our ideas and what we were doing for our members. And that helped us all out. It was interesting, and members totally appreciated those things.

“Our staff would deliver members’ food. We had parties where members would sit in their lounge chairs at the end of their driveway and we would drive by in golf carts, wearing our gloves, and we’d have a beer or hand out margaritas, freshly baked cookies, or get an ice cream truck going through the neighbourhood. We tried to go above and beyond and be creative.”

Heritage Palms is a larger enterprise than Copperleaf, with two Azinger/Lewis-designed 18-hole courses – the Royal and the Sabal – and 1,662 homes to the latter’s 570.

“It’s 800 acres. It’s huge. We have about 180 acres that are just nature preserves. And we have 40 individual communities inside our community, so they have their own look.

“I always say because we have three times the number of members of my last club, I get three times the amount of phone calls as I did at my last club, and three times the amount of emails. But I wouldn’t say it’s any more difficult. Nothing here happens that’s crazier than at any other club I’ve been part of. It’s just a lot more of it happens. I have a staff that is fantastic and it’s easy to be here. They make my job easy.

“The biggest change since I’ve been here is the culture. That’s achieved just by being a normal person and not instilling fear in people. I think that’s stupid, to be honest. The members are always telling tell me it’s an enhanced experience, which is really nice.

“I know I sound quite arrogant when I’m saying this to you, and I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to.”

She added: “They also love the increased communication. South-west Florida was hurt really bad with the hurricane, and that was amazing. So many other clubs were hurt a lot worse than we were, but we lost hundreds of trees. The clean-up was incredible.

“But the communication we sent out was sometimes two, even three, emails a day, just filling the members in with what was going on and what’s been cleaned.”

With a growing global movement looking to encourage more women into the management side of golf clubs, the potential bosses could do worse than look at Traci Irons Izzo for inspiration. She added: “There are more and more women in the CMAA. My president is a female. I have two other board members that are females, out of nine board members.

“What’s different about that is that she’ll send me an email with hearts and flowers on it or a text with hearts and flowers, and it’s just so sweet.

“My advice to anybody looking to make a start is to be who you are and to make the right decisions based on all of the members, not just the committee members, not just the board members, but for the entire membership. That’s very important.

“I feel like I work just as much for my staff as I do for my members. That means I want them to be happy. I want them to make a good living. I want them to want them to enjoy their time here. And I take care of them just as I do the members. I think that’s very important.”

From a British – and European – perspective, it’s refreshing to listen to somebody who’s got confidence in themselves, because, generally, we’re not that way inclined.

Traci Irons Izzo is clearly very confident, but certainly not arrogant, and seems content in her professional and personal life.

“I absolutely love being at Heritage Palms. And when I came here, I told my husband, ‘I can see myself retiring at Heritage Palms’, because they take care of me very well and appropriately, which is fantastic. And they’re very good to me.”