How RACV Cape Schanck Resort’s Tom Keane found his passion off the golf course

Catching the ‘golf bug’, as cliché as it sounds, is a very familiar feeling for those who have become hooked on our great game. Catching the bug for working in golf is slightly less common, yet that is exactly what happened for PGA Institute graduate Tom Keane, who now works in a role he loves at RACV Cape Schanck Resort.

After playing the game on and off throughout his teens, Keane’s true passion in golf was realised when he took up a job working at Centenary Park Golf Course in Melbourne’s south.

“It came to a thing of like, Oh man, I really want to start working in golf now,” Keane said of starting at Centenary Park in 2022. “So, I decided in 2023 that is what I wanted to do, and that year I started doing the Diploma of Golf Management at the PGA Institute.”

In his time at Centenary Park, Keane became particularly fascinated in the golf operations and management side of the industry.

“Running the operations area was sort of the main thing; and working in the pro shop and communicating with the customers was something I really loved,” he says.

A little Googling and chatting with his colleagues in the industry led Keane to the PGA Institute, and particularly the Diploma of Golf Management (now Diploma of Golf Business and Management). With a career in the industry front of mind for Keane, his time at the PGA Institute helped refine that dream and make it reality.

“The best thing about the institute was tour teacher, the trainer, Glenn [Burbidge], who was just the best,” Keane says. “He’s just so knowledgeable on all kind of areas of the golf industry. I learned heaps about how to operate social groups and running big days, managing big days, managing finance and stuff – which was the thing I was most stressed about.”

Another aspect of the PGA Institute that Keane credits a lot of his learnings to is the diversity of his fellow students.

“I was really lucky because the class that I was in was actually with a lot of the international students as well as some local students, so you got a good perspective of what golf is to different cultures,” he says. “So that was actually really awesome – that in class I was learning about different cultures with students from different areas, such as Indonesia and Hong Kong.”

Since graduating from the PGA Institute late last year, Keane has landed his dream role at RACV Cape Schanck, where he is enjoying tackling new challenges every day.

“I have taken on a lot more leadership stuff than I had at Centenary Park,” he says. “My role is mostly in the golf operations area, so helping run the pro shop and managing stock.

“The best thing at Cape Schanck is having more responsibility running some competitions and running corporate events and social events with members and guests that come into the hotel.”

From Warren Young and Jack Donaldson at Centenary Park to Glenn Burbidge at the PGA Institute, to now Andy Smith at Cape Schanck, Keane feels lucky that he has had great mentors throughout his journey, and although he is loving his current role, he is excited to always keep learning. 

For information on the education opportunities available through the PGA Institute, visit pgaigi.com