John Blanch, the General Manager at Wentworth Club in Surrey, talks about the 30-year career path that took him from being a trainee assistant at his local club in Sussex to various senior management positions at clubs in Portugal, China, Vietnam and Thailand, before taking up his current post in 2022. He also discusses responsibilities involved with the hosting of the BMW PGA Championship, the importance of hiring qualified staff, and how the PGA’s qualifications can help open doors to a wide range of careers within the golf industry
You have worked for almost 30 years in golf clubs all over the world, including director of golf and general manager roles in Portugal, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Thailand. What prompted the move back to the UK and how did you hear about the position at Wentworth?
I came back to the UK in 2020 when Covid hit. My father was 94 and for the best part of 30 years we had only seen each other once per year and only spoken on the telephone once a week, so that was in the back of my mind. I was only intending to stay for six to nine months before heading back to Asia, because that’s where my market value was. Nobody in the UK had heard of John Blanch! Within a couple of months of being back, I was contacted about Wentworth. Watching all those famous golf tournaments here when I was a youngster, they were such great memories. It is something very special because it is very different to other clubs in the UK. Three magnificent golf courses, a lovely clubhouse and many other things going on. That really was what my career in Asia was all about – big projects are what I do, and I like the country club feel. I came back in December 2020, and in early 2021 Wentworth contacted me – and by August I was here. I have been here for a little over two years now, but I always thought I would never come back to the UK, so the lesson is ‘never say never’.
What is it like working at a place like Wentworth?
It is so special. Honestly, there were only a handful of places where I would have stayed in the UK to work and obviously Wentworth was one of them! Two years feels like two minutes. It has gone by so quickly. If we stop and think about what we’ve done in this time it’s quite earth shattering, bewildering, especially because we were coming out of Covid, then going back in at the end of 2021. But I have loved every minute.
At what point does the club start preparing to host the BMW PGA Championship?
As soon as it finishes, on the Monday our attitude is ‘right, what are we doing next year? what can we do better?’. What can we do to look after our members as our membership continues to grow! It really is there all the time and we are so honoured to have the tournament here.
Last year’s BMW PGA Championship was one of many sporting events in the UK that were suspended or cancelled by the death of Her Majesty the Queen.
I remember it like it was yesterday, having met Keith Pelley in the clubhouse we were getting notifications about the Royal Family heading up to Scotland. We started to wonder what was happening… then we realised that was why we had many missed calls. We went and talked about what was going to happen: a meeting was arranged for the early afternoon.
What were the main challenges of dealing with that situation from the club’s point of view?
The decision taken by the DP World Tour was right – if the announcement of Her Majesty’s death was made, we would stop golf right away and bring the players off the course. That happened around 6:30pm on the Thursday. They came off the course, and it was decided that we would not play on Friday. After deliberations on the Friday it was decided to go ahead and finish the tournament and honour the Queen. And at the end of the day, what a great tournament it was. At one stage we had Patrick Reed storming up the leaderboard, we had the LIV Golf story in the background all week. Then you’ve got John Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, and now no-one really remembers that it was a three-round tournament – the winner was 17 under par for three rounds, with a one-shot victory… fantastic.
What developments and enhancements have been carried out at Wentworth under your tenure?
Well, we have grown the membership, and ninety per cent of the people joining now are between the ages of 30 and 45 with families, so we are building for the future. They are young families, and it is wonderful they are so happy to join in; they have blended in very nicely with the older members that we have here.
How would you describe your management style?
I want to be hands-off; I want to know the business and I want to lead by example. What I mean by leading by example is not micro-managing or anything like that. I want to be in support of everyone, and truly believe that anything that happens in the business can be traced back to me. If something has gone wrong, I take it on me that it’s fallen through a crack. I need to be aware of what’s happening, and of any potential problems, and make sure that anyone on the front line is supported. I turn the organisational chart upside down: I’m at the bottom, and they’re the ones up there at the top. That’s what I did in Asia because I had to, so then when I came back here – I’d never actually managed in the UK – I thought ‘right, I’m going to manage in exactly the same way’.
How would your staff describe your leadership?
[Laughs] I’m not sure. But I do know I have a great team here. They give me so much support and I would like to think it works both ways. We are a family here at Wentworth, not just a team.
Who has had the biggest influence on your career to date and who inspires you now?
The biggest influence for me would have been my dad, because he got me into golf, took me through it and talked to me about it. That was fantastic. He put that into me from an early age: what golf was to him, and what it should be, the rights and wrongs of it. But there are plenty of other people who have been there along the way, like Roger Mace who was the first golf pro I worked for and did my PGA apprenticeship with.
How has your PGA qualification, training, support and resources helped you during your career?
I probably don’t use the foundations of my career and my training in my day-to-day life now, because it was so different then to what it is now. Back then, we did the apprenticeship, went away and every year would do a course at Bisham Abbey or Lilleshall, and it probably wasn’t as advanced as it is today. Everything in the world of education is like that. But what it gave me was a good grounding in the game of golf, understanding it from a professional level, which enabled me to become a PGA professional. Without that qualification I wouldn’t have had the career I’ve had. I’m thankful to the PGA because that training helped to open doors, especially in Asia; because I was a PGA pro, they felt relaxed with me straight away, seeing it as proof that I knew golf.
What advice would you pass onto PGA Members thinking of following a career in club management and even going overseas?
It is so rewarding! Often in the UK we think ‘well, you’re just an assistant pro selling Mars Bars in the shop’, or something like that… which is what I could have been doing if I had stayed in the UK. But I had wider dreams and wanted to experience things. I went to France just to take a summer job, but my journey from there took me around the world in 30 years and coming back to the UK was not planned in any shape or form. It just happened. But it happened because of my PGA qualification and membership. There is a whole world out there so go and explore it!