Jamie Windjack

Head Golf Professional

Moonlake Golf and Country Club

Saskatchewan

The Ultimate Multi-Tasker

Golf professionals are the ultimate multi-taskers. You need to lead a staff, organize and monitor a pro shop, provide lessons, and keep the membership happy.

It’s a ton of work, and demands long hours during the golf season.

Imagine adding food and beverage manager to the mix?

Jamie Windjack head pro/food and beverage manager at Moonlake Golf & Country Club in Saskatoon, is the ultimate organizer.

“Preparation is the most important thing to getting things done,” says the native of Edson, Alberta, who took over the double role by adding the food and beverage title three years ago.

Windjack, a father of three, says organizing an event, whether it’s a golf tournament, or dinner afterwards, means you have to have enough staff on board.

Windjack thinks his dual role is a perfect fit for his personality – driven, and motivated by a challenge.

Besides, he says, knowing the golf business and knowing what golfers want and when they want it, is a must in these tough economic times.

“I found that in dealing with food and beverage, communications was the key,” he says. “Some who work on that side don’t really understand the golf business. If you look bad on one side, it affects the other.”

The solution: run both.

Delegating authority is crucial to Windjack’s successful professional career, and his love of golf was honed early at his home course. He hopscotched between Alberta and Saskatchewan during his early career as an assistant and head pro, and now oversees a staff of 55 on the golf and food and beverage sides.

Moonlake is a unique property that opened its doors in 2001. It’s 27-holes of Scottish links property and saw 42,000 rounds played last season.

If Windjack isn’t busy enough running between two jobs, he also spends an inordinate amount of time (40 per cent, he estimates) in marketing the club to the media and potential members and tournament organizers.

The club hosts about 120 to 130 tournaments a year, and has approximately 150 members.

Windjack has been a TaylorMade man for the past five years and loves the one-stop-shopping aspect of the line, which includes adidas clothing.

“We have the most amazing pro shop,” he says – filled almost entirely with TaylorMade adidas product.

“TaylorMade is the number one company in the world when it comes to advertising golf,” he says, “which really helps in selling our product in the pro shop.”

Because of the quick turnaround in sales, Shipjack says he doesn’t have to worry about excess inventory as the golf season comes to an end.

He also loves the new R9 driver and says it has added 15 yards to his tee shots.

The 27-hole links layout is located on the scenic Valley road and leads to a facility that offers three different combinations of 18 holes. The par 72 currently holds the highest slope rating in Saskatchewan.

The ubiquitous Shipjack could be anywhere on the property when a visitor comes calling – playing golf with members, helping with staff at Moonlake Station, the perfect place to relax after a round, or helping the pro staff which includes Brad Birnie (head teaching professional) and Bobbi Brandon (assistant pro).

It’s all part of being a serial multi-tasker.

“You learn in this job that you can recover from anything,” he says, “as long as you’re organized.”

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