It’s not a skill that can be learned in a textbook, through an online course or by watching a video on YouTube.
Tony Di Tommaso’s innate ability to not only remember the names of his members at Carbrook Golf Club but their football team of choice, names of partners and golf ball preference comes from his passion for people, a passion he has shared with indentured trainees for the past 30 years.
It comes naturally to Di Tommaso, but he is adamant that a passion for the club and the people you are serving will bring such a talent out in anyone.
The PGA Professional at Carbrook in Brisbane’s south-east since March 1991, Di Tommaso has guided a dozen trainees through the PGA’s Membership Pathway Program and as they worked hard on their studies and playing, urged them to take great joy in the career path they had chosen.
“I try to make sure they’re gregarious in terms of talking to the members, not just treating it as a 38-hour-a-week job,” says Di Tommaso, who has worked alongside younger brother Paul for the majority of those 30 years at Carbrook.
“One of my great assets is the ability to listen to people and create conversation that engages them.
“It’s not talking down to them or listening to them and not caring about what they’ve got to say.
“I try to get that across to my kids, to really engage in the conversation and bring out the best in their personality.
“I’ve got a young guy working with me at the moment from Colombia and he says to me, ‘How do you know everybody?’
“It’s just about paying attention and showing people that you care.”
One of the PGA Assocaites to have come through under Di Tommaso is current Carbrook Golf Club General Manager, Scott Wagstaff.
Wagstaff, who has since employed another Di Tommaso graduate in Angus Porter as the club’s Manager of Membership and Development, believes it is his manner with the members and visitors that has entrenched Di Tommaso as a fixture at Carbrook.
“He’s always looked after others, whether that’s an Associate or a member,” says Wagstaff, who completed his PGA credentials under Di Tommaso from 1997-1999.
“He’s often put others in front of his own needs, to his detriment in some instances.
“He will look after people and make that his highest priority and if he happens to make some money then that’s a bonus.
“That’s why someone like Tony has lasted more than 30 years, because everyone rates him as a human being.”
Growing up four doors down from The Brisbane Golf Club, Di Tommaso’s first foray into the golf industry was to fox balls for Errol Hartvigsen out the back of the pro shop.
A talented junior athlete, he began playing, did some caddying, won the 1979 Queensland Junior Championship and then in 1984 began his traineeship under Hartvigsen.
There was time on tour playing the mining towns littered throughout the Queensland Sunshine Tour – where he honed his skill for remembering names of pro-am partners – spent time working in the pro shop at both Brisbane and Indooroopilly before ultimately accepting the position at Carbrook at the start of 1991.
When he joined Carbrook Michael Billington was into the final year of his traineeship, Di Tommaso taking great pride in the relationships he has forged and the people he has guided through the PGA program.
“I’ve probably had about a dozen trainees, and I still have a great relationship with all of them,” says Di Tommaso.
“They’ve always enjoyed their time and I think that’s because I’ve never looked down on any of them. I’ve always tried to treat them as equals.
“It’s been my life, and my brother’s life, and I just feel like I want to keep fostering the game and to keep people playing golf.
“If I can pass that onto the trainees that come through Carbrook then hopefully that has a positive impact on the industry as a whole.”
