The Villages - February 2020 - 32

GOLF AMBASSADORS

lay a round of golf at any of the
Jack Sample
directs golfers
courses in The Villages and you likely
from the
will encounter an ambassador.
starter shack.
Ambassadors are on-course staff,
navigating the courses in specially marked golf carts to
ensure golfers have the best time possible while on the
courses in The Villages.
Belle Glade Country Club's resident PGA Golf
Professional Brett Sherman says that while other golf
courses around the country have attendants - usually
called rangers or another similar term - that assist
golfers on the course, here in The Villages, the golf
division decided to call them ambassadors to better
reflect the hospitality people have come to expect from
Florida's Friendliest Hometown.
"Ambassador is more of a 'Village-ized' word - (an)
ambassador of good will," Sherman said. "It's more of
a friendly term rather than a ranger where you think
it's a police officer out there on the golf course."
Sherman says ambassadors are there to keep play
moving and offer golfers water, sand, directions or
anything else they may need on the course.
has worked at one of the starter shacks at Belle Glade
He says each championship course employs
Country Club for the past two and a half years.
between 30 to 60 ambassadors, and he estimates there
Starters work at starter shacks located at every
are around 500 at courses
course in The Villages, and
around The Villages.
they balance tee times and
...
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check-ins from golfers as they
Ambassadors typically work
arrive at the course. Starters
three days a week for six hours
I T. E V E N I F I WA S A
are in constant communicaat a time, and Sherman says
M U LT I M I L L I O N A I R E , I
tion with golf shops - if the
many of them also are residents
WOULD STILL DO THIS
course they work at has one
currently living in The Villages
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- or they manage tee times
who enjoy working for the
F E L L O W S H I P - T H AT ' S
on their own using the schedgolf benefits and to stay busy
throughout the week.
uling software in their booth.
W H AT I F E E L L I K E W E
Though managing tee
Many ambassadors also
H AV E H E R E ...
times
and coordinating groups
do double or even triple duty
- Jack Samples
of golfers every day can be a
as either starters or golf cart
bit hectic at times, Samples
handlers, and the moniker
says he enjoys the social aspects of his job since he can"outside employees" is an umbrella term that covers all
not be out on the golf course himself as often as he used
three, according to Sherman.
to due to health reasons.
Some, such as Jack Samples, prefer to stick with one
"I like the interface with people," Samples said. "It's
job every day.
kind of like a church - I like the brotherhood of it. I
Samples is a Village of Osceola Hills resident and he

FEBRUARY 2020

The Villages - February 2020

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