From Canada’s top-rated hotels and restaurants, Thomas Clarke hopes to bring his hospitality expertise to the Gatineau Golf & Country Club.
Thomas Clarke’s resume is impressive; his career in hospitality has seen him work for some of Canada’s finest hotels and conference centres. That list includes the iconic Ritz Carlton, The Banff Centre, and fine-dining restaurants like Ottawa’s Restaurant 18, Bice Montreal—most recently Bar George, in the newly opened Mount Stephen Hotel.
Thomas Clarke is the latest addition to the Gatineau Golf and Country Club.
With extensive experience in hospitality and admittedly no experience in running golf tournaments, joining the team at Gatineau Golf and Country Club was, to say the least, a bit unexpected for Clarke. But in his opinion, a hospitality expert is exactly what is lacking for most golf clubs today.
“Too often, golf clubs look to bring in golf talent, who in their own respects don’t necessarily have passion for hospitality,” explains Clarke. “With all the emphasis going towards golf, these clubs can fall short on food, service, and emotional experience.”
The Gatineau Golf & Country Club also has an award-winning chef with a strong background in fine dining.
With that in mind, Clarke aims to introduce a new experience not only for attendees, but planners of corporate tournaments and events, who can now come to the club and receive the kind of experience and support one would expect from a five-star events venue. This is something that Clarke feels is lacking in the industry.
“In hotels, we focus on making sure the client’s needs are anticipated for them, I’ve tried to bring that here. For example, and perhaps most importantly: the golf tournaments.
“In this day and age, companies don’t have the resources to assign the organization of what can be a massive undertaking to one of their own employees. Not only is it time consuming and sometimes complicated, but should something go wrong, it falls back on them. That’s why, after having witnessed the tremendous organization and execution that the team here was already putting forth for tournaments, I started selling tournaments with emphasis on our ability to handle the minutia for the client: a one stop shop, turn-key operation. This trickles down through all our events, be it holiday parties, networking, meetings, weddings etc. We collectively double as event organizers and hosts.”
As the winter months approach, the Gatineau Golf and Country Club remains a great venue for weddings, holiday parties, corporate or government events and of course, spring tournaments. More information on their private events can be found here.
