MOTIVATED TO MANAGE

Singapore Island Country Club General Manager Ian Roberts shares his journey from a small town in Australia to managing one of the world's largest country clubs in Singapore.

- TIM PINNEGAR

The Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) was established in July 1963 with the merger of two of Singapore's oldest and most distinguished clubs: the Royal Singapore Golf Club and the Royal Island Club. Today, SICC is home to two 18-hole courses and one 27-hole course, with close to 17,000 members when you include principal members (7,800), their spouses, and children. These members enjoy a vast range of facilities, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts, squash courts, a pickleball court, a 12-lane bowling alley, a gymnasium, a billiard room, a hair salon, a music room, and a dance studio. In addition, there are diverse food and beverage options spread across its two locations.

The responsibility of managing all these facilities falls to SICC’s General Manager, Ian Roberts.

LEAVING HOME

SICC and all its trappings were a far cry from Ian’s early years growing up in the Australian town of Lismore, 200 km south of Brisbane, with a population of just 29,000. However, it was in this small town that Ian first experienced golf.

With no one in his family playing the game, it was his next-door neighbour, hitting balls in a field close to his house, who attracted the attention of 13-year-old Ian. Once hooked, Ian joined the local club and enrolled in the junior section (or “cadets,” as they called it). The lessons he received paid off as he won several local junior tournaments. This convinced Ian, at the age of 18, to leave Lismore and take up an apprenticeship at The Australian Club in Sydney.