Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Being part of the Certified Club Managers (CCM) community has helped Tang Meng Loon on his way to smoothly navigating the myriad of challenges posed to golf clubs by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As Director – Club Operations and Townships at Gamuda Land, Tang is responsible for overseeing operations at Kuala Lumpur’s Kota Permai Golf & Country Club and Horizon Hills Golf & Country Club, within the Iskandar Development Region in the southernmost Malaysian State of Johor Bahru.

“It’s very challenging times with everyone having to adapt to a new norm,” said Tang, among a prominent group of senior golf club officials in Asia enrolled in the Club Management of America Association’s (CMAA) Asian Golf Industry Federation (AGIF)-administered CCM programme.

As well as being considered the gold standard in club management certification globally, the CCM opens up invaluable networking opportunities with like-minded colleagues and counterparts around the region and beyond.

Speaking in the latest in a series of AGIF podcasts with leading lights from the industry that are being broadcast at www.agif.asia, Tang said: “Without doubt, being part of the CCM community has been very useful during this difficult period.

“I really benefitted from our chat group, exchanging information on the latest Covid-19 updates around the region, regarding exemptions and maintenance and operational measures on the re-opening of clubs and golf courses, as well as ideas and sharing experiences for the industry post our Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia.

“Before we re-opened Kota Permai and Horizon Hills, I was able to learn from the practices at clubs in other countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and China, which opened before us.”

Tang also expressed his appreciation to the Golf Course Managers Association of Malaysia (GCMAM) and the Malaysian Golf Association (MGA).

He said: “I’d like to thank both of those organisation for coming up with a lot of excellent guidelines. With the GCMAM we also have an active chat group that has been focusing on updates and information about the status of Covid-19 in Malaysia and sharing best practices.

“It’s great to have all this information and it was timely that we were able to get guidelines on compliance and details about the requirements of authorities in the preparations for re-opening. I’m grateful that I am a part of these groups.”

The AGIF is an International Associate partner of the CMAA and authorised to run Business Management Institute (BMI) programmes as well as Chapter and Association Education, which are part of the pathway to the CCM.

Eric Lynge, Chief Executive Officer of the AGIF, said: “Since we partnered with the CMAA in 2015, we have run BMI courses across the Asian region as well as provided various Chapter and Association credit opportunities via our Club Management Mini Summits and co-operative programmes with various national associations.”

The BMI is a professional development programme developed and launched by the CMAA in the early 1980s. Noting managers at all phases of their careers need instruction, education or inspiration, the concept of the ‘lifetime professional development programme’ was born.

The vision was realised as a multi campus-based programme that provides tangible career benchmarks by which managers can track their progress and strive for various levels of competency, including a respected certification. The curriculum is based on 10 competency areas covering every aspect of a club manager’s job.

*To listen to the full interview with Tang Meng Loon, please visit https://agif.asia/agif-podcast/

**Kota Permai Golf & Country Club is a Golf Course Facility Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation. If you’d like to reach the Federation’s 10,000+ global audience via newsletter, website, Facebook and LinkedIn, become an AGIF member. For further details, please visit https://agif.asia/join-the-agif/