By: Jeff Day

Woodmere, N.Y. (August 24, 2012) – Matthew St. Furcy of Inwood, N.Y., is a second-year GOLFWORKS intern working at The Woodmere Club on Long Island.St. Furcy, 18, just graduated from Lawrence High School and will be heading to the State University of New York at Albany this fall. St. Furcy has gone through an entire rotation of jobs at Woodmere, which has exposed him to different areas of the club with multiple responsibilities.

“Right now I’m in the grill room as a waiter and bus boy,” he said. “So I take drink orders when the members come in, I pour them water or get them coffee, juice, soda – whatever they want.  I’ve also been outside cleaning golf clubs and carts, I’ve been down in the men’s locker room where I folded towels and cleaned shoes; then I was even upstairs in the office where I had to wear a suit every day and worked on our event calendars; I was also outside on the golf course superintendent’s staff and finally I was working at the pool as a waiter.”

St. Furcy’s supervisor is Woodmere general manager Don Mollitor, a longtime supporter of GOLFWORKS who has a purpose while assigning multiple responsibilities to his interns.

“GOLFWORKS is a great program for a lot of reasons,” says Mollitor. “It gives kids the opportunity to be introduced into the country club world, and we like to do a rotation here and expose the kids to every aspect of it for about two weeks at a time.”

St. Furcy is certainly learning, but managing his time to work golf industry hours was certainly an adjustment as a member of Lawrence High’s basketball, football, volleyball and track & field teams.

“The working environment has really taught me how to communicate with other people,” says St. Furcy. “But it was challenging at first having to work weird hours, weekends included. So I had to make some adjustments because these hours are a whole lot different than working from nine to five but I got used to it and my time management has improved a lot. ”

Being part of GOLFWORKS has been a great experience for interns like St. Furcy, but participating in the program benefits the clubs, too.

“It’s good for the members because it gives them an opportunity to experience what we’re trying to do with our relationship with the MGA and its charitable Foundation,” says Mollitor. “And it’s good for the management because we get to meet and work with good young people, and they seem to get better every year, just like Matt.”

The success of GOLFWORKS can be attributed to the willingness of Met Area clubs to give a young adult the opportunity to work. St. Furcy has taken full advantage of his chance and has become an asset to The Woodmere Club.

About GOLFWORKS
Founded in 1994, the MGA Foundation’s GOLFWORKS program is designed to give its participants—high school aged students—exposure to the many career opportunities within the golf industry by providing meaningful summer work experiences. The young adults who participate in GOLFWORKS complete an internship in an environment that revolves around golf, which in itself can teach the lessons of honor, integrity and tradition and provides an activity that can be enjoyed for a lifetime. In addition,