Fenella Buss has become the first female Head Professional in Royal Ashdown Forest’s 138-year history and may be the first woman to hold the role at any Royal club worldwide. She explains the influences that have shaped her career to date and her plans to elevate the member and visitor experience at the club
At a club with as much history as Royal Ashdown Forest, firsts do not come along very often. Founded in 1888, the Sussex heathland has long been regarded as one of England’s great traditional clubs, a GB&I Top 100 venue with a reputation built on heritage, character and quiet prestige. Yet their latest appointment marks a striking new chapter.
Fenella Buss is only the fifth person to hold the role and has become the first female Head Professional in the club’s 138-year history, and, it is believed, potentially the first woman to become Head Professional at any Royal club worldwide.
For Fenella, 27, the promotion is both a landmark moment and a natural next step in a career shaped by strong mentors, elite service standards and a deep understanding of what modern golf clubs need from their professional teams. Having arrived from The Grove, where she gained valuable experience in retail, operations and guest experience, she quickly identified an opportunity to bring those skills together at one of the country’s most distinctive clubs.
While her appointment may be historic, Fenella is not interested in symbolism alone. She has clear plans to elevate both the member and visitor experience.
Pictured: Fenella Buss
"To gain such an early promotion into the Head Professional role was fantastic and a great opportunity to combine my experiences and career progression within a GB&I Top 100 venue,” said Fenella.
The interview process included putting together a presentation of how to measure success in your first year in post.
"Having just come from The Grove, which is very guest-service-focused, really helped me to formulate how we could improve operational excellence and guest service and the member and visitor experiences,” she said.
"At The Grove I was lucky to be part of a team that shared retail responsibilities, so I had experience of the buying process and related shop retail administration that the club were also looking for. It also helped that I knew the people who were interviewing me which helped with my confidence and I thought that it had gone well.
"I think I'm a very personable person. I'm very much someone who builds relationships, whether it be day-to-day interactions or clients you're teaching. I'd like to think if you walked into the pro shop, you would be greeted by a friendly and engaging team.
“The club are keen to elevate the member and visitor experience through the shop operation which I think is where my experience and skill set proved successful in the recruitment process,” said Fenella, who is currently halfway through trying to tick off the top 100 courses in England. Indeed, she found out that she was being offered the position when she was leaving Queenwood – 'so that was a pretty good day'.
“I'm very aware that it's a rare thing to be appointed as the Head Professional of such a prestigious club and I feel very lucky to be in this position” - Fenella Buss
"That was actually the reason that I first played Royal Ashdown Forest and then a year to the date that I played it was when I signed the contract to be the Head Professional, which is pretty crazy."
If we were to rewind to Fenella’s early days as a 10-year-old junior at East Brighton, then it would show that she was the only girl in the section and she would have to wait another six years before a second girl would sign up.
Her dad was a member, and he would book the two of them in to play behind the junior roll-up every week for a year. Then, one Saturday, he announced that she would be playing with the boys.
"They were really welcoming and that really helped and I had big support from the ladies' section and then Sussex County were great. One of the assistants who is coming to work with me, I was her county captain when we played for Sussex together and now she'll be completing her PGA training with us."
East Brighton also played a big part in Buss' career journey after their Head Professional Adrian Milligan prompted the teenager to set off on her PGA journey.
"I'd been there for about two years and he went on holiday and printed the PGA forms and said, by the time he returned, I had to fill them out and that's why I started my PGA,” she said. “I learned so much from him from a confidence level, he was very personable and great at building relationships with people.
"At The Grove my head Professional, Tom Minshull, who had previously been at Carnoustie and Portrush, was fantastic on the retail side of things. The Grove is probably stockholding maybe six times more than your average club so that was a great education."
Pictured: Fenella Buss
Fenella’s plans for the coming years include an emphasis on the guest journey and the club's academy.
"The biggest quick win will be to positively impact the member and visitor experience – making interactions as memorable as possible so people come away and say how great Royal Ashdown is. That includes the customer experience within both the shop and wider golf operation.
"A big thing that I'm looking to achieve is increasing participation in our academy. At the moment we have a one-year academy programme, but I've designed additional year’s two and three, to aid development from complete beginner level to club-ready ability.
"The Grove is very successful at delivering high levels of customer service and retail offering. It's a large-scale operation compared to other golf clubs, so I've been exposed to the extreme end of it. And I've been fortunate enough to have 59club level of training, an experience that perhaps other people might not have as much exposure to at traditional members' clubs."
Another obvious benefit to Fenella’s appointment is her experience in promoting women's golf. For the last three years she has been part of England Golf's participation programme, Girls Golf Rocks, and she has plans to repeat that this summer at Royal Ashdown.
"I'm very aware that it's a rare thing to be appointed as the Head Professional of such a prestigious club and I feel very lucky to be in this position. Someone commented on my LinkedIn post, saying about their daughter playing golf and how she had always struggled being the only girl, but I hope my journey and industry appointments like this will inspire her, which is pretty special."
