By SEAN PLUNKETT - In Golf Industry Asia’s “Local Heroes” series we meet the people quietly shaping the region’s golf industry. Christopher Chew, General Manager of Sembawang Country Club, is one of the more unique among them: a former Singapore Air Force Apache pilot who now runs a members’ club with the same precision he once applied in the cockpit.

His path into golf management was never planned. It happened almost by accident — and that accident has produced some of the clearest leadership lessons currently available in Singapore golf.

The pilot who became a club manager
Chew’s professional life began with military conscription and a passion for flying. In junior college he joined the Singapore Youth Flying Club; the experience settled the question. He chose the Air Force over commercial aviation for the intensity, was streamed onto helicopters, and became part of the pioneer group selected to fly Singapore’s new Apache attack helicopters. Training took him to Tucson, Arizona. Later he completed a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering in the UK and a master’s in military studies in India. Detachments across Australia, Thailand and Indonesia filled the calendar. On those trips, downtime often meant golf — a game he had first learned at 16 from his father.

When he left the service he intended to fly commercially. Then COVID-19 arrived and airline recruitment stopped. Through existing relationships a General Manager role opened at Sembawang. He applied, interviewed and was appointed. “The rest is just history,” he says. What looked like a dramatic pivot rested on skills he already had: operational discipline, strategic communications and stakeholder management. The rest he would have to learn.

How he closed the knowledge gap
The steepest learning curve was agronomy and turf management. Operations felt natural; course conditions did not. Chew approached the gap with humility and a deliberate system rather than trying to become an expert overnight. He closed it by:

• Forming a small community of practice with other GMs facing similar member profiles
• Seeking out experienced peers who were willing to share openly
• Attending industry conferences
• Working closely with vendors prepared to educate
• Committing to continuous reading (he currently keeps Practical Golf Course Maintenance close at hand)

The common thread was attitude: arriving as a “beginner,” staying humble, and treating every day as part of lifelong learning.

Leadership principles that actually work
Chew’s style is practical and grounded in real experience rather than theory. He is clear about what protects both the team and the club’s long-term health. His core principles are:

• Protect the team — Staff run the daily operations. His job is to shield them from micromanagement and challenge by board or committee. “I am your boss; they are not.”
• Invite ‘creative tension’ — Challenge from the board is useful when it sharpens thinking. Pure consensus leads to stagnation.
• Treat failure as accelerated learning — An early superintendent who misled management left the course in poor condition. Replacing that person and absorbing the lessons became one of the fastest teachers.
• Manage perceptions, not just operations — Military command-and-control does not work with members. Change requires repeated explanation and the acceptance that you will never please everyone.
• Accept the real job mix — Roughly 80% of his time is spent on people (members, guests, staff). Only 20% is pure operational work.

Proof of delivery
In seven years the club has been almost completely refreshed. COVID demand generated surplus; as a members’ club that money was returned through upgrades rather than simply banked. The results show both ambition and careful risk management. Notable outcomes include:

• Singapore’s first Trackman range at the time — expected five-year ROI, achieved in roughly three
• Full course renovation while keeping nine holes open and insisting on 18-hole play (two circuits of the available nine)
• Composite routing, temporary GPS maps and signage that kept members playing through construction
• Swimming pool and changing-room upgrades completed in the same period

Limited resources, Chew notes, often forces sharper thinking than abundance does.

Local soul, modern tools
Sembawang’s competitive edge is its community character and military heritage. Members treat the club as a second home; staff know most people by name. Veterans’ groups and communities still gather for annual reunions. Technology is welcomed, but never at the expense of that human feel. The balance looks like this:

• Electronic scorecards are being implemented to cut paper and pencil waste
• Robotic ball-retrieval systems for the range are in operational acceptance
• Broader course-maintenance robotics are under evaluation
• Reception and concierge service remain deliberately human

The structural challenges facing Singapore clubs
Chew sees several interconnected pressures that affect almost every club in land-scarce markets like Singapore. High costs and an aging membership base create a cycle that is hard to break without deliberate action. The main challenges are:

• Land scarcity drives high entry costs and an ageing membership demographic
• Young players find it harder to join or stay engaged
• Labour costs and shortages in hospitality and greenkeeping are acute
• Climate volatility (haze, sudden drought, intense rainfall) complicates planning

The club’s response is practical: closer work with the Singapore Golf Association on junior golf, use of Trackman data and gamification to attract younger players, and deliberate community-building so juniors play together and form lasting friendships.

Advice for the next generation
When asked what he would tell a young Singaporean who loves golf and hospitality and wants to become a General Manager one day, Chew keeps the advice simple and direct. His three points are:

• Bring the right attitude — open, humble and committed to lifelong learning.
• Practise flexibility with discipline — especially when situations are ambiguous. Make assumptions if you must, then identify and mitigate the risks those assumptions create.
• Develop strong emotional intelligence. The job is overwhelmingly about people.

The pilot’s lasting mantra
Chew still carries the aviation principle that guided him as a pilot: aviate, navigate, communicate.

Aviate — protect the core business with operational discipline
Navigate — stay true to the long-term vision
Communicate — tell every stakeholder the story, repeatedly

His larger goal is to keep blending tradition with technology so the club remains relevant without losing its soul. Missed opportunities keep him awake at night; a Japanese phrase he keeps visible — ichigo ichie — reminds him that each moment arrives only once.

The deepest satisfaction, he says, is seeing carefully planned projects reach members and guests and watching their response. Surviving and thriving through COVID proved the model could work under extreme pressure. Demographic and climate challenges will test it further. For Chew the answer remains the same mix that carried him from Apache cockpits to Sembawang’s fairways: disciplined operations, continuous learning, honest relationships, and the readiness to seize the moment when it appears.