The Club CEO Making Her Mark on Sydney’s Eastern Beaches

Just a few years later, she’d turned the Club’s fortunes around, from relying on an overdraft to having $1 million in the bank.

It’s one of Kristy’s proudest achievements — and even more remarkable considering she began her career in the childcare industry.

She tells the latest episode of the ClubLIFE Podcast released today that her early interactions with clubs was, like many young people, initially to earn some extra income on the side.

“I had hospitality in the background the whole way along… working weekends as you do to try and make a bit of extra money to buy the car, or buy the house, or pay the kids’ school fees,” Kristy tells the ClubLIFE Podcast.

“So, I did have it there, but it certainly wasn’t my main role, it was in the background. But it was a role I fell in love with and so weekend after weekend turned into some weeknight shifts, and then into some daytime shifts and I slowly made the shift over to full-time clubland, which I adore.”

During her tenure at Randwick Golf Club, Kristy says a focus on community engagement — not just purely on the golfing membership — and the opportunity to expand their events offering were two keys to success.

“I think when we started to engage the community more, and they found out about us and we became family friendly, we started hosting a lot more functions, we started to see a big improvement in trade, which of course put more money in the bank,” she tells the ClubLIFE Podcast.

“The members struggled to share the space, but when we started making money, and like clubs do putting it back into the club — of course the golf course — then the members thought that was a pretty good idea, that wasn’t too bad at all.”

It was little surprise that Kristy was firmly in the sights of neighbouring clubs, with the Board of Coogee Legion Club successful in luring her over in January 2024.

Kristy tells the ClubLIFE Podcast that she not only saw it as the next logical step in her career, but an opportunity to leave another positive mark on a club. 

“We’ve really opened up to the community. The Club didn’t feel open and welcoming when I got here — not that anybody was doing anything wrong — but the doors were often closed up in the rooftop, now they’re open every day, the chairs were often put up unless there was a function on,” she says.

“The TVs are on, the music’s on, I think we’re just going to get busier and busier… we’ve added trivia, we’ve added music bingo, we have a traditional Irish music night every Thursday night up in the rooftop.

“There are so many Irish people that come out to Australia and live in Coogee, we’ve got hundreds of people coming to these traditional Irish music nights… if we could have something on every day, of every week, for everyone, that would be kind of a little motto, and that’s what we’re heading towards.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Kristy also speaks about the challenges of being in a location that’s sandwiched between two large pubs and how she’s trying to overcome the lack of street appeal owing to the main premises not being on the ground floor. 

She also discusses why clubs shouldn’t shy away from having gaming as part of their offering, as well as the value of networking with other clubs. 

Click on the link below to hear the full interview with Kristy Strong in the twelfth episode of the ClubLIFE Podcast, which is also available via ClubLIFE.com.au, Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.

If you have a suggestion on who might make an interesting guest for a future ClubLIFE Podcast episode, get in touch with the team by emailing [email protected].