Clive Smith, Clubhouse Manager, Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pa.

Coming from a large family that loved to entertain, Clive Smith opted for a career in Hospitality and Hotel Management  and graduated from the TWR Hotel School in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He then worked on three different continents, in kitchens as well as at the front-of-the-house, for both restaurants and resort hotels, before returning to South Africa for his first experience in the club industry at The Country Club Johannesburg.

Smith has been in the United States for the past 12 years. After a six-year tenure with Restaurant Associates, a – premier hospitality company, he moved back to the private club industry.  The last six years have been spent at Merion Golf Club, where his passion has been to deliver superior hospitality and create events that members and guests will enjoy and remember.

Having always had a special passion for wine, Smith has completed the Introductory Sommelier Course offered by the Court of Master Sommeliers, and is preparing to take the next steps towards certification. As Merion’s Clubhouse Manager, he has developed a wine program that has continued to grow over the past five years, with at least 10 wine dinners a year now on the club’s events calendar. Smith has brought winemakers from South Africa, France, Italy, Argentina, the U.S. and elsewhere around the world to showcase their country’s products and add to the “wow” factor of Merion’s wine program. “The success of our wine dinner events sell themselves,” Smith says. One of the most successful concepts (C&RB, July 2008, pg. 64) has been the Sundowner Wine Dinner held on Merion’s famed East Course (where the U.S. Open will be contested in 2013).

The success of the wine programs has also translated into other popular regular beverage events at Merion, such as single-malt scotch whisky tastings with The Macallan and The Glenlivet, and Brewmaster Dinners with Victory Brewing Company. A goal of the beverage programs at Merion is  to try to keep all palates happy, and that goal is pursued by having a full complement of lists in place for Reserve, Regular, Wines by the Glass, Port, Dessert, Single Malts, Beers, and fully stocked bars.

“The key element in making our beverage programs successful at Merion Golf Club,” Smith says, “is by having good controls on a fully stocked wine cellar and liquor room; on-the-job training and staff education; product knowledge, and marketing.  But most of all, a beverage program is not complete without the complement of great food. I am fortunate to have a great food-and-beverage team that constantly strives for the best.”