A few weeks into his new position, Fairfield Glade Community Club’s new food and beverage director Adams Horne is excited about the prospects for improvements and consistency in the department.

“I love what I do every day,” he said.

Horne was born and raised in Columbia, SC. The golf-proturned- food-and-beverage-director took what he described as the “scenic college route” to earn a degree in golf course operations management from the Myrtle Beach Golf Academy of America in 2012.

“I’d always loved golf,” he said. “It was always something I enjoyed doing. Everyone always told me I’d be good at teaching, but I knew I couldn’t do a classroom. So, teaching golf kind of gave me that and let me spread my love for it.”

He added that he’d also been told that he had a mind for business, but he wasn’t one for being glued to a desk in a cubicle at the office.

Instead, he found the best of both worlds as a head golf pro, which allowed him to actively teach and manage the business side simultaneously and without walls.

“I love talking to people, socializing and helping people out, so it kind of did all that together,” he said.

A year out of college, he became a head golf pro and first assistant at a country club but aspired to do more.

“I was like, I want more than just being a head pro. I want to be a GM,” he said. “I recognized that to do that, I needed to know food and beverage.”

He continued, “I’m not someone who can know just a little bit. I have to know everything about everything.”

In 2015, Horne began to transition toward food and beverage as he worked as a golf pro. He was offered a second assistant manager job in Chicago, IL, at Orchard Valley Golf Course, where he oversaw the golf shop, but he was also given the opportunity to begin working in food and beverage for six years.

Then he moved back closer to his family in South Carolina and continued to hold positions doubling as a golf pro and working in food and beverage for a hotel and country club.

In 2019, Horne shifted his career focus solely to food and beverage. While he misses golf, he said he really enjoys interacting with people and that food and beverage interactions have solutions.

“They’re very different interactions in what you learn about people,” he said, “but you still get to have those interactions, which is what I love.”

In 2021, Horne joined the Bobby Jones Links team and became the food and beverage director at Cleveland Country Club in Shelby, NC. He has worked with Bobby Jones Links for 18 months.

When Fairfield Glade Community Club entered into a three-year agreement with Bobby Jones Links to manage the food and beverage department, the Club didn’t have a director.

Bobby Jones Links believed like they had the perfect candidate for director in Horne and suggested him as a candidate for the position.

Bobby Jones Links President of Business Development Doug Hellman said because the director position was open, they conducted an internal and external search for potential candidates.

“As a result of our internal search, we were able to identify Adams from another one of our clubs,” Hellman said.

“If someone is interested in a position and they’re qualified for a position, then we certainly give them the opportunity to interview for a position.”

When Horne found out about the position, he said he researched the community and Club and sought council from his family and work colleagues.

Ultimately, he was excited for the opportunity to challenge himself.

“In this case, Adams and his background with food and beverage, both in hotels and in clubs, was very qualified for this position,” Hellman said, “and he was very interested in the position, interviewed for it and, obviously, got the job.”

“It was a big promotion for me to come here,” Horne said. “I was getting my own club. It was that big step of striking out on your and betting on yourself. It felt right. There weren’t concerns about whether this was the right fit or not. It just felt right from the start.”

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