Gia Watkins – Country Club Archivist and Marketer
“History is the real differentiator from club to club. It can increase club pride, enhance the brand, and attract new members.”
Gia Watkins
Country Club Archivist and Marketing Professional
Easton, Connecticut
On the golf-related side, Gia Watkins is a former member of the University of Florida Golf Team, who has played in two US Junior Girls Championships and won several prestigious tournaments, including the Connecticut State Senior Women’s Championship; the Connecticut Women’s Golf Association Senior Championship; the Connecticut State Women’s Legends Championship in 2020; and the Westchester Fairfield County Women’s Golf Association Championship in both 2023 and 2024. She currently plays to a 4.3 Index.
Notably, at Brooklawn Country Club in Connecticut – a legendary Tillinghast course established in 1895, where Gene Sarazen was once served as assistant pro – Gia has won that club’s championship more than 10 times. She’s also a member of the Golf Digest Golf Course Design Ranking Panel.
On the business side, Gia has managed her own successful design and marketing firm for more than 30 years. Over the years, Gia has created a few other businesses, and most recently she started Archives@Work, which combines her deep appreciation for the history and culture of golf with her vast marketing experience. Archives@Work helps private golf clubs to define and showcase their history, differentiate their branded culture, and increase the prestige associated with membership, which in turn drives membership growth and retention.
Show Highlights
Our conversation with Gia covers a lot of territory involving all aspects of her career as a marketing professional, and as a highly skilled amateur golfer, including:
Gia helps clubs to preserve and protect historical artifacts in displays that tell their story.
- What simple swing instruction from her only instructor – longtime Yale Golf Director David Paterson – she has followed over the years.
- The connection between her childhood interest in building glass sculptures and her enrolling in the University of Florida.
- How she grew her first graphic design business by knocking on doors with no introduction or appointment.
- The list of companies this hard-wired entrepreneur has started (and ended) as market conditions changed.
- The three main reasons why country clubs decide to focus on their history as a marketing asset.
- Her advice for young women or men seeking a golf-related business or career.
Gia’s range of services includes commemorative books, heritage newsletters, anniversary logos, and custom paintings.
Notable Quotes
On what Gia regrets about her GolfYeah interview: “I said Donna White and Lori Garbacz were the only two teammates who played on the LPGA, which was not true. Beverley Davis did as well. Not great that I messed up on a historical fact.”
On Gia’s success as a marketer: “Not to diminish what marketing is, but there’s a lot of common sense and creativity in it. If you’re around it, it’s very easy to understand the objectives, and what people are trying to accomplish. So it was through my clients that I really learned the business.”
On growing her various business ventures: “Running a business was so much easier at the time because all the tasks were compartmentalized. There was no desktop publishing. There was no computer. Your bookkeeper was just a bookkeeper. Your typesetter just set type setter. You had a paste-up artist. You had an illustrator. Everybody knew their jobs. It was very easy to manage.”
On what’s the most significant change in business over the years: “Everything has changed through technology. For example, I helped produce an internal publication for IBM. They’d give me the content and I’d design a tabloid format monthly newsletter for them. At one point, IBM told me, “We need to produce this using desktop publishing.” The problem was that IBM didn’t have the technology to do that; but Apple did. So I bought a Macintosh computer in order to produce a newsletter publication for IBM.”
On why she established Archives@Work: “This company truly reflects my love of golf, as well as country club life. I don’t mean that in a snobby kind of way. I just love everything to do with the camaraderie around golf clubs, and their history. There’s just so much there, and there’s usually a story behind everything. If you’ve been part of the whole golf scene, you know that you play the game mostly so that you have great stories to tell people.”
On the practical value for country clubs that tell their story: “The payoff in educating members about their club’s history is that it gets people excited and involved in promoting the club’s unique features, benefits, and value proposition. For starters, it helps the board to better generate prospects for new membership, and to retain current members. It also can help committees to rationalize and move forward with initiatives for club renovations.”
On why clubs decide to pay attention to their archives: “There’s three main reasons. One is that they have a milestone anniversary coming up. It’s usually the club’s 100th anniversary or the 125th history. The second reason is they’re doing a renovation to the club. They’ve seen how other clubs have exhibited their history and they want to do the same. The third reason is there’s someone in a leadership position who champions the history of a club and really understands the value of it. They promote whatever needs to be done to the board, to find a budget to do something for their archives.”
On guidance for young people who want to combine their love for golf with a career or business venture: “There’s a very interesting mixture of people in the golf industry behind the scenes who all love the game and have found ways to make a lifestyle out of it and earn a living. There are unlimited marketing-related options. You can get into broadcasting. You can get into marketing for golf equipment manufacturers. There’s a large industry of consultants who work with clubs to keep them competitive and profitable. Golf is a big industry. There’s plenty of career options, but you must stay flexible.”
Gia helped commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1974 US Junior Amateur Championship hosted at Brooklawn Country Club. The winner, David Nevatt, and runner-up, Mark Tinder, returned for a rematch. The 1974 Junior Boys Championship Medalist, Chip Beck, also participated.
Archives@Work Overview
WE HELP BRING CLUB ARCHIVES TO LIFE All too often a club’s artifacts and memorabilia sit stagnant in a box, file cabinet or display case. We partner with clubs to find the stories behind those artifacts and bring them to life – through written content, custom artwork, displays, and exhibits.
WE HELP CLUBS ORGANIZE, PRESERVE, AND EXHIBIT THIER ARCHIVES We assist clubs with the purchase of archival, acid-free storage supplies like boxes, sleeves, folders, and envelopes. We help sort through archives and create organized categories, series and collections that make finding items fast. Easily accessible archives will stimulate their use and help spread your club’s history.
WE ARE A TEAM OF EXPERTS There are many skills needed to properly research, organize, protect and display archives. We have assembled a team of expert archivists, writers, restorers, framers, exhibit designers, artists, printers, and more to help put your archives to work.
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Website
- https://www.archivesatwork.com/
