Destined to lead

Kristen LaCount, general manager and COO, is the fourth generation of her family to work at The Country Club. Photo: Damiam Strohmeyer, USGA

If Kristen LaCount had had her druthers, she’d never have entered what can accurately be called the “family business.” She’d be putting her Johnson & Wales culinary degree to use running her own restaurant and starring as a spitfire celebrity chef in some Food Network show by now.

Instead, LaCount’s front of the house at one of America’s most storied clubs – which hosted the U.S. Open last summer. LaCount is the fourth generation in her family to work at the club (her parents actually met while working there), but she’s the first woman to lead as general manager and COO in the 140-year history of The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. That puts the 42-year-old in exclusive company of female leaders at some of America’s most prominent clubs along with Paula (Frechette) Kelly, the general m...