Taylor Babcock’s path to Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia, can only be described as circuitous.
Turns out that hasn’t been such a bad thing for Babcock, the head golf professional at Farmington, an upscale private club with more than 2,800 members.
Rewind to her teenage years growing up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where Babcock was a three-sport athlete, excelling in basketball, volleyball and golf. She regularly played golf at Lake Oswego Country Club, but she admits that the game was not her first passion.
That all changed one summer when, as a prep, she revamped her swing with the help of Jerry Mowlds, the director of instruction at nearby Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. It was a transformative experience; the ever-driven Babcock lowered her handicap from 15 to nearly scratch.
Babcock won, in her words, “five or six” tournaments as a junior in high school and began competing in high-level Oregon State Golf Association events. She credits her parents with enthusiastically allowing her to pursue her dreams.
Still, her considerable credentials seemingly filtered through the recruiting process without much traction. Babcock decided to be her own advocate, calling different schools before, with the help of Mowlds, landing at Division-II golf powerhouse Barry University in Miami. There, her game continued to excel as she earned All-American accolades and graduated in 2013 with a degree in sport management.
After post-graduate stints working as an assistant women’s golf coach at Yale (2013-2015), the University of South Florida (2015-2016) and Cal-Berkeley (2016-2017), Babcock knew it was time to take stock of her career path. Along with coaching, working at a club was also front of mind.
“I had to figure out what I actually wanted to do. Was it coaching or hospitality?” Babcock recalled.
She dove headlong into the club professional and hospitality business, looking to find roots in both roles. During summers, she was the assistant professional at Pine Brook Country Club in Weston, Massachusetts, while in the winter months, she worked a similar role at the renowned Indian Creek Country Club in Miami.
Though she gained a ton of valuable knowledge and had a positive experience at both clubs, alternating sites led to an uneven, almost nomadic existence from the fall of 2018 to the spring of 2020.
“It started to wear on me,” Babcock admitted. “It was the moving around every six months. Seemed like friendships lasted six months. I was looking to settle.”
“For all clubs, private or public, working as a team is critical. We focus on allowing a seamless experience for members, no matter which staff member is on duty at a particular time on any given day.” – Taylor Babcock
Fate intervened. With the prodding of a member at Indian Creek, Babcock played nine holes with Rob McNamara at Indian Creek. McNamara is a legend in Virginia golf circles, having spent more than 27 years at Farmington in multiple roles, including serving as the club’s head professional.
Babcock and McNamara connected. Conversation came easy. They shared many of the same philosophies. They talked about the ins and outs of the retail side of the business.
McNamara came away impressed with Babcock’s obvious passion for working in the golf industry. Babcock shined in her role at Indian Creek. where she routinely went beyond the call of duty to make members’ experiences as wholesome as possible.
So when McNamara took a position as the director of golf and general manager at Keswick Club in the Charlottesville area — and a restructuring of Farmington’s golf shop staff was in order — McNamara passed Babcock’s name up the ranks for the head professional job.
“She’s very motivated and driven,” McNamara said. “She takes the craft of being a PGA golf professional very seriously. I thought that if she was going to hang her shingles somewhere else, it would be at Farmington. She has a lot of skills, ability and desire. You can have ability, but if you don’t have desire, it’s not going to work.”
Babcock interviewed for the position at Farmington with Virginia Golf Hall of Fame member Tom McKnight and the club’s general manager, Joe Krenn. Shortly afterward, she was offered the job and accepted it two days later. There are very few young women serving as head professionals, let alone at a large club with a substantial golf operation.
“It was a wave of shock, a wave of excitement,” Babcock remembered.
She began her duties at Farmington in early March 2021 and relishes in how Farmington “feels like home, where I am supposed to be.”
McKnight immediately thought that she would be a great addition to the Farmington staff, a feeling that has already been validated.
“I like the way she presented herself,” McKnight said. “She was coming from a lot of nice places. She is ambitious and seemed like she would be a good fit for Farmington. I knew that she would leave a good imprint. She has all the pieces to become a good golf professional. Good player. Nice person.”
The club has plenty of offerings, including an 18-hole championship layout, a 10-hole course, a double-ended driving range, multiple practice putting greens and a golf performance center, to name just a few of its amenities.
Babcock does not see herself as an autocratic leader, but as part of a larger cadre of employees intent on giving Farmington members the best of all worlds at one of the largest clubs in Virginia. Managing a club of nearly 3,000 members requires extra work on building relationships and understanding the detailed needs of the club.
“For all clubs, private or public, working as a team is critical,” Babcock points out. “We focus on allowing a seamless experience for members, no matter which staff member is on duty at a particular time on any given day. Farmington’s sincere top-to-bottom team approach is what makes the member and guest experience first rate for all members and guests at all times.”
These days, Babcock has plenty on her plate between working in the golf shop, giving lessons and competing in tournaments. It’s all a balancing act, but intensely enjoyable.
“It wouldn’t be possible without the Farmington Country Club team,” said Babcock, who is working her way through coursework to become a certified PGA professional. “There is a clear delineation and an outline of responsibilities. We all work as a team.”
Her competitive drive has not waned. She plans on trying to qualify for this summer’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol and the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach. Babcock is also playing in Middle Atlantic Section PGA professional competitions and has the recently announced inaugural Women’s Open of Virginia marked on her calendar.
Her desire to play in tournaments — pencil to scorecard — burns brightly.
“I like these opportunities to compete,” Babcock said. “It helps make me love the game.”
As for the here and now, her prior career stops all seem to make sense as a gateway to landing the job at Farmington. She is seemingly picking up new skills by the day and soaking up the communal atmosphere of the area.
“I love being at Farmington and part of the Charlottesville community, with UVA, everything. I have immersed myself in it. It’s been fulfilling,” Babcock said.
She hasn’t forgotten the people who have mentored and advised her in gaining solid footing in the golf business. At Farmington, whether it’s the club championship or ladies’ day, she feels personally invested in creating an environment that ultimately helps facilitate the participants’ enjoyment.
“I have been fortunate to make a lot of great relationships that have allowed my career to start and flourish.”