He was upfront with his concern.
The man who started with a single weekly shift as a bartender at Framingham Country Club 15 years ago was eventually recommended for a promotion.
“I was very honest with them and said I don’t know enough about golf,” Michael Aw warned. “I would be a fish out of water.”
He knew plenty about everything else.
A career that involved teaching, working hospitality gigs and serving as an auxiliary police officer melded nicely into Aw’s current position: clubhouse manager and interim general manager at FCC.
His job description includes supporting general manager Michael Methot, supervising the pool, food and beverage operations, and hiring and training staff.
And thinking outside the (tee) box.
Flick and Float, where children watch a movie while lounging on rafts in the pool; Aspen Night, where the clubhouse was turned into a ski lodge; and a flying dog show, complete with sprinting pooches catching Frisbees - all are recent ideas that Aw has been part of.
He refers to the club as “an extension of their backyard.”
For Aspen Night, held on March 1, Aw did not “Take it Easy.” While members appeared in ski outfits, they were greeted by trail signs using Eagles songs indicating their difficulty: “Take it to the Limit” (double black diamond); “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (intermediate); and “New Kid in Town” (beginner).
When Rocky Mountain Oysters (bull’s testicles) were unavailable, Aw had malted chocolate balls on the menu.
“Some members got it,” Aw said. “They couldn’t stop laughing.”
Members and their families got a scare last fall when the club hosted a haunted house, complete with a guillotine in the basement.
“It actually might have been a bit too scary,” Methot said, “but he definitely pushed the envelope and added some enhancements to the previous year.”
From Burma to National Educator Award in Hopedale
Aw received the 2004 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award as a sixth-grade teacher at Hopedale’s Memorial Elementary School, a long way from when he was an ESL student after emigrating from Burma (now Myanmar) at age 13. His family waited seven years, after his mother died, to leave the country legally.
His father secretly taught his children English at home.
“My generation, even if you looked toward Western culture or speak English, you’d be ostracized. You’d be thrown in jail,” Aw said of his early days in Burma.
Bus boy was his first job at a large banquet hall after arriving in Brooklyn, New York, where also served as bar manager and maître d’. After the 9/11 attacks, he attended the Police Academy and began as an auxiliary police officer in Holliston in 2002, working details at the Boston Marathon, the Milford Santa Parade and on a bike patrol along the Upper Charles Rail Trail.
To supplement his teaching salary, he took up bartending at the Sherborn Inn, which led to a similar position at Framingham Country Club. Aw, 57, who retired from teaching in 2019, has molded his life experiences into his current position.
Michael Aw goes back to school
Framingham Country Club is hosting the Mass Amateur golf tournament for the first time next week and Aw will bring his natural enthusiasm to the event. But he’ll miss the chance to interact with the public in a more familiar way.
“I think it’s quite an honor,” he says of the Mass Am. “I’m kind of bummed – if I wasn’t in charge running everything else, I would have loved to pull on a detail uniform and direct traffic.”
He’ll wear a different uniform, but plenty of commotion will surround him. Aw’s experience as a teacher and police officer will help him navigate the five-day tournament. Plus, a scholarship he recently earned through Mass Golf turned the former educator into a student again.
He took a weeklong course in Arizona in February, touring the area’s golf courses.
For the public safety side of his life, Aw attended the Municipal Police Training Committee’s Bridge Academy two years ago to seek a position as a school resource officer, which never came to fruition because of his promotions at FCC.
“It was the most challenging thing I’ve done, competing against 20-year-olds,” the Franklin resident said of Bridge Academy. “As a teacher, I could hit the books no problem. But the driving? It turned my hair gray just doing those maneuvers.”
Why go through such rigorous training?
“I’ve never taken democracy, freedom, equal rights, human rights for granted,” said Aw, who is married to Caroline Fair, a registered nurse who is the daughter of the late Bob Fair, part of Fair & Yeager Insurance Agency that resided in downtown Natick for more than 100 years.
Using metaphors that steer toward Aw’s desire to please the public, Sarah Vasilevsky, FCC’s newly-named event planner, calls him an inspiration.
“He’s got a strong drive for hitting the mark, specifically with his attention and eye to detail,” she said. “He thrives collaborating on projects due to his wealth of experience and knowledge. Michael is not only driven, but analytical in his approach to work.”
The immigrant who became a decorated teacher and earned a Volunteer Star from President George W. Bush for his police work has a few more theme nights planned for FCC. He can be found near the pool or the kitchen. As Methot says, “he’ll have his hands in a lot of different things.”
Aw will not be directing traffic next week. One of few tasks he won’t be involved in.
“Everything,” he says, “but the golf.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
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