What started as a job in college – at a Golf Town that just so happened to be in the same plaza as another job she had – has turned into a lifelong career. And for Erin Lynch, golf has now become a lifelong passion, too.

Erin, who works as an Inventory Analyst at Golf Town’s head office, has been with the company for 16 years. With a laugh she says she had no knowledge of the game when she started, but now it’s something important for her and her family.

“I taught myself (about golf) using others in the store to help learn about the game, which has now transformed into a hobby and something I’m definitely more knowledgeable about now,” Erin says.

Erin started working at Golf Town as the department store manager in London. She was also an assistant manager and a general manager at a couple of different stores before moving to head office, where she’s been for three years. She works in the finance department now, which, she admits, is quite different than the store level.

With a laugh Erin recalls her time at Western University in London where she actually got a degree in anthropology and archeology. Although that doesn’t apply much to her day-to-day job, she says, it was still something she enjoyed.

The inventory part of her gig was always something important while working at the store. Although she doesn’t work at a store now she is constantly helping stores to maintain their inventory integrity and help them with their business.

“I’m the only one in our department that came from the store level so within the finance department they have the numbers’ stuff that I don’t have but I have the store background,” says Erin. “It allows me to educate my colleagues on our stores, our people, our procedures, which in turn helps us be a better resource and make our company better!”

Erin says the relationships she’s cultivated over the last decade-and-a-half with Golf Town has been some of the best parts of her job. Customers too, she says, travel from store-to-store. Many of those customers she knew for five or 10 years, she would see them at different stores, and it was always a smile-enduing moment.

“There are definitely individuals that I work with still today that I worked with the first year that I started with the company not only in Ontario but across all of our stores,” she says. “We’ve worked together at the store level but many of us have come into the office environment or moved to different regions but still a close-knit group. It’s rare in business but rare in retail especially.”

Erin says the part of her job that brings her the most joy now is seeing her team members be successful at the store level. When she was a General Manager there were a lot of people she connected with – whether they were summer part-time workers or others who wanted to continue on to another position – so, she says, if she’s able to help them or used as a resource that helps them move forward, she finds that rewarding.

“Retail has a lot of turnover,” says Erin. “We’ve very fortunate that at Golf Town we have a lot of employees that have been with the company for 10-20 years so as we’ve all continued our own individual career paths, we’ve done it alongside each other!”