A golf club employee is undergoing counselling after being tied up and twice doused with petrol during an armed robbery on the NSW Central Coast.

Police said the man, 43, was ambushed by a masked man who demanded money, as he was walking to his car after work at the Shelly Beach Golf Club last night.

The victim said he was threatened with a knife, forced back to the club, doused in petrol and told he would be set alight.

The victim handed over a substantial sum of cash before he was tied up and covered in petrol again.

His attacker then drove-off in a car, which was later found by police.

Shelly Beach golf club president Allan Arkins said everything was being done to support the staff member.

“The threat of that for anyone would absolutely be disarming,” he said.

“We’ve activated counselling support and he’ll receive that as long as is necessary.

“Hopefully this matter is resolved by the police in the short term rather than the long term.”

Club security to be reviewed

Mr Arkins said such incidents rarely happen but there will be a full review of the club’s security.

“From my memory the last incident might have almost been a decade ago and we’ve been fairly conscious about making sure our security and our procedures and our follow-ups have been fairly well put into place,” he said.

“You wouldn’t expect it to happen here at all but I guess no-one’s immune from it.

“There’ll still automatically be a review of what we have in place… to make sure that we’re working to a 100 per cent level so that staff get as much protection as we can give.”

He said it was standard procedure for all staff to be escorted to their cars after work at night, but this may not have happened last night.

“That’s exactly one of the things that we will be reviewing with our security firm,” Mr Arkins said.

An email has been sent to all club staff about the incident and police have called on anyone with information to contact them.

The offender is described as being 178cm tall with a large build, and was last seen wearing long black pants, a dark hooded top, balaclava and gloves.