By Mike May
Patti Emerson, a 63-year-old mother, grandmother, and retired postal work from Seymour, Indiana, is doing a job which she never considered doing in her lifetime, but loves doing.
Emerson works on the grounds crew, cutting grass on tees and fairways at Seymour’s Shadowood Golf Course, four mornings each week in the Spring, Summer and Fall.
She relishes the experience of driving a riding lawnmower.
“I love to mow grass. It relaxes me. It gives me time to myself and I think it is relaxing. I put my headphones on and stream my music and just mow.”
Not only is Shadowood a great place to work, it’s also a wonderful place to mingle with the golfers.
“Everyone on the course is so nice. They always wave at me and speak to me. I’ve met so many kind people.”
Emerson’s career path to operating a mower was not conventional.
“I had retired and was looking for something to do. My husband Dave started working in the Shadowood pro shop. They had an ad for high school-age cart attendants, so Dave asked Ryan Myers (Shadowood’s owner) if I could work carts. Ryan asked me to come to the golf course.”
Upon arrival, she was hired.
“I worked as a cart attendant the first year and then superintendent Tony Rutherford asked me if I would be interested in mowing. I said I would and the next year, I mowed two days a week and still did carts two days a week. I have since switched strictly to mowing four days a week.”
Emerson now has great respect for what it takes to maintain a golf course.
“I did not know so much was involved in taking care of the course and maintaining the equipment. I didn’t realize greens have to be mowed everyday along with fairways.”
Emerson has been a welcome addition to Shadowood’s maintenance team.
“The people I work with are great. They helped me learn to mow fairways when I was having a difficult time seeing the correct line. I still have trouble sometimes, but I’m doing much better.”
Rutherford says very few women have ever worked for him, but Emerson is a hard-working and an effective member of his team.
“In my 20 years as a golf course superintendent, Patti is only the second woman to ever work for me at a golf course,” said Rutherford. “She has a good work ethic, has picked up things up quickly, and is very detail-oriented. Her confidence has grown quickly in the job.”
For Emerson, working at Shadowood requires an early arrival, as it takes at least two hours to mow all the greens.
“If we have an event going on, sometimes I have to come in at 5:30 AM to make sure I get all greens mowed before they start, especially if it’s a shotgun start. In the early spring, we usually start at 7:00 AM, for most of the summer, we start at 6:00 am.”
When Emerson is not working at Shadowood, she babysits her granddaughter on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Golf at Seymour’s Shadowood Golf Club will remain a great experience for all, as long as Patti Emerson continues to do her mowing job, and she does it very well.
