Some connections defy explanation, and one such relationship is the bond Gary Shetler shares with the green. Look no further than the 40-plus years he worked for Evansville Country Club before his retirement June 28.
The now-former general manager made it his goal to consistently raise the bar at ECC during his tenure. He oversaw major renovations to the club’s golf course in 2021-22, calling those changes the “best thing we ever did.” And while they were attention-grabbing, equally striking was the way he refurbished what it meant to be a boss.
ECC Membership & Marketing Director Rachel Brown says it was all the little things that he did every day on the job that left a lasting impression.
“Gary is the definition of a true leader,” Brown says. “He would never ask you to do something that he would not do himself.”
It takes a certain type of person to commit themselves to something in the way that Shetler devoted himself to ECC, but he says he knows that man well.
“I think it’s internal,” Shetler says. “I have always had high standards, so my goal was always to make everything the best I could.”
Shetler notes that the position of general manager did require some sacrifice, with many “12-hour days and 60-hour weeks,” but he says he always knew he belonged on the putting green or, at least, in close proximity to it. Following his graduation from Purdue University in 1978 with a specialty in turf management, he spent six years at Fendrich Golf Course before receiving a call from ECC in 1984. He would spend the remainder of his career there, first as a golf course superintendent for 25 years and later as general manager for his final 15.
After four decades, if anyone has earned a weekend off, it’s Shetler, and yet, as his wife Mary Ann says, he hasn’t exactly gotten around to that yet. In the month following his retirement, Shelter says he undertook rebuilding and repainting his entire deck.
“Retirement has meant less work for him and more work for me, helping him with all of his projects,” Mary Ann jokes.
Now returning to his old stomping grounds at ECC as an honorary lifetime member, Shelter says when he looks out across the sprawling hills of the club’s golf course and sees the clubhouse that served as a second home for the past 40 years, he sees “a place where you can create memories that last a lifetime.”
