Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.An era in Omaha golf has ended with Jim Etter's retirement as head PGA professional at Johnny Goodman Golf Course.
Etter, 64, followed his grandfather and father into the golf business and spent 38 years working for the city's golf division. This will be the first time since 1936 — 76 years — that an Etter isn't manning a city course.
"I'm hoping to still do something in golf," Etter said. "I have a few options, things that would give me like 20 hours a week. My whole life has been around golf."
Etter's career started when several city courses, including Elmwood Park, still had dirt tee boxes and no underground watering systems.
He was around when people slept in their cars to get tee times on the weekends at Benson Park and Applewood (now Goodman) and when the golf boom burst in the past few years.
His past seven years were at Goodman after the retirement of Nebraska Golf Hall of Famer Gene Johnson.
"Last year was our best year since my first year there," Etter said. "A lot had to do with the conditioning of the course. Golfers came who never had played it before or hadn't been here for 20 years.
"We were up (financially) for the year, and not too many courses can say that. It was a great year to go out on."
Etter started working for his grandfather, the late Harold "Babe" Etter, before he was a teenager. Babe Etter ran Spring Lake from 1936 to 1966 and died in 1975.
Etter's father, also named Jim, split his 18 years at city courses between Elmwood Park and Spring Lake. He died in 1988. The youngest Etter worked one summer on the Elmwood maintenance crew before four years helping his father in Elmwood's golf shop.
When Etter was attending Omaha University and playing basketball for the Indians — three years with Jim Borsheim as coach, one with Bob Hanson — the 1966 Ryan High graduate's career path initially was teaching and coaching. He quickly decided to stay in the "family business" of golf and switched his major to recreation.
"My dad and grandfather never were in the PGA," he said. "That was one of the first things I wanted to do, to be a PGA member. Our Nebraska PGA section does a tremendous job of promoting golf."
Etter was at Fontenelle Park from 1973 to 1975 and then at Elmwood from late 1975 through 2004, with two exceptions. From 1990 to 1992, he was an interim city golf supervisor. When Elmwood was renovated in 1995, he ran Benson Park.
He said the Elmwood renovation provided him with some of the greatest satisfaction in his job. He was able to suggest changes in the course — which had few changes since the 1930s — such as straightening out the par-4 sixth hole, changing the next hole from a monster par-3 to a manageable par-4 and lengthening the 12th hole into a dogleg par 4.
Etter's protégés include Bob Baber, the city's golf manager; Joe Wiegand, PGA pro at Benson Park; and Terry Heskett, PGA pro at Elmwood and Etter's cousin.
"Bob used to shag balls when he was 12 or 13 and I was giving lessons in the evenings at Elmwood," Etter said, "and he ends up my boss."
Said Baber: "He's an icon with the City of Omaha. He's my mentor and has had a huge influence on my life."
So what traits did Etter pick up from his grandfather and father?
"My grandpa was very personable. He talked all the time and Grandma would get so mad at him," he said. "My dad was just the opposite, very easygoing. He also was a good player, but didn't play when he went into the Navy for four years (during World War II) and he came back and I was born.
"I'm in between, not as talkative as Grandpa but more than my dad."
Etter's three children — Katie, Robin and Scott — all were Omaha junior golf champions. Katie and Robin now are schoolteachers and Scott is an Omaha firefighter.
He also has two adult stepchildren, Rob and Jill, with his wife, Barb, and three grandchildren.
Pete Hagen, who has been at Sunset Valley Country Club, has been hired as Etter's successor at Goodman.
"Pete will do a good job there," Etter said. "He'll learn fast that it's a very busy golf course."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1041, stu.pospisil@owh.com
twitter.com/stuOWH
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
