As Remembered by Ted Wurtz
Early Tam O'Shanter Golf Pro

Documented by Nancy Hettich, January 2011

In 1966 Tam o'Shanter's first golf professional was Dick Schmidt, who acted as greens superintendent as well as golf pro. After one year, when performing both jobs proved too much for one individual, Ted Wurtz was hired in March of 1967 to assist Schmidt. Ted knew that the Sherwood Development Company, which later became the Quadrant Corporation, was also building the Fairwood and Twin Lakes communities. He accepted the job at Tam O'Shanter in hopes he might later be hired for the job of pro at either of the other courses.

Only two months later, in May 1967, Ted became the head pro at TOS -- but by September of that year he realized he couldn't make a living at that position alone. At that time there was not yet a TOS board of directors and decisions were still made by the Sherwood Development Company. Ted approached the president of Sherwood with a proposal to become manager of the club as well as pro; the original TOS clubhouse was under construction at that time. There was no budget for a salary for Ted, so member dues were increased from $12.50 per month to $15.00 per month, the additional money to be salary for Ted. He remained with Tam O'Shanter as pro/manager until 1977 and then returned to the TOS pro position from 1986 to 1990.

Ted's memories of Tam o'Shanter early days are many, but primarily he recalls the youth of early residents and guesses the average member age was around 38 years. Due to that youthful energy, there were always many volunteers to carry out work on all other projects necessary to begin development of the community. One of the first major projects was the addition of evergreen trees to line fairways; the original course had been cleared of most tall trees. An early active member of the community was Art Perry, a dentist, who put up the $300 necessary to purchase the trees. Digging the holes and planting the trees was one of the first major volunteer efforts at TOS.

In addition to the work parties, Ted remembers all the social functions held in the clubhouse. With so many couples moving into the new community, all were eager to meet their neighbors and the clubhouse became a very active place, with many parties and much dancing. As well, all golf events and tournaments were filled as soon as registration was opened. The format of three-day play for the Men's Invitational was developed to accommodate all the golfers who were anxious to participate.

Ted has great memories of his time at Tam O'Shanter and was very well-regarded and liked by members. He has a terrific memory for faces and names and can still surprise TOS golfers from the early days by greeting them by name after many years.

Following his years at Tam O'Shanter, Ted continued work in the golf field and today, in semi-retirement, works part-time as a golf pro.