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"Most humbling game on earth"
Naples, FL PGA golf pro Timothy Fredeen has been involved with the golf world all his life. Born in western New York, not far from Lake Eerie, he grew up across the street from the Chautauqua Golf Club, where he caddied for his dad, when he was ten.
When Fredeen was old enough to work, the pro at the club hired him to clean golf carts and work on the course. All through high school and college, he worked at the golf club, learning the general maintenance of a golf course.
In college, he majored in business administration and thought he might follow his father into banking or the stock market, but, when he interviewed for a job, his heart just wasn't in it.
"The pro at the club said, 'I think you need to go into golf,'" Fredeen remembers. "My boss moved me into the pro shop, where I learned the business."
After Fredeen graduated from college, he spent the first winter, working with a golf course mechanic in New York, where the courses close in October and reopen in April.
The following summer, the head pro from Wyndemere Golf club in Naples, FL, came to New York and told Fredeen that he needed help in the winter and there was a job opening as a golf cart attendant.
So, at the age of 23, Fredeen married his fiancé and they headed to Florida.
"I had never been down here before," Fredeen says. "We got off the exit, and were driving up 951, when we passed this golf course (Golden Gate Country Club, where he works today). It was in terrible shape, and I said, 'If I have to work here, we're going home right now!'"
Fredeen explains that the Golden Gate Golf Course had been immaculate in the 70's, when celebrities such as Bing Crosby came there, but it had been neglected since then.
Fredeen took the job at Wyndemere, and for three years, he and his wife lived in Naples during the winter and returned to New York in the summer.
In the fall of 1986, they made the decision to stay in Naples.
In 1987, the Vochasamio brothers, from Canada, bought out their partners at the Golden Gate Hotel and Golf Resort. They contacted the Wyndemere golf pro to see if he knew of a young man they could hire.
Fredeen met them for an interview and liked what he heard.
"They were in construction and had a vision," explains Fredeen. "They wanted to completely remodel and expand the Golden Gate facility, and they had the money to do it."
The new owners took the design from the Wyndemere and built the two three-story hotel units beside the old facility, built the pro shop and golf cart storage under the east building, moved the pool and improved the golf course.
"Nothing that you see here now was here in 1986," says Fredeen, who seems quite content in his present location.
Several times a year, the owners come down from Canada, where they are currently busy building a big convention center in Ottawa.
Fedeen likes working for private owners, who are willing to let him run the golf club as he pleases. His degree in business administration is also put to good use.
The Golden Gate golf pro also enjoys the variety of people he meets.
"We have all sorts of people who come in here. It's very interesting," Fredeen explains.
The New York native and his wife have three children, two girls and a boy. His son works for him in the same job that Fredeen had all those years ago, taking care of the golf carts.
On the wall in his office, Fredeen has photos of his children, who are all involved with sports. For two years, he coached volleyball on a team that played against his daughter.
"She didn't like that, so I quit and coached her team for several years," says the father of three.
On one wall in Fredeen's office is a large portrait of golfer Payne Stewart, who died in a plane crash several years ago.
The topic naturally evolves into a discussion of several golf greats.
"Tiger Woods has had a tremendous influence on golf," admits Fredeen. "Our junior camps doubled in enrollment, when Tiger started hitting the news. He's done a lot for golf."
Though golf is his life, Fredeen admits that it is "the most humbling game on earth."
"Just when you think you've got it, you play the worst game you've ever played," says this modest man with a smile.