Signal Mountain resident Bruce Etter at the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. Click to enlarge all our photos.
photo by John Shearer
Chattanooga Golf and Country Club head professional Bruce Etter helps people with their golf games by training and their smiles by nature.
The Signal Mountain resident is known among those at the club and elsewhere as being as upbeat as a golfer walking off the course after breaking par.
For Mr. Etter, such a manner is simply an extension of his attitude. “It is always better to give than receive,” he said recently. “You try to treat people friendly and make them feel welcome.”
Mr. Etter admits that he and his wife, Elisa, have felt plenty welcome themselves since moving to Chattanooga in 1998 from Texas. They have been quite happy both being in Chattanooga and living on Signal Mountain.
“The good Lord must have wanted us here,” he said. “It has been a great and wonderful experience. I call Signal Mountain Little Mayberry. We love showing it off to family back in Texas. Where else can you get the view, the community, the people, the safety and the family atmosphere?”
Mr. and Mrs. Etter and their 4-year-old son, Jackson, have also become active members at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Etter was recently called to become a deacon there. “Our faith continues to grow within this church,” he said.
Mr. Etter, who is also expecting the birth of the couple’s second child in April, grew up in West Texas. His father was in the oil business, but Mr. Etter became more interested at an early age in striking golf balls instead of oil.
Although he was a good golfer and played at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, he had decided at about age 10 that he wanted to be a club pro rather than try to make a living on the tour.
After college, he was able to get a job as an assistant pro at Walnut Creek Country Club in Mansfield, Texas. After two years there, he landed another assistant’s position at the famous Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, site of the Colonial Open.
At Colonial, where he served from 1991-96, he worked for head pro Dow Fintzerwald Jr. and a well-liked pro emeritus named Roland Harper. “Colonial was a fabulous experience,” he said. “It taught me a lot.”
While in Fort Worth, he became acquainted with two of the town’s most famous citizens – golfing legends Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. He was fortunate to have some conversations with Mr. Nelson, he said, and in 1992 watched the retired Mr. Hogan hit some practice golf balls at Shady Oaks Country Club, also in Fort Worth. “He could still put a move on it like no other,” he said.
But the person he met who made the biggest impact on him was his future wife, Elisa. They were introduced by Mrs. Etter’s father, who was a member at Colonial. They were both in serious relationships with other people at the time, but they eventually started dating.
“The second date I knew she was the one for me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be anywhere in the world without her. She is my best friend and is everything to me. There is nothing she cannot do.”
They were married while Mr. Etter was serving his first job as a head professional at Ridgewood Country Club in Waco, Texas, before coming to Chattanooga.
Mr. Etter has enjoyed being at the Chattanooga Country Club, which dates to 1896. “This is a great club,” he said. “It is amazing to see the history and listen to the stories and hear what all has gone on here. There are many great people who have played here. My goal is to make it that much better and constantly improve it and be a part of that history.”
Part of the enjoyment of being a club pro is watching people improve their golf games or attitudes about their games, he said. “There is nothing I love more than seeing kids who mature, or seeing someone break 100 for the first time,” he said. “There is nothing that gives you greater satisfaction than helping someone achieve a goal.”
Just as being a good golfer requires using many clubs, being a good club pro requires using different skills. Mr. Etter and his staff spend time giving lessons, operating the golf shop at a profit, ordering merchandise, and helping the 570 golfing members’ various other needs.
He must be doing pretty well, as he recently won several golf professional awards at the local and state level.
He also still finds time to play a little golf. In 2001, he shot an amazing 60 at a course in Nashville.
And off the course, he continues to maintain a manner as consistent as a par shooter’s scores.