Donnie Teeter’s career path got started early and probably before he even knew what it would become.

Teeter, the head golf pro and course superintendent at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club, began an early apprenticeship on the golf course that eventually led to his career.

Teeter grew up in Algona, Iowa, and spent his summers around a nine-hole country club learning the ins and outs of the golf business. It started with cutting cups for the course at the age of 11, eventually Teeter became part of the grounds crew and all the while becoming a very good golfer.

Teeter went to Iowa State University and played on the golf team, earning All-Big 12 honors his senior season. But he didn’t know that he would end up in the golf industry until midway through his freshman year. Teeter, 34, was planning on going pre-pharmacy, but a teammate on the golf team got him interested in the turf program at Iowa State and he transferred to the horticultural school in the middle of his freshman year.

“He was explaining a little bit about the market at that time, which was incredible. There were too many jobs and not enough people to fill them,” Teeter said. “So I switched halfway through my freshman year to go to the horticulture school.”

Teeter continued to play golf and started for the team his final three seasons. He played against some players who ended up making it on the professional tour, including 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson.

Johnson, who attended Drake, was at many tournaments. The two became friends and Teeter ended up caddying for Johnson in some pro events early in his career.

After graduating from Iowa State, Teeter decided to turn pro and played in events across the Midwest. During the winter he went down south and one winter he spent in Florida with a group of golfers he knew from college, including Johnson.

Age: 34

Address: Albert Lea

Livelihood: head golf pro and course superintendent at Wedgewood Cove Golf Club.

Family: wife, Angie; sons Drew and Noah

Interesting fact: He started playing golf at the age of 5.

Teeter ended up caddying for Johnson, who now ranks fourth in the Fed Ex Cup points, in a few events during the winter as he tried to make his way through qualifying school.

“I just said, ‘Hey I’d love to come down and caddie for you just for the experience,’” Teeter said. “Then he made it through to the finals at Dural that year and I went and caddied for him there.”

Teeter found some success as well when he played mini tours, he made the cut for what was then the Nike Tour (it’s the Nationwide Tour and the tour below the top tour) but the grind became too much and he decided he wanted to have a career.

“It’s great when you’re 20 years old and don’t have a wife and kids,” he said. “You live cheap. You live out of your car, room with someone in a cheap hotel and you try to get by with as small as expenditures that you possibly can get and then you hope you play well a few weeks here and there.”

About nine years ago Teeter gave it up and started teaching at a driving range in Iowa and before long he was offered a job at the Harvester Golf Club in Iowa.

“I was toying with idea — what do I want to do — do I want to go through the PGA’s train to become a class A professional and teach full-time for the rest of my life, because I really enjoyed it,” Teeter said. “I thought, well, I just finished four years of school to take care of golf courses and I really liked doing that, too. So when I got an opportunity to get into the turf side that kind of made the decision for me.”

He eventually became the assistant superintendent at the Harvester Golf Club and then he moved on to a course at Fort Dodge, Iowa soaking up all that he could about the business.

His background with both sides of managing a course made him a good fit to perform both duties at Wedgewood Cove.

“I just absolutely love what I do and I love the opportunity that they’ve given me here to oversee the pro shop and golf side as well,” he said.

The hours, as expected with opening a new golf course, have been long. Teeter watches the sun rise on the course every morning and sometimes sees the sun set as well, but he doesn’t mind the hours and he’s become good about managing the people he works with at the course.

“Obviously I can’t be in both places so it’s really about getting good people underneath you and trying to manage them effectively,” Teeter said.

Watching the course go up and making changes here and there to the course gives Teeter tangible evidence of accomplishment, which is satisfying.

“That’s one of the things that I like about my job is that there’s that sense of accomplishment,” he said. “You have a problem, you fix it and you get to go see it. You get to have people come in and rave about the conditions of the golf course. That’s why we do what we do, is to try to create that great atmosphere out there.”

With spending so much time around the golf course one would expect Teeter wouldn’t want to be around it during his free time, but he still finds himself bringing out the family to enjoy a round from time to time.

“Golf is kind of what we do,” said Teeter who has two children with his wife, Angie. “I spend a lot of time here working, but I’m not anxious to get out of here if I get a chance to play golf or have the family come out and play some golf. It’s a big, big part of our lives.”