As a teenager, Pat Kressin worked on his great-uncle’s potato farm in Cedarburg. That is, until he came across a newspaper advertisement for a caddy job.
“Caddying sure seemed like a better job than picking potatoes,” said Kressin, who today serves as chief business development executive of Milwaukee-based GRAEF.
Through caddying at what is now the River Club of Mequon, he learned the game of golf along with many other lifelong skills, including how to converse with people.
Kressin went on to play junior golf tournaments and to earn a full-tuition scholarship from the Western Golf Association to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“You can always see a progression of improvement as long as you try,” he said of golf. “For me at least, I always saw improvement, so it kept me coming back.”
Now, Kressin reserves golf for a social and business activity. He usually golfs about once a week from June through August, and some favorite spots are Westmoor Country Club in Brookfield and The BOG in Saukville.
“I like (golf) because it’s a mix of social activities and sport at the same time,” he said. “It allows you to have a conversation with someone while doing an activity. In certain sports, like running or skiing, there’s not a lot of downtime, so it’s a good mix of both of those things.
“Plus, as a Midwesterner, it’s so great to be outside in the summer. You’ve got to use whatever excuse to get outside.”
