Chicago native Felton is excited about MGC post

     Patti Felton’s new job as club manager at the Monticello Golf Club came about after she and her husband Brian had made a lifestyle decision.

     “We decided we wanted to raise our child in a small town like Monticello,” she said.

     There was one problem. Although Felton had been in the bar business for 40 years, they moved to Monticello in June 2020, in the early stages of the pandemic, when bars and restaurants were doing take-out only, if they were open at all.

     “I said to Brian, ‘Where the heck am I going to work?’ ” Felton said.

     Then, it happened: a job opening, as club manager at the Monticello Golf Club, a position Brian and family members had seen advertised in the Monticello Express. She applied, and was hired.

     “This came up, and I said, ‘My God, the angels are singing,’ ” she said.

     Felton grew up in Chicago, nine blocks away from Wrigley Field, before her parents moved the family to the western suburb of Glendale Heights. She met Brian – a Cascade native – in Chicago in 2006, and they stayed there for several years. They returned to Monticello often to watch Brian’s sons, Tanner and Tyler Felton, play baseball, first for Monticello High School and more recently for the Monticello Cubs semi-pro team.

     Patti and Brian later moved to Arizona, and stayed there for nearly eight years before settling back in Monticello last year. They were married in 2013.

     She has two grown daughters of her own, as well as two grandchildren. Patti and Brian have one child together, Gianna, an eighth-grader at Monticello Middle School.

     “She wanted to go to school where her (step-) brothers went to school,” Felton said. “It’s a little different in a small town,” Felton said. “It was kind of a culture shock for me.”

     But she has adjusted, and said she has enjoyed getting to know the customers who come into the club.

     “Meeting people here has been awesome,” Felton said. “And everybody has been so nice.”

     Felton runs the day-to-day operations of the club. For now, previous club manager Pam Lynch continues to run tournaments and other golf-related duties.

     “She’s been doing this for 13 years,” Felton said of Lynch. “I want to keep her here as long as she wants to be here.”

     Felton has a bit of a golf background herself. Her father Gerald Emmons, passed away 10 years ago, but is a member of the Villa Olivia Hole in One Hall of Fame for having scored an ace on a hole more than 300 yards long.

     Felton is putting in long hours, and she said the search for help behind the bar is continuous. But she said she is excited about working on behalf of the club. She envisions Sunday buffets, parties on the patio, and more.

     “I’m all about bringing money to the club,” she said. “I would love to be able to see them be able to do improvements without worrying about spending the money. So that’s my goal.”