SUPERIOR — Like many golf course workers, Kathy Watczak has busy Mondays. After taking Sundays off, she gets to the course an hour before it opens to water and clean.
“Usually I’m still going when the first golfers head out,” Watczak said while working Monday morning, Aug. 4. “It takes a while to do it right.”
But Watczak isn’t like most greenkeepers. The course she works on has different needs, and much more color.
She is the caretaker of the flowers at Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf Course on Barker’s Island in Superior.
Flowers wait to be watered at Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group
Watczak works six mornings a week, tending to over 300 plants at the course. On Monday, she was busy planting a new hibiscus.
Kathy Watczak adds dirt to the ground under a new hibiscus at Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf on Monday, Aug. 4.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group
A new memorial garden was installed last weekend to honor the first owners of Capt’n J’s, Russ and Annette Post.
A sign painted by Stephanie Ratajek to honor Russ and Annette Port, original owners of Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf, rests in a new memorial garden.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group
Watczak says she does have to keep an eye out for bees.
“One got me this morning,” Watczak said with a smile as she watered a pot of flowers.
Kathy Watczak gives a drink to flowers at Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group
Droplets of water cling to petals on flowers at Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group
A new hibiscus blooms at Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group
Children wait in line Monday, Aug. 5, to putt on the first hole at Capt’n J’s Miniature Golf.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group
Jed Carlson joined the Superior Telegram in February 2001 as a photographer. He grew up in Willmar, Minnesota. He graduated from Ridgewater Community College in Willmar, then from Minnesota State Moorhead with a major in mass communications with an emphasis in photojournalism.
