part of the course or ended up in a pond. So the main idea was to be 
a presence around the clubhouse and occasionally venture out to the 
course to make sure everything was ok. Part of the night would be 
spent reading or watching whatever was on TV in the 19th Hole and 
consuming an unhealthy amount of Pepsi and bar snacks. And the 
other part would be mustering up the courage to act all big and tough 
— I  did not look the part — and make sure no one was up to any 
mischief on the property. I never ran into any issues, but those were 
certainly memorable nights.
Is there a responsible party for this life you lived 
at CCL before you became of age?
My parents were not members but many of their friends and our 
neighbors were, which is how I ended up working at the Club. Not 
only did I get to hang out with some of my friends from school while 
working in the Snack Bar, but I’d get to wait on family friends like 
Scott and Teri Nelson, Dave and Terry Hansen, Tim and Amy Clare, 
Eric and Linda Hemmingsen, Loel Brooks and Patty Pansing Brooks, 
and so many more!
You’ve continued to live your best life at the Club.
My wife, Nicole, and I joined CCL in 2020, when we moved back to 
Lincoln. Fun fact, our wedding reception was at the Club in 2013. We 
weren’t living in Lincoln at the time but knew it was the only place 
we wanted to have our reception. It was so fun reuniting with people 
I’d worked with before to plan that event: Julie Otte, Jon Hayes, Tom, 
and others. We have two daughters: Stella, 6, and Ruby, 3. We spend 
our summers going between the pool, tennis courts and the golf 
course! Our girls love playing tennis. Stella has started taking golf 
lessons with Jack and playing with some of her friends, and swim 
team was a big hit last summer!
You live close enough to the Club you can jump 
the proverbial fence?
Yes! We live on Sheridan Boulevard and can sometimes be seen 
riding our bikes up to the Club.
I’m active in the tennis program. Rick and Camilla do an amazing 
job of leading it, and I typically play a few times a week throughout 
the year. I also enjoy the golf course and, given my proximity to CCL, 
can play a few holes in between meetings during the summer.
The Club is part of our social rhythm. Few places in Lincoln rival 
CCL’s food, so we spend a fair amount of time enjoying what Chef 
Lorin and team deliver for members! We’re big fans of getting the 
absolute earliest dinner reservation possible for our family dinners. 
We also love ordering to-go and enjoying CCL’s amazing food at home.
If we give you an extra page in this issue of 
LOOK, will you tell us more?
One time during a wedding reception the bride came up to me 
looking for her father (not a member). We searched high and low 
and couldn’t find him, so everyone thought he’d left. As we started 
tearing down the wedding, we heard a terrible scream from another 
banquet staff member who, in the process of removing the skirting 
from a table, discovered the father “sleeping” under it. 
Back when I was a valet, we’d occasionally park cars on the 
driving range if the parking lot got too full. There was something 
particularly fun about taking cars “off road” in the middle of our 
shifts. I’ve parked cars all the way up against the far net before. 
So many Snack Bar stories. It was only a few feet from the edge 
of the pool, so there were more than a few occasions when members 
would exit the Snack Bar and walk right into the pool, many times 
in their street clothes, not swimsuits. We got good at fishing French 
fries, mozzarella sticks, and cans of beer out of it.
I also remember the soufflés, which were popular and had to be 
[still must be] ordered in advance. The pastry chef would sometimes 
find me and let me help her make them. We’d try to time everything 
perfectly so we could serve them as soon as they came out of the 
oven. Often we’d make one or two extras just in case one deflated 
when we took it out. Those were special days, since we’d get to split 
the extras in the kitchen! Seriously though, we knew that if someone 
was ordering soufflés with their meal it was a special occasion, so 
it was an opportunity for us to go above and beyond to make their 
night memorable.
Care to share any final throwback stories?
Joe’s Bar always felt like the “hub” of CCL. Joe Steggall was an 
institution. He never said much to me, but I learned a lot by watching 
him. On occasion, he’d come out to the Snack Bar and ask for a hand 
unloading his minivan after trips to the store to pick up supplies. He 
was always so proud of his bar, and he’d nitpick the way I unloaded 
things, how they appeared on the shelf, and whether I said hello 
to a member who was passing by while I was putting things in the 
refrigerator. 
Undoubtedly, the biggest change over the past 20 years is the 
option now of outdoor dining. When I worked at the Club, heroics 
were needed to make sure members who asked to dine on the patio 
had everything they needed. We brought place settings and stemware 
from other parts of the Club, and carried drinks, without spilling 
them, all the way from the old Grill Dining Room [now Swingfest]. 
One particularly memorable evening, a member had a late-night 
reservation on the patio. We pulled a bunch of votive candles from 
the banquet area to make sure they had enough light, but ultimately I 
had to stand over their shoulders with a flashlight so they could read 
the menus. I vividly remember that meal not ending until close to 
midnight. We kept the kitchen staff and bartenders around until after 
they left, just in case they wanted something else. 
The Snack Bar is a similar story. With the screened-in porch, 
outdoor carpeting, shadow boxes with years-old, stale candy bars, 
and no A/C, we were definitely “roughing it” compared to what we 
have today. That doesn’t even get to the fact that we had a bunch 
of high-school kids cooking everything. I’ll never forget the time a 
member (yes, nameless, since she’s still very active at CCL) ordered a 
Caesar salad. I had absolutely no idea what that was and put together 
something like you’d make at the old Spaghetti Works salad bar, with 
olives, ham, onion, multiple types of lettuce, and a balsamic dressing. 
I’ve yet to apologize to her for that. 
I also went months without realizing that the margarita mix we
used already had tequila in it. So a few members (you know who you
are) sought me out that summer for their margaritas. I can only imagine 
the lecture Joe would have given me had he found out about that. 
I remember it would get so hot in the Snack Bar that we would 
take turns sitting in the freezer to try and cool off. Some employees 
even kept books in the freezer to read while they sat in there. We had 
this industrial fan set up by the back door to help with circulation, 
but it was so loud we couldn’t hear members when they ordered, 
not to mention it recirculated a bunch of dust and debris. At that 
time, we did a lot of service for golfers coming off the #10 green. We 
had a window right where the current bike rack is that was active 
throughout the summer. This is the origin of the phone that used to 
be next to the #9 tee box. Golfers would call down to the Snack Bar, 
and we’d do our best to get everything ready before they had finished 
the 10th hole. 
8

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