Mary Woodhouse of Michaywe Retiring After 45 Years of Service
A myriad of people have worked in various roles over the years to make the golf courses in the Gaylord Golf Mecca, like The Pines at Michaywe’, continue to serve as part of America’s favorite summer golf destination.
And Mary Woodhouse jokes that she has probably signed each of their paychecks at one time or another.
Or is it a joke?
Currently the General Manager for the Michaywe’ Owners Association, Woodhouse is retiring at the end of November, closing a career in accounting in tourism and golf that spans 45 years.
“I’m throwing the hat in,” said Woodhouse, who is 65, a mother of two and lives on a farm in the Gaylord area with her husband. “I figure 45 years is enough.”
Judy Mason, the head golf professional at The Pines, said she wasn’t surprised when Woodhouse told her of her retirement plans. “I’ve worked with her here for the last 21 years, and earlier in my career at Hidden Valley, or what is now Otsego Resort, so I would say 28 years is a good guess,” she said. “She has been working in and around the Gaylord Golf Mecca as long as it has been around, even before it. She’s been a part of multiple resorts and courses. She’s right, she has signed a lot of checks.”
Woodhouse grew up in Gaylord, having moved to the area as a youngster with her family in 1967. She went to what is now Davenport University in Grand Rapids and earned an accounting degree in 1980, and immediately became part of the tourism industry as an employee of what is now Otsego Resort.
She has served in mostly accounting roles, most often as the comptroller, and has been the General Manager at Michaywe’ since 2020. She has witnessed golf booms and lean times. She knows who worked where, and she said she has worked with some great people and never considered leaving the area.
“This is home,” she said. “I’m staying here, and I know Michaywe’ is doing well. It’s nice to be going out at the end of another golf boom. I mean, we have record rounds again. It’s like it was back in the 80s when all the course building was going on. It’s tough to compete with other resort areas around the country. We have such a short golf season, but we also know what we have, and I think people come here and like the people, the place, the golf, the community feeling they see and experience.”
Mason said Woodhouse will be missed, but she’s happy her longtime co-worker and friend is retiring. “I feel happy for her, feel happy that she will have more time for herself and her family and friends,” she said. “I hope in retirement she enjoys golf and the things to do in the Mecca instead of working so other people can enjoy it. It’s a new chapter in her life and that’s great.”
Mason said Woodhouse put her heart and soul into Michaywe’ and all the other entities she has worked with in Gaylord. “You know, you spend more time with somebody you work with over that many years than you do with your own family,” she said. “Mary has just always been there, a part of it all.”
Woodhouse called the members and staff at Michaywe’ a family and said the people across the board in the Mecca are a family of sorts, too. “I’ll miss the people, sure, but I’ll still be around,” she said and grinned. “I just won’t be signing their checks.”
Woodhouse didn’t want to start naming names of those who impacted her career for fear she would leave somebody out, but she said the vision of the late Dick Weber and the longtime executive director of the Mecca, Paul Beachnau, to create the Gaylord Golf Mecca became an amazing reality.
“It’s worked for what, 37 years, through all the ups and downs of the economy and the golf industry and tourism industry,” she said. “They saw what could happen in this area for tourism and golf, and Paul has been a force that has kept it going. The Mecca, and the Convention and Tourism Bureau, it’s really both that have made it work.”
Beachnau said Woodhouse and so many others like it are the people who have made the Mecca work. “They believe in a cooperative effort, and like Mary, they are good people who care about their community,” he said. “That’s the secret sauce of the Mecca.”
Woodhouse knows most of the people of the Mecca and in large part Gaylord, and their history. She admitted she is called up often to verify historical information or simply answer questions about the past.
“I’m sort of a resident historian, I guess,” she said and smiled. She said that history tells her that the Mecca, now a cooperative marketing group of 16 courses and 20 lodging partners, will continue to be a great place for people to work.
Mason said Woodhouse has been one of the special people, too. “Mary is a good-hearted person, very soft on the inside,” she said. “Over the years she has often gone above and beyond to help coworkers with their personal life issues. She is a farmer – owns pigs and other farm animals. She also is an artist, and so talented with flower and seasonal decorations and arrangements. We will miss the Mary who worked with us, but even more the Mary who was always there for us.”
