Garlach has had wild two-year ride as JDC volunteer chair

John Deere Classic volunteer chairman Lee Garlach knows a thing or two about horses and the old adage about what needs to be done when that happens — dust yourself off and get right back on.

He has followed that philosophy in his rare two-year stint atop the JDC board and also in his own personal life in the last few months.

When the 2019 PGA Tour event was canceled amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic? Keep plugging on, raise over $12 million for charity through the Birdies For Charity program without a sporting event and get ready for the next chance to have a tournament.

If a bucket on a tractor falls on you and almost leads to your foot being amputated? Smile, trust the doctors, stay positive and hope for the best.

“Everything changed,” said Garlach of the planning for the JDC’s 50th anniversary blowout that was to feature historic gatherings and a major concert to mark the golden anniversary of pro golf in the Quad-Cities. “You just have to roll with it.”

Now the culmination of that wild ride is here as the $6.2 million Tour event is set to rise again this coming week at TPC Deere Run.

Just roll with it is sort of the approach Garlach took regarding his recovery from a farm accident that caused a serious injury to his right foot last August in the middle of said pandemic.

Cool customer

When it comes to seeking a perfect example of a person with a laid-back personality, you need not look farther than Garlach.

“He’s just a great guy to be around,” said Clair Peterson, JDC tournament director who had two years to get to know Garlach as volunteer chair. “He’s a guy you wish was your next door neighbor.”

Easy to talk to, Garlach carries himself more like a cowboy than the chairman and CEO of the burgeoning Fortress Bank franchise.

“I’m more of a horse guy,” said Garlach when asked about his connections to golf. “I’m much more comfortable sitting in a saddle than I am standing on a tee box.”

Still, he admits to having a passion for the game of golf that has been brought out during his two-year stint as volunteer chairman, a spot that carried over since there was no 2020 tournament.

That situation has also led to plenty of jokes in his family.

“My wife jabs me a little bit with that,” said Garlach with a wry smile. “She tells me I’m the only guy who takes two years to do a one-year job.”

He laughs when he tells that story but knows that he isn’t the first to serve multiple years in what is usually a one-year run as volunteer chairman that culminates a nine-year stint on the JDC board.

In fact, he is at least the fifth to keep the duties for two years, the last being Mark Kilmer for the 2002 and ’03 events.

Odd two years

As if serving two years as volunteer chairman wasn’t enough of a battle, Garlach also had to contend with the health situation when a bucket attachment on a tractor became unattached while in use.

While not falling on him directly, it pinned his foot to the ground at his family’s Black Spur Equestrian Center just outside Milan.

Coincidentally, Black Spur has connections to the Hewitt family, which, of course, donated the property on which Deere Run is built, providing a nice little connection for the Colorado-raised Garlach to the tournament and the area.

Garlach matter-of-factly told the story of the accident and resulting injuries. Hospitalized in Iowa City for an extended period of time, an infection after the first of multiple surgeries nearly led to an amputation.

“To me this past year was a blur,” Garlach said. “Just a lot happened. It was crazy.”

Actually, his JDC connections helped him through it all, including a co-chair of the medical staff who was one of the first-responders on the scene.

“What was really cool was when word got out about what happened, my phone blew up,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many volunteers from the tournament checked up on me and said, 'We still need you, get out of the hospital.’”

Peterson was among those checking on him.

“Watching him go through that tells you all you need to know about Lee,”  Peterson said. “It’s an incredibly serious situation — don’t know if it was life threatening, but certainly threatened his leg and foot — but without diminishing it, he just said ‘We’re going to do the best we can.’ He always joked about it and had a smile on his face.”

Proving what this tournament means to him now, Garlach was at the October announcement of $12.2 million raised through the Birdies For Charity program. He was still recovering from his incident and his leg was still in a cast. He was using what he called a "knee crutch" to get around and looked like a pirate with a peg-leg.

Making his mark

Peterson said he has enjoyed watching Garlach lead the JDC volunteer corps and understands how he has been successful in his business ventures that include bank CEO and owning a beer distributorship that originally brought him to the Quad-Cities from Wyoming in 1996.

“He’s been such a good leader through all the uncertainty and change,” Peterson said. “… He’s been unflappable, he’s been good-humored and he’s so smart.”

Peterson pointed to Garlach’s “professionalism and insight” as two great qualities.

“He knows how to manage people and get the best out of them,” Peterson said. “He’s a supportive leader; he talks more about what you’ve accomplished and what his expectations are more than what you’re failures are.”

Garlach has done his best to not only lead, but make an impact on the tournament. He has done that through an initiative he started called the Corporate Chip-In Challenge.

He explained that its main function is to help replenish the tournament’s Bonus Fund that provides up to an additional 5% back to those nonprofits that solicit funds through the Birdies For Charity program — an initiative he calls a “machine” for its remarkable continued success.

He was looking for a similar program to stimulate the Bonus Fund’s growth. Numerous single-function events go toward funding the bonus pool — concerts, proceeds from the tournament shuttle to the Open Championship and local fundraisers such as Whitey’s 50% giveback on Friday on sales of its special John Deere Classic inspired product. Garlach came up with a way to keep a regular stream running into that pool.

“We went to our employees and asked them to have payroll withholdings go into the Bonus Fund that we as a company would match,” he said.

He knows that the program will take time to catch on but said that he already was aware of eight local businesses participating.

“We hope it builds traction,” he said.

Kind of the way Garlach has cemented himself as not only a pillar of the John Deere Classic but as a community supporter as well, no matter the hardships that he has faced.

Despite the roller-coaster ride of the last two years as volunteer chair, Garlach has enjoyed his unique run with the tournament.

When asked if he would trade the last two years for a normal stint with the tourney, Garlach was quick and emphatic with his response.

“Oh, heavens no. It was great,” he said. “ It’s been a whirlwind, but I wouldn’t trade it at all.”