When it comes to promoting and supporting the game of golf in Indiana, there are many people, club professionals, directors of golf, golf course architects, professional golfers, and college and high school golf coaches, in positions of influence who help ‘move the needle and make significant contributions to golf in the Hoosier state.
While that list is certainly lengthy, there is a short list of people who are worth recognizing and thanking for what they have done and what they continue to do on a daily basis to promote the game and to encourage people to play golf, here in Indiana.
Mike David,
Mike David has been the Executive Director of Indiana Golf for over 32 years. He was born and raised in Columbus, Indiana and was inducted into the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame in 2020.
He was a four-year letterman for the Columbus North High School golf team, four-time All South Central Conference selection, four-time state finalist, 2nd team all-state Indiana selection, and a member of the 1982 team which was a runner-up in the Indiana State High School Golf Tournament.
At Ball State, he was four-year letterman and after graduation accepted a role as assistant tournament director with Indiana Golf. When the role of Executive Director job opened up he applied and was offered the position at the age of 27 and has been leading Indiana Golf since then.
Dave Harner,
Dave Harner is the Director of Golf Operations the French Lick Resorts. In that role he is in charge of two of the finest golf courses, The Pete Dye Course and The Donald Ross Course , not only in the state, but in the entire country
Over the years, Harner has received many awards and honors such as the Indiana PGA Resort Merchandiser of the Year in 1994, 2004, and 2009. In 2012, he was named Indiana’s Professional of the Year and in 2020, was given the Bill Strausburgh Award by the Indiana Section of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America. This award is given annually to the PGA member who “by their day-to-day efforts have distinguished themselves by mentoring their fellow PGA Professionals in improving their employment situations and through service to the community.”
Harner has worked in the golf industry for more than 40 years and been instrumental in the growth of golf at French Lick Resort.
Ted Bishop
Owner and General Manager of The Legends Golf Club in Franklin, Ted Bishop is forever dedicated to the game of golf and those who play it. His career as a golf administrator was rewarded when he was named and served as the 38th president of the PGA of America.
“Ted Bishop’s progressive term as president of the PGA of America seemed to pack 10 years into two and raised the profile and prestige of the organization. Golf is better with Ted Bishop in it,” said longtime golf writer and Golf Channel personality, Jamie Diaz.
Bishop became the voice for recreational golfers when he led the PGA’s opposition to the USGA ban on the anchored stroke. He quickly formed a close relationship with then PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem, and the two organizations became allies with a strong working relationship.
He broke with tradition and named public golf courses as host sites for the PGA’s major events. Bethpage Black became the site of the 2019 PGA Championship as well as the 2024 Ryder Cup. Harding Park in San Francisco was tabbed for the 2020 PGA Championship.
He also mended fences when he resurrected a strained relationship between the PGA and Arnold Palmer with the formation of the Deacon Palmer Award which is presented annually to a PGA professional who has overcome a major obstacle in their career.
Bishop’s final impact as PGA President was the formation of the Ryder Cup Task Force which has produced dramatic changes for the U.S. team’s entire process. Bishop is a 1976 graduate of Purdue University and was inducted into the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame in 2014.
Fuzzy Zoeller
Fuzzy Zoeller is easily the most well-known and accomplished PGA Tour professional from Indiana. Zoeller, who grew up and still lives in southern Indiana, had a distinguished playing career which was highlighted by his victories in the 1979 Masters and the 1984 U.S. Open.
He amassed 10 PGA Tour victories in his career and also won the 2002 PGA Senior Championship.
Zoeller has contributed greatly to the sport by designing golf courses that can come enjoyed by the average golfer. His two courses Covered Bridge Golf Club in Sellersburg and the Champions Pointe Golf Club in Henryville top that list.
At Covered Bridge a statue of Zoeller stands sentry outside the entrance to the pro shop, which also displays a list of his playing accomplishments, beginning with his first victory in the Andy Williams-San Diego Open Invitational in January 1979.
Tony Pancake
The Director of Golf at Crooked Stick Golf Club, Tony Pancake has been at the club in Carmel for 17 years. He grew up in Seymour and was and all-state golfer for the Seymour High School. He was not heavily recruited by any major golf programs and chose to attend the University of Alabama, where he could work on his game throughout the winter.
“I was determined to go to the warmest-weather school that offered me a scholarship,” says Pancake.
Before becoming the head golf professional, he was asked to partner with course designer, Pete Dye, who lived in a home along the 18th fairway, in the Dye Cup at the course. Clearly, Pancake played well enough to impress Mr. Dye and the rest is history.
Since his arrival at Crooked Stick in the early 2000s, he has had a guiding administrative role in every major tournament held there, including the 2005 Solheim Cup, as well as, both the 2012 and 2020 BMW Championships.
Pancake is married to the former Libby Akers, who was a finalist in the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur in 1980 and a scholarship golfer at Arizona State University. They have four children, one of whom (Annabelle) plays collegiate golf at Clemson University.
Jack Barber
Jack Barber dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but when his golf game improved at Russell High School in Kentucky, he accepted a golf scholarship to Eastern Kentucky University. He was a top amateur and competing in both the U.S. Amateur and Western Amateur Championships.
He began his professional career as an assistant at the nine-hole Ironton Country Club, in Ohio, before returning to Eastern Kentucky as an Assistant Pro. After a stint as an assistant at Highland Golf Club in Indianapolis, his first Head Professional position came at the age of 27 at the Lexington (Kentucky) Country Club.
In 1986, he was named Head Professional at Meridian Hills in Indianapolis and has served that club for the past 26 years.
He is a former President of the Indiana PGA Section and has mentored 20 assistant professionals. Currently, nine of Barber’s former assistants are PGA head professionals.
In 2009, Barber was honored as he received the PGA’s highest annual honor for PGA Professionals and was named National PGA Professional of the Year.
Don ‘Chip’ Essig
Chip Essig’s accolades and honors in golf are significant and was only the third member of the Indiana PGA Section to ever be named national PGA Golf Professional of the Year.
He was born in Indianapolis and grew up playing on the course his father owned, the former Hoosier Links in New Palestine and performed virtually every job at the course. In 1987, Essig graduated from Purdue University and earned his PGA membership in 1990.
He is the co-owner of Essig Golf LLC, a golf course management company that oversees three facilities in the Indianapolis area.
Essig has been very involved in the Indiana PGA Section, serving on the Board of Directors, since 1998 and was the Section President, 2006-2008. Since 2000, he has been a board member of the Indiana Golf Foundation and a member of the USGA Men’s Amateur Public Links Committee. In 1998, Essig was appointed to the PGA Rules Committee. His high-profile assignments have included the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, the Masters, U.S. Senior Opens, among others.
Pete and Alice Dye
This story about great figures in Indiana golf would not be accurate if it didn’t include the names of the late Pete and Alice Dye. Pete Dye was 94 when he passed in in 2020, but his legacy in the game will live forever, as his brilliant designs will stand the test of time.
It’s not a stretch to say that Pete Dye was the Donald Ross of his generation and his footprint on golf in Indiana is prolific.
Golf legend Jack Nicklaus, himself a world-renowned golf course architect, is a big fan of Dye’s.
“I think Pete Dye was the most creative, imaginative, and unconventional golf course designer that I have ever been around.”.
While Dye’s most publicized project is probably the Stadium Course at the TPC in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, the roots of his golf design genius are in Indiana. Dye’s first 18-hole creation was the Maple Creek Golf and Country Club. opened in 1961, in Indianapolis.
The seven courses of the Pete Dye Trail, The Pete Dye Course at French Lick, Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, The Fort Golf Course, Maple Creek Golf & Country Club, Tippecanoe Country Club, and the Ackerman-Alan and Kampen courses at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex are only a small sampling of what Dye meant to the state of Indiana.
Bill Cook
Because of the ‘Miracle Waters’ at French Lick the area’s history of accommodating visitors dates back before the Civil War. The first hotel was built in 1888 and has had various owners over the years.
In 2005, the French Lick Resort was in need of a major renovation and luckily Bill Cook, his wife Gayle and their son, Carl were there to purchase the historic property and provide the funds needed to bring it into the 21st century.
The Cooks owned a medical device manufacturing company headquartered in Bloomington and made the commitment to restore the resort to its former glory.
A casino license was granted by the state and the West Baden Inn underwent a multi-million-dollar restoration. Under the Cook’s ownership, the Donald Ross Course has been updated and the Pete Dye course was built atop Mt. Airie, the second highest peak in Indiana, affording sweeping vistas of the surrounding countryside.
In all the Cooks invested over $600 million in the resort. Golfers and guests have returned to the resort by the thousands, contributing to the overall prosperity of not only, French Lick, but of the entire Southern Indiana economy.
