Indy golf icon makes PGA Hall

Former PGA of America Rules Committee Chairman, Don Essig III, is among the eight-member 2009 class of inductees in the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame. Essig is the PGA Director of Golf at South Grove Golf Course in Indianapolis and an officer of Essig Golf Management. Essig is a winner of the 1957 U.S. Public Links Championship and was elected to PGA membership ten years later in 1967. He entered the PGA Rules Committee in 1974 and was Vice Chairman from 1995-2000 and then again from 2001-2004. Essig also started, in collaboration with IUPUI, the largest adult player development program in the country.  The program had more than 900 participants annually in the 1980s and ran for 18 years.

The inductees will be honored in a ceremony May 5, in conjunction with The PGA of America spring meeting, at the PGA Education Center at PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

A native of Warrensburg, Mo., but who called Indianapolis home since age 7, Essig is a PGA Master Professional. A 1961 graduate of Louisiana State University, Essig enjoyed a prolific amateur golf career before becoming one of this country’s most respected and well-traveled PGA Rules officials.