TROY — Longtime amateur stalwarts Bill Curtis of Northville and Randy Lewis of Alma, Champions Tour star Tom Wargo, formerly of Marlette, and PGA Master Professional Jim Dewling of Clarkston have been elected to the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.
Curtis and Dewling started in golf at the first rung, Curtis as a nine-year-old caddie at Plum Hollow Golf Club during World War II, and Dewling was 10 when he was introduced to golf – following his brother, Dick, to Edgewood Country Club and sweeping floors, then caddying and steadily moving up in the game.
Wargo, 66, had one of the most unusual starts of any of the 87 members of the Hall of Fame. He grew up on a dairy farm in Michigan’s Thumb, worked in a car plant, was an ironworker and even went into the fishing industry in Alaska after graduating from Maryville High School. He didn’t play golf until he was 25 and then he taught himself the game.
Wargo eventually joined the PGA but it wasn’t until he turned 50 and joined the Champions Tour that he found fame and fortune. He won the Senior PGA Championship his rookie year, won the Senior British Open in 1994 and had six other top ten finishes in major championships and earned $7,809,846 in 16 years on the 50-and-over circuit. Wargo made 430 Champions Tour starts and won four times on the Tour.
Wargo is co-owner of Greenville Golf Club in Centralia, Ill., and before joining the Champions Tour he won the Illinois PGA twice, won 10 times on the PGA Founders Club series, was 1992 Club Professional of the Year and played on two PGA Cup teams against the British PGA.
While Lewis, 51, plays a limited schedule, when he plays he wins or comes close. A strong course manager, he won the Michigan Amateur in 1992 and 1999, was semifinalist in 2000 and 2007, quarterfinalist in 1993 and since playing his first Amateur in 1981, he never has missed the cut to match play and four times won the stroke play qualifying medal.
Lewis won the 72-hole Michigan Medal Play Championship three times, the Horton Smith twice and the Golf Association of Michigan Championship in 1996. He won the Mid-Amateur in 1998 and twice has been runner-up, won the 1989 West Michigan Amateur and has competed in 15 United States Golf Association championships.
Lewis’s domination of the amateur scene resulted in the GAM naming him Player of the Decade of the 1990s. He was Player of the Year in 1996 and 1999 and named 10 times to the Honor Roll.
Curtis, 66, got the golf bug early and joining the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame will be a reunion of friends from the caddie yard and high school. Ken Janke, inducted into the Hall last year, was a fellow caddie at Plum Hollow. At Highland Park High School he played with 1986 inductee Bud Stevens and against 2002 inductee Bob McMasters who was on the Royal Oak High School team.
Curtis attended the University of Michigan for one year before entering the Army during the Korean War and he took up a different sport – boxing. He was Army middleweight champion while serving in Europe. After the war he returned to the family’s excavation business and when his father passed on, Bill started his own business which currently has more than 50 employees including his two sons.
Curtis did find time to play golf and joined the Michigan Publinx Golf Association in 1959 and he was president from 1979 to 1982. Curtis played in 14 USGA championships including nine Public Links Championships. He was a four-time semifinalist in the Michigan Amateur and won the 1993 GAM Senior Amateur. He played on numerous Atlas Cup and Governor’s Cup teams and was inducted into the Michigan Publinx Hall of Fame in 1991.
Dewling, 66, has spent most of his life in golf from that early introduction sweeping floors to twice being elected president of the PGA’s Michigan Section. Dewling learned from two outstanding club professionals, Paul Van Loozen at Edgewood and Hall of Fame member Ray Maguire at Birmingham Country Club plus Edgewood co-owner Ernie Fuller who encouraged Dewling to enroll at Michigan State in the hospitality and hotel management curriculum.
Dewling graduated from MSU with a business degree in 1966 and also became a PGA member. After seven years at Birmingham as an assistant pro, Dewling moved into a field he’s never wavered from – club management. He spent 10 years working for Joe and Steve Slavik at the new Great Oaks Country Club in Rochester and from that was the seed of Dewling’s Total Golf Inc. He has owned and or managed more than 40 properties and co-designed three courses.
Dewling, Curtis, Lewis and Wargo will be inducted May 17 at a dinner at Indianwood. For more information, contact Loretta Larkin at llarkin@michigan-golf-foundation.com or (248) 719-0650.
The Michigan Golf Hall of Fame is located at the Troy Officentre, 320 East Big Beaver, Suite 160, in Troy. The Web address is www.michigan-golf-foundation.com.
Contact:
Loretta Larkin at llarkin@michigan-golf-foundation.com or 248-719-0650.
Terry Moore, All About Golf, terry_moore@comcast.net or 616-490-0433
