DEXTER, MICH. – Public links veteran Jim Briegel, golf course architect Arthur Hills, journalist Terry Moore and Don Perne, co-founder of the PGA of America’s Professional Golf Management at Ferris State University, represent a broad cross-section of the game, and have been elected to the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.
Briegel is a life-long public course player who picked up golf while caddying for the University of Michigan golf team for five years starting at the age of 12. Now in his 80s, Briegel still is a long hitter and in 2007 shot 70 from the back tees in a tournament at Dunham Hills to beat his age by 11 strokes.
A contender and officer in the Michigan Publinx Golf Association for years, Briegel has continued as a senior and the Michigan Publinx Seniors Golf Association championship is named for him, the Briegel Cup. Briegel also is a driving force in the MPSGA State Senior-Amateur Open.
While president of the Braun & Brumfield Printing Co. of Ann Arbor he was involved with the production of three Sleeping Bear golf books including “The Spirit of St. Andrews,” “Golf Has Never Failed Me” and “Forbidden Fairways.”
Arthur Hills was captain of the Michigan State University golf team while working toward a degree in Agronomy and Lansing native Perne was a teammate and served three years prior to Hills as captain. Hills went on to earn a degree in Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan. He has designed more than 225 courses around the world.
Hills designed 16 courses in Michigan, from the Arthur Hills Course at Boyne Highlands and Bay Harbor in Petoskey to Egypt Valley in Ada and Hawkshead in South Haven, Shepherd’s Hollow and Pine Trace in metropolitan Detroit and Red Hawk in Tawas.
Hills completely revamped the West course at MSU’s Forest Akers complex, redesigned the East course and designed the expansive practice area.
Hills has renovated more than 125 courses including Inverness, his home club, in Toledo and has worked on Oakland Hills, Oakmont and Congressional, all U.S. Open sites. He has received honors from Golf Digest for Best New Private and Best New Public courses and Boardroom Magazine named him Golf Course Architect of the Year in 2008.
Terry Moore, once a school administrator but a caddie as a youngster, got back into golf in 1983 when he co-founded Michigan Golfer magazine with Art McCafferty. Moore covered 27 Buick Opens and this year will be his 28th Masters Tournament. While editor of Michigan Golfer he printed stories on every facet of the game, from juniors and high schools to seniors, amateurs and professionals, superintendents and association officials.
Moore founded the West Michigan Golf Show in 1989. The Grand Rapids show has been one of the most successful and well-attended in the country, has featured seven PGA Teacher of the Year recipients, including Jim Flick, Hank Haney, Gary Wiren, and current Teacher of the Year Todd Anderson, a Grand Rapids native and head of instruction at Sea Island Resort in Georgia.
The show now is owned by ShowSpan but Moore continues in a media relations role. He served 10 years on Egypt Valley’s Media Committee during the PGA Champions Tour run and was point person for the club’s bid to host the 2010 USGA Junior Boys Championship, the first USGA championship held in West Michigan. Moore also is a governor of the Golf Association of Michigan and continues to write for Michigan Golfer online and several other internet outlets.
Don Perne and Arthur Hills have linked from the time they were at MSU. Perne was two years ahead of Hills and chose to become a PGA professional – Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member Horton Smith signed his membership papers. Hills decided on design and has become one of the leaders in the field.
Perne was professional at St. Clair River Country Club, Shaker Heights in Ohio, Canoe Brook in New Jersey and Wilmington CC in Delaware and eventually wound up at Inverness Club in Toledo from 1981-93. He was one of the first six PGA Master Professionals. He was host professional of the 1986 and 1993 PGA Championships.
Perne, a drum major while at MSU, led the field in every Northern Ohio Section PGA tournament and is in the Northern Ohio PGA Hall of Fame.
While earning many PGA honors for his work with caddies and fellow PGA members, Perne considers co-founding the Professional Golf Management program at Ferris State his No. 1 achievement. Robert Ewigleben, another MSU teammate, was president of Ferris and between the school and the PGA they developed the program in which students receive a business degree, spend 16 to 20 months in internships at clubs and resorts around the country and then are eligible for PGA membership. PGM is so successful that 24 other universities have adopted it.
Briegel, Hills, Moore and Perne will be inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame on May 15 at Indianwood G&CC. The quartet raises the number of Hall of Fame members to 94. For more information on this year’s induction ceremony, contact Loretta Larkin at llarkin@michigan-golf-foundation.com or 248-719-0650.
Contact:
Loretta Larkin
llarkin@michigan-golf-foundation.com
248-719-0650
