Mike Hill, a longtime professional golfer who enjoyed his most successful years on PGA Tour Champions, died on Aug. 4, at the University of Michigan hospital, the PGA Tour confirmed. He was 86.
Hill developed a close friendship with Lee Trevino on the 50-and-older circuit and together they won five times in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.
“He told me when I first came out – I hadn’t played competitive golf for 10 years – and he came over and said, ‘If you hang close to me, you’ll be all right,’ ” Hill recounted to Golfweek in 2013. “Sometimes I got closer than he would’ve liked. I beat him. But we became friends because we both are competitors and we both came up the same way with hard deals. We didn’t have any money. Golf has been great to us. I’ve had a great run and enjoyed every minute of it.”
Born Jan. 27, 1939, in Jackson, Michigan, Hill had six siblings and was the son of a mail man by day, office- supply worker by night. One of Hill’s older brothers, Dave, who died in 2011 at age 74, starred on the PGA Tour, winning 13 times. “Growing up, Mike was my only friend,” Dave wrote in his autobiography, “Teed Off.” They grew up on a 60-acre dairy farm that bordered Jackson Country Club. The sixth hole, a tricky par-3, played right up against the back of the family farm. The Hill boys were introduced to the game by caddying, and their father drove them to Al Sharp Park, the public course several miles away, and let them play until dark. Mike played golf at Arizona State, before joining the Air Force. He also spent five years driving a beer manufacturer’s truck, worked at a tire shop and was a head pro at a country club.
“He did much more for our folks than I did after we were of age. He stayed behind and took care of Mom and Dad and the farm. He did the plowing and cut the wood and handled the livestock. He just wouldn’t leave,” Dave said. “He’s really a solid person, a lot solider than I am.”
Mike eventually joined the PGA Tour in 1968, nine years after Dave. He earned three victories, capturing the 1970 Doral-Eastern Open in Miami, the 1972 Valero Texas Open and the 1977 Ohio Kings Island Open, though lived in the shadow of his more successful older brother.
“When he wins a tournament, I’m happier than he is,” wrote Dave, who often gave him lessons. “We’ve been each other’s biggest booster since we started in sports.”
In 1971, Mike ranked 98th on the money list in late July and gave himself an ultimatum: make the top 60 or give up the Tour. He made the cut in 11 of the last 12 tournaments, breaking par 24 times in 34 rounds, and moved up all the way to 55th place.
“I often wonder how good he might be if he had taken the game seriously sooner,” Dave wrote.
Mike made up for lost time after he turned 50 on PGA Tour Champions, beginning when he joined the tour in 1989. Hill finished his playing career with 18 wins on the senior circuit, which ranks T-14 on the all-time win list with Bruce Fleisher, Jay Haas and Steve Stricker. It’s more victories than Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Ray Floyd. He also accumulated more than $8 million in earnings while on the tour. In 1991, he won five times and surpassed $1 million in earnings, bettering that of Corey Pavin, the leading money winner on the PGA Tour, and was named Senior PGA Tour Player of the Year.
“Mike Hill was one of the players who made the PGA Tour Champions so popular in the early 1990s as his name was seemingly on every leaderboard at a time he made winning a regular part of his game,” Miller Brady, PGA Tour Champions president, said in a statement. “We are saddened by Mike’s death, and we extend our condolences to his family while we look back fondly on his career.”
According to his obituary, he “remained a farm boy at heart,” and in his later years owned Hills’ Heart of the Lakes Golf Course in Brooklyn, Michigan, where he was listed as the head pro. He last played on the Senior Tour in 2007, though he continued to play in the Legends of Golf with Trevino every year.
“I played with Jack Burke Jr., in my first Legends,” Hill recalled to Golfweek. “Then I played with Walt Zembriski. Lee came to me the next year and said, ‘Who’s your partner?’ I said I didn’t have one. He said, ‘I don’t either. Let’s play together.’ I was going to play with my brother but he had already agreed to play with Chi Chi and that’s kind of how it worked.”
It worked so well that they became the most prolific team in tournament history, winning back-to-back years in 1991-92 and 1995-96 and claiming the Legendary Division for 60-and-over in 2000.
Hill is survived by his wife of 58 years, Sandy, children Kristen and Michael, brother George, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Read the full article here
