Chip Essig, Class of 2013

DON “CHIP” ESSIG, PGA
Don “Chip” Essig IV extended a family tradition in Section leadership, administering the Rules of Golf and managing golf facilities, and was the 2011 recipient of the PGA Golf Professional of the Year.

Essig, a 22-year member of The PGA of America, is the PGA director of golf and owner of Hickory Stick Golf Club in Greenwood, Ind., and is the third member of the Indiana PGA Section to be named PGA Golf Professional of the Year. Essig, 47, who achieved PGA Master Professional status in 2004, follows the late Don Padgett I, formerly of Selma, Ind. (1961), and Jack Barber of Indianapolis (2009), as the other Indiana PGA Section members to receive the Association’s highest annual honor for PGA Professionals.

Born in Indianapolis as the only son of the 1957 U.S. Public Links Champion, Essig grew up playing the game at a course his father owned and operated, the former Hoosier Links in New Palestine, Ind. By the time he graduated from high school, Essig had performed virtually every job at the course. He also served as an unpaid instructor for one of the largest growth-of-the-game instruction programs in the country, involving more than 900 students annually.

Essig graduated in 1987 from Purdue University and earned 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 – Hickory Stick Golf Club, Heartland Crossing Golf Links in Camby, and Pebble Brook Golf Course in Noblesville.

Essig has been a member of the Indiana PGA Section board of directors since 1998, serving from 2006 to 2008 as Section president. 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 every PGA Championship since 2001, the Ryder Cup, two Masters, three U.S. Senior Opens, two PGA Cups, a Senior PGA Championship and four PGA Professional National Championships.

Essig and his wife, Stefanie, live in Westfield, Ind., and are the parents of a daughter, Cameron Nicole, and a son, Travis Ryan.