If you are a golf enthusiast, you might be interested in knowing about the top professional golfers from Iowa. The state has produced several remarkable players who have made their mark in the world of golf. Iowa’s pro golfers have been successful in winning major tournaments and leaving a lasting impact on the sport.
Iowa pro golfers have access to some of the best golf courses in the country, which has played a significant role in their success. These courses have provided the players with the ideal conditions to develop and refine their skills. The state has a vibrant golfing community, and many young players aspire to become professional golfers. Check out the best golf odds in ClutchBuzz.
Best Pro Golfers from Iowa
In this article, we will take a look at the 10 best pro golfers from Iowa who have achieved tremendous success in their careers. These individuals have not only made Iowa proud but have also contributed to the growth of the sport across the globe. So, let’s dive in and discover the exceptional talents that Iowa has produced in the world of golf.
1. Zach Johnson
At the top of our list of best professional golfers from Iowa is none other than Zachary Johnson. Born in Iowa City, Zach was raised in Cedar Rapids and excelled at several sports like football and basketball as a youngster. He started playing golf by the age of ten at the Elmcrest Country Club in Cedar Rapids. Zach was also on the Regis High School golf team and his sophomore year there saw them win the Iowa 3A state championship. During his spell at Drake University in Des Moines, he was number two on the team.
As part of the Bulldogs, he helped them to win three of the NCAA regional tournaments and a couple of Missouri Valley championships as well.
Zach Johnson is one of the most successful PGA golfers from Iowa. He began his pro career in 1998 and played tournaments on the developmental circuit. In 2001, Zach won three events, showing great promise for his future. By 2003, he was top of the money list and secured automatic entry to the PGA Tour. Zach’s first win on the tour came soon after, as he won the BellSouth Classic in 2004.
He carried on impressing over the next few years and was called up to the American Ryder Cup team in 2006 when he was in ninth place on the country’s points list. His first major victory was at the 2007 Masters, which was followed by the Open Championship in 2015.
One of the next great achievements in Zach’s career will come in 2023 when he captains the US Ryder Cup team in Rome.
Zach also has a foundation that helps young people get into college. Read more about Zach Johnson net worth and charity work here.
On behalf of Zach and Kim Johnson and the entire Zach Johnson Foundation, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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With your tremendous support we are humbled to announce that this year’s event raised over $1.1 million. This support directly impacts kids in our community! pic.twitter.com/BFTjbzpKch— Zach Johnson Foundation (@ZJFoundation) August 1, 2022
2. Mike McCoy
Mike McCoy is a West Des Moines golfer who has had success on the amateur circuit. His earliest experiences with the sport came when he traveled with his father to Ireland to play on the best golf courses there while visiting relatives.
This is where he said that his love of the game of golf grew, and he later went to Wichita State University and then won an Amateur Cup in Iowa in 2009.
One of his biggest wins came in the 2013 Mid-Amateur Championship, which led to him being invited to the Masters’ Tournament the following year. However, he missed the cut at the Augusta National Golf Club after the first two rounds.
Looking to the future, his son Nate is his caddy and is also an amateur golfer.
.Nate McCoy of Ankeny, Iowa won the Iowa Open – Amateur Division! McCoy’s 3-day total was 66-65-70=201, 15-under-par.
Congratulations Nate!#IowaOpen #IowaPGA pic.twitter.com/BQOdGj9fzv
— Iowa PGA Section (@iowapga) August 2, 2021
3. Dave Rummells
Dave Rummells was born in Cedar Rapids and turned professional in 1981 after studying at the University of Iowa. A look back over his career reveals a couple of big wins, in the 1996 Nike South Carolina Classic and the Nike Knoxville Open the following year. Dave competed in a few majors too, playing in the Masters, The US Open, and the PGA Championship.
He failed to make the cut on a few of those occasions but his finest showing came at the 1989 PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Illinois. You might remember this as the first major won by Payne Stewart but Dave was in the running the whole way.
He ended the tournament tied for fifth place, following rounds of 68,68,69, and 72 which gave him a -10 total and a $45,000 prize check. Rummells also performed strongly in the same tournament the year before that.
4. Jack Fleck
It’s impossible to make a list about the greatest pro golfers from Iowa without mentioning Jack Fleck. We need to go further back in time to enjoy looking at Jack’s golfing career. He was born in Bettendorf in 1921 and grew up there. Jack came from a farming family and attended Davenport High School, playing on their golf team while he studied there. After working as a caddy, Jack became a pro golfer in the late 1930s.
He was an assistant golf pro at Des Moines Country Club and is said to have earned $5 each week before World War II broke out and he joined the US Navy. Jack took part in the legendary D-Day invasion and as soon as he came home he was back playing golf. The US Open in 1955 saw him beat the icon, Ben Hogan, in a playoff, just six months after he’d turned pro and over-turning the biggest first-round deficit in US Open history.
Jack continued to perform well enough to give us his job and concentrate on golf full-time. He won two more competitions, the Phoenix Open in 1960 and then the Bakersfield Open in 1961. Later, he became a club pro and joined the Senior PGA tour where he won the PGA Senior’s Championship in 1979. By 1990, Jack Fleck was inducted into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame.
The best golf story you've never heard of?
At the 1955 US Open at the Olympic Club, club pro Jack Fleck was playing in just his third major and birdied the 72nd hole (see below) to shoot 67 and set up an Monday play-off with 9-time major champion Ben Hogan.
He won the playoff. pic.twitter.com/1uz895fRGs
— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) June 3, 2021
5. Beth Bader
Beth Bader started life in Davenport and attended North Scott High Scott followed by Iowa State University. She is one of the most successful Iowa State female athletes to date, but a knee injury stopped her from pursuing the career in basketball that seemed to be waiting for her. She then joined the Futures Tour and earned her LPGA Tour card in 2000.
What followed was more than a decade on the pro circuit, and she earned over $1 million by playing the game. 2007 was Beth’s best year in terms of earnings, and that was also the year when she had her best finish in a tournament. That came in the LPGA Corning Classic, as she claimed fourth place in a tie.
Congratulations to Beth Bader, Judd Gibb and John Benda on being inducted into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame. The Class of 2020 will forever be a Cyclone class.
🌪⛳️🌪 pic.twitter.com/W0RvbnN7vc
— Iowa State Men’s Golf (@CycloneMGOLF) September 26, 2021
6. Jack Rule Jr.
Having been born in Mason City in 1938, Jack Rule Jr then spent his childhood years in Waterloo. His golf career started impressively, as he beat Jack Nicklaus in the US Junior Amateur tournament semi-final in 1956, although he then lost the final. After graduating from the University in 1961, Jack turned pro.
His long pro career had some fascinating highlights. One was when he won the St Paul Open Invitational in 1963, and the other was the Oklahoma City Open Invitational in 1965. Jack Rule Jr never managed to break into the top 30 in any of the majors he played in, though. This is another one of the pro golfers from Iowa who was inducted into the Iowa Gold Hall of Fame, which happened in 1993.
7. Lonnie Nielsen
Lonnie Nielsen started playing golf at a young age, using the sand green courses in Belle Plaine and the surrounding area to build up his skills. After that starting point, he graduated from the University of Iowa in 1976 and joined the PGA Tour a couple of years later. While Lonnie never won any tournaments on the PGA tour, he had more than a couple of dozen wins in other types of tournaments.
Most of his wins came in New York, and he also had some success when he joined the Champions Tour later in life. At this point, Lonnie won the Commerce Bank Championship and the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. His long career meant that Lonnie was inducted into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame in 2010.
Lonnie passed away on January 2021 and was remembered by the PGA as an icon of the sport.
We are saddened to learn of Lonnie Nielsen’s passing. Our condolences to his family, fellow @WNYPGA members and members and staff at Crag Burn Golf Club https://t.co/uXkD9UNrCR
— Tee 2 Green (@t2gbuffalo) January 21, 2021
8. Judy Kimball
Judy Kimball is a notable name among Iowa pro golfers. After starting life in Sioux City, Judy Kimball went to Study at the University of Kansas. Her early successes included becoming Iowa State Amateur champion in 1958 and being the best-placed amateur competitor in the 1958 Waterloo Women’s Open Invitational. Judy graduated in 1960 and turned pro the following year.
Her pro career included three LPGA tournament wins, with the most important being the 1962 LPGA Championship. The other wins were the American Women’s Open in 1961 and the 1971 O’Sullivan Ladies Open.
Judy has been inducted into both the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame and the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.
#OnThisDay in 1961 – Judy Kimball wins LPGA American Women's Golf Open pic.twitter.com/Khnb6dMWyq
— Encore Golf Tours (@GolfEncore) August 18, 2015
9. Bob Fry
Bob Fry is a hugely important figure in the history of golf in the state of Iowa. He was born in Keokuk and by the age of nine was working as a caddy on local courses. After some impressive amateur performances, his career was halted when he served as a navigator in World War II.
However, upon his return to the US, Bob became the head pro at the Fort Madison Country Club. He then became the head pro at different courses in Davenport and started a series of exhibition matches that transformed over time into the Quad Cities Open. Another part of his legacy can be seen at Crow Valley Golf Club, which Bob helped create.
He taught many golfers in Iowa how to play and also holds the course record on several courses. Bob Fry was posthumously inducted into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame in 1993.
10. Troy Merritt
This golfer from Osage moved away from Iowa at a young age and played college golf at Winona State University and Boise State University. Read more about Troy Merritt and his net worth here.
He’s been a pro since 2008 and won the Mexico Open the following year. His first PGA Tour win arrived in 2015 when he finished in first place at the Quicken Loans National.
Troy’s second PGA Tour win came in 2018. This was at the Barbasol Championship but this victory had a dramatic twist, as he was rushed to hospital with a huge blood clot just a few days later. Troy is currently listed at 99th place in the Official World Golf Ranking and deservedly earns his spot on our list of best pro golfers from Iowa.
A thing of beauty 💯@TroyMerritt_PGA one-hops it in for an eagle at No. 12. pic.twitter.com/TmDLlhbCBr
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 14, 2022
Credits on Featured Image: Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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