RIP Mike Hill, Michigan Golf Legend

Jackson, Michigan native Mike Hill, who won three times on the PGA TOUR and eighteen times on the PGA TOUR Champions, passed away August 4, 2025 at age 86.

He was preceeded in death by his brother Dave Hill, who won thirteen times on the PGA TOUR and six times on the PGAT Champions. Dave Hill died in 2001 at the age of 74.

Both of the brothers are members of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.

The brothers grew up on a dairy farm next to the Jackson Country Club and were introduced to the game by caddying.

Mike Hill was an Air Force veteran, who played golf at Jackson Junior College and Arizona State. Prior to joining the PGA TOUR, he worked as a beer truck driver, in a tire shop and as head pro at Tecumseh Country Club.

He joined the PGA TOUR in 1968, nine years after his brother Dave. His three wins were at the 1970 Doral-Eastern Open in Miami, the 1972 Valero Texas Open and the 1977 Ohio Kings Island Open.

Mike Hill really turned it on on the Senior Tour, winning eighteen times, which places him 14th all time in wins on that circuit. He also won the Legends of Golf tournaments five times, partnering with Lee Trevino.

In his last PGA TOUR Champions event in 2007 at age 70, Hill finished 21st

Hill was the owner of Hills Heart of the Lakes Golf Course in Brooklyn, MI (near Jackson) and could often be seen working there. The story is that he bought the course after cashing in the biggest winner’s check of his career in the early 1990s.

Hills’ Heart of the Lakes is a fun course that I have played a number of times over the years. A good friend of mine is from Brooklyn (MI) and when we play together, it is often at Hills’. (I also have a good friend from Brooklyn, NY, but that is another story entirely).

Here’s a Mike Hill story that I got from my Brooklyn (MI) friend:

My friend and his pals were having an awful time with the eighteenth hole, which is tight and tree-lined. It measures 280 and bends slightly right. The second shot is very steeply uphill to a plateau for the green.

At any rate, the group was having an awful time with the hole, smashing their drivers into awkward spots and cussing up a storm about how much they hated it. At that point, a nearby maintenance worker came over and said “If you guys would just play this hole smart, it’s easy.” The worker then borrowed clubs and played with them, picking the hole apart with two precise irons.

They didn’t”t realize until afterwards that the maintenance worker was Mike Hill, doing basic groundskeeping on his course.

I’ll have to get back to play Hills’ Heart of the Lakes soon.

photo credit at top of page: Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons