Welcome to the 17th season of the Len Ziehm on Golf website. The last few years have all been big ones, for one reason or another and this year is no exception.
While I’ll be entering my 15th year as golf columnist for Chicago’s Daily Herald, I’ll also be taking on a new writing projects for several new websites and, in November of 2024, I was named executive director/president of the Golf Travel Writers of America, an organization founded by long-time friend Bruce Vittner in 2005.
My 50th year reporting on golf was celebrated in 2018, a career that started with Jack Nicklaus’ victory in the 1968 Western Open at Olympia Fields. Also in 2018 I was honored three times at the 24th International Network of Golf Media Awards during the 65th PGA Merchandise Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. I was the winner in the Competition Writing category and an Outstanding Achiever in both Competition Writing and Travel Writing. In 2024 I was an Outstanding Achiever in Opinion Writer, which continued my streak of being recognized as an Outstanding Achiever every year in that competition since 2014.
In 2019 I was also honored with three Outstanding Achiever Awards — in Feature Writing, Competition Writing and Opinion/Editorial Writing but the highlight of the year came when I was inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony was held at The Glen Club, in Glenview, Ill.
The Illinois Golf Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1989, and I gave the presentation speech for the first member — Charles Blair Macdonald, designer of America’s first 18-hole course — Chicago Golf Club. The Hall now has 90 members and I was the first media member inducted since 2004.
I’ve also co-hosted Golfers on Golf Radio, an hour-long show that begins its 35th year in 2025.
While those honors are career highlights, our aim from the beginning of Len Ziehm on Golf remains the same — to touch on all phases of our sport. That’s been done through columns in the Daily Herald; frequent appearances in Fred Altvater’s Ohio, Michigan and Indiana Golf Journals, the International Network of Golf and the Golf Travel Writers Association of America websites; and regular contributions to the Chicago District Golfer. There’s always some other publications that supplement my year, and in 2023 and 2024 I had lengthy pieces in the program for the PGA Championship.
In addition to those regular projects I have been involved in a wide range of other freelance writing projects. They include pieces in newspapers, magazines, program pieces, websites and books.
Our focus broadened in 2016, as we became Florida residents at PGA Village — the winter home of the PGA of America in Port St. Lucie, FL. In 2021 we moved across the Sunshine to Sarasota and now reside in . It was Ocala, in the On Top of the World community that includes three golf courses.
Despite being Florida residents we have continued to cover the Midwest scene as well. All of our writings over the years can be checked out on social media outlets Facebook (see Facebook.com/lenziehmongolf), Twitter (see @ZiehmLen) and Linked In.
There will continue to be a big focus on golf travel destinations in 2025 My partner (and photographer) Joy Sarver have touched down in 47 of the 50 states on our golf travels, missing only Hawaii, Alaska and Wyoming. The 2023 season was one of our best, with stops on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, Coastal Mississippi, the Poconos in Pennsylvania, Daytona Beach in Florida and long-time favorites Pinehurst in North Carolina and Boyne Mountain in Michigan.
Our reports on all of our visits can be found under Travel in this website. Our reports earned us inclusion in Golf Top 18 website’s listing of top course reviewers (accompanying tag on this page). That site credited our Travel Destination reports for “giving you the historical feel and information on a golf course, so you can feel its roots….Not a technical shot by shot reviewer, Len gives the reader photos and the feel of a course through his eloquent words.”
In coming years we expect to do more book-related projects than we have in the past (see Books section of this website). In the last seven years we’ve written three books, highlighted by the well-received memoir of the 2012 Ryder Cup matches for the members of Medinah Country Club. Others, written but still to be published, chronicle the golf histories of Kinderlou Forest in Georgia and French Lick Resort in Indiana. I’ve also written segments for two other published books — a guide to the Solheim Cup and a report on the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
Our columns in the Daily Herald has been ongoing since 2009 and my 31-year run at Chicagoland Golf came to an end when the publication ceased publication.