Ziegler Still Owed $10,000 For Michigan Golf Victory

The Professional Golfers Assn. credits Larry Ziegler with earnings of $59,800 on the tour last year -- but his bank account is short $10,000. Ziegler is still waiting for the second 10 grand of the $20,000 he supposedly won last September by beating Homero Blancas in a playoff for the Michigan Golf Classic championship at Walled Lake, Mich.

"I still think I'll get it," the slender, tow-headed Ziegler said Saturday between rounds of the Southern California Open at Mission Viejo. "The PGA credits me with the whole sum, which put me 28th in total earnings last year. And I'm exempt from qualifying for this year, so I can't complain too much."

Ziegler and Blancas were toweling off from a post-playoff shower, preparing to leave the Walled Lake clubhouse when PGA supervisor George Walsh informed them that there were no funds in the tournament till for the payoff. "I was so excited at winning my first big tournament that I hardly realized what he was saying," recalled Ziegler. "Homero and I just sort of stood there and laughed at each other. When it sank in that I wasn't going to get paid, I felt our organization (the Tournament Players' Division of the PGA) would stand behind the players."

A few weeks after the Michigan Classic, the TPD paid players half what they should have won in the bankrupt tournament.

[source: l.a. times]