CROWN POINT | Mike Liming is used to being where the action is on the golf course, so he should feel right at home at Youche Country Club, where he was named the new golf pro early this year.

Liming who grew up in Hammond and graduated from Morton High School in 1992, joins the staff at Youche just as the club is getting ready to construct a new clubhouse and swimming pool as part of course redesign and new development south of Crown Point High School. He is looking forward to the exciting opportunity and the chance to help mold the new endeavors of the club, including the new facilities and new golf holes.

He attended Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, where he led a successful golf team for four years and was unanimously named Male Athlete of the Year during his senior year. He graduated with a degree in both business administration and criminal justice.

Liming's amateur golf career was also very successful. In 1988, he became The Times Junior champion. He won multiple Indiana PGA Junior Tour events in 1991 and 1992, and the Northwest Indiana Golf Classic (Gary Amateur) in 1996, '97 and '98 - the first time since the 1950's it was won three times in a row by the same competitor. He ended his amateur playing career with a win to become the 1998 Indiana Public Links Champion.

In 1998, Liming accepted a position in Bartlesville, Okla. as an assistant professional at Hillcrest Country Club, where he remained for two seasons. He then moved to Denver, Colo., where he was first assistant professional for five years at The Homestead at Murphy Creek Golf Course. During those years, he worked at completing the PGA Apprentice Program and was elected into membership of the PGA of America in 2003.

In 2005, Liming was offered the head professional position at The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction, Colorado. He was there for 2½ years and qualified and played in the PGA Professional National Championship at the Kiawah Island Resort, Ocean Course, in South Carolina.

Liming, his wife Heather, and their 1-year-old daughter, Makenna moved home to Indiana last August and he joined Youche Country Club as the head professional in January.

- For The Times