From baseball to the PGA Tour, Barry Cheesman is Galesburg’s two-sport pro.
A 1977 Galesburg High School graduate, Cheesman was drafted out of high school as a catcher by the St. Louis Cardinals. He played four years of minor league baseball with the Cardinals, Angels and Yankees.
But when baseball didn’t work out, Barry said, “I’ll just try another sport” and made the impressive transition to professional golf in 1986. He had three stints on the PGA Tour from 1988 through 2000, collecting 7 top 10 finishes and 3 top 5 finishes on his way to career PGA earnings of nearly $1.3 million dollars.
Barry has been a club pro and golf instructor for much of the past two and a half decades, and currently is the Director of Instruction at Longboat Key Club in Longboat Key, Florida.
