Assorted thoughts while enjoying the last weekend in July ...

Dave Rummells’ appearance at the Greater Cedar Rapids Open at Hunters Ridge in Marion brought back memories of when a couple other Iowans graced golf’s big stage. Before Zach Johnson, there were Rummells and Lonnie Nielsen.

Both hailed from relatively small towns and grew up playing on their local 9-hole clubs, Rummells in West Branch and Nielsen in Belle Plaine. Both earned spots on the University of Iowa golf team and advanced to the PGA Tour.

Neither was as successful as Johnson, but both had their moments.

Rummells, who tied for fourth at the GCRO, finished 24th on the PGA Tour money list in 1989 and made two cuts in the majors. He was fifth in the ’89 PGA, two strokes back of Payne Stewart, and finished 31st in the Masters. The previous year, Rummells had another Top 10 in a major, tying for sixth at the PGA.

Rummells is famously remembered for being misidentified for Stewart during ABC-TV’s telecast of the 1989 PGA.

His best finish on Tour was second place at the Buick Open in 1993 behind one Phil Mickelson, who at the time notched his second career win.

Nielsen has resurrected his career on the Champions Tour, notching two wins and accumulating more than $5 million in earnings. He made three career cuts in PGA majors, tying for 11th in the 1986 PGA with Lee Trevino and Lanny Wadkins. Nielsen is a golf legend out east, having won 32 Western New York PGA events.

Johnson, of course, is one of professional golf’s best players right now. He is hosting his second Zach Johnson Foundation Classic event Monday at Elmcrest Country Club.

THE 2011-12 HIGH SCHOOL season is complete with the conclusion of state baseball and softball tournaments, and it’s hard to deny the strong showing of the Central Iowa Metropolitan League.

The CIML is 18 schools strong, so it has more chances than any other league in Iowa. But six different members of the CIML won large-school class state titles. The CIML won 11 state championships in the large-school class, plus another by Indianola in 4A softball.

The Mississippi Valley Conference captured eight titles, and six of those were by Iowa City West. Cedar Rapids Kennedy (girls soccer) and Dubuque Hempstead (boys bowling) were the other MVC large-school winners. But in addition, Xavier won a 2A girls soccer championship and Dubuque Wahlert took three state titles in classes with lower enrollment.

The Metro area was shut out of state titles in boys competition.

THE PASSING LAST WEEK of Clarence “Buzz’’ Zieser brought back memories of an interview I had some 20 years ago with a proud man.

Zieser was born in Belle Plaine, lived many years in Center Point and settled finally in Cedar Rapids. Zieser and I became acquainted one day talking baseball and he offered to share his scrapbooks.

Zieser signed with the Cincinnati Reds organization and played his first pro season at age 17 in Rockford, Ill. Five years later, he found himself on the doorstep of the major leagues. He went to spring training with the Reds in 1952 and ’53 but couldn’t crack the rotation.

But he flourished at times in the minors. In 1953, the right-handed pitcher had an 18-9 record and 2.59 earned run average on a Columbia Reds pitching staff that was tabbed by Baseball Almanac as one of the best in minor league history. Columbia had a 92-48 record that season with four starting pitchers eventually making the majors.

Zieser regretted never making the major leagues, but he loved to tell stories about facing the likes of Hank Aaron in the minors and Ted Williams in spring training. Zieser died at age 82.

(Mark Dukes is former sports editor of the Cedar Rapid Gazette. He is co-host of The Gym Class radio show weekdays from 3-4 p.m. on KGYM-AM 1600 and FM-106.3.)