Knoch graduate and longtime professional golfer Jim Simons died Thursday at his home in Jacksonville, Fla.

He was 55.

Simons retired from the PGA Tour in 1988 after a 16-year career because of shoulder and back pain. He later developed arthritis and had vision problems.

He had hopes of restarting his career on the Seniors Tour in recent years.

"He was in too much pain to play at that level. … He had to give it up," said his father, Ralph Simons.

Simons also considered investing money in a golf learning center.

"That never materialized, but it was on his mind," his father said. "I know Jim never gave up on that idea."

Simons worked as a stockbroker for many years while on the PGA Tour and afterward, but he never lost his passion for golf. He continued to play almost daily.

A lifetime member of the Butler Country Club, Simons shot a 63 at the course in 1975 — a record that still stands.

"I've been friends with his father for 35 years," Leo "Bucky" Parisi of Butler said. "Every time Jim would come home, we'd go out and play a round.

"He was a great short-game player. Jimmy used to practice by placing a hula-hoop on the course, then try getting a ball to land inside it from 100 or so yards away.

"To him, it was unacceptable to miss that hoop. And he hit it eight out of every 10 shots," Parisi added.

Simons took golf lessons from retired Butler Country Club pro Paul Biggy for years.

"Paul was pretty much my only teacher from the time I was 10 all the way until college," Simons said in a 1987 Butler Eagle article.

Simons was inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. He won the PIAA golf championship as a sophomore at Knoch High School and went on to the University of Houston for a year before transferring to Wake Forest.

A college teammate of fellow PGA pro Lanny Wadkins, Simons became an All-American at Wake Forest.

During his junior year, Simons led the 1971 U.S. Open by two strokes entering the final round at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.

He wound up in fifth place, three strokes behind Jack Nicklaus and eventual playoff winner Lee Trevino.

But he made his mark on professional golf.

"That kid can play a little bit," Trevino said after that tournament. "He's got a lot of good shots. … And he didn't play any lucky round. I'll tell you one thing, he made me think a little more. He made me play golf to shoot 69.

"I didn't want any amateur making me look bad."

Simons wound up shooting a 76 in the final round.

"He gambled on a few shots late," Parisi said. "He never backed down. He kept playing to win."

Parisi said Simons was the first PGA Tour player to use metal woods in a tour event.

Simons wound up winning three PGA Tour events in his career, including the 1978 Memorial, when he was paired with Nicklaus on the final day of the tournament at the Muirfield Village Golf Course in Columbus, Ohio.

Simons won with a 20-foot putt on the final hole — in Nicklaus' hometown on Nicklaus' home course.

Longtime Butler radio broadcaster Jim Lokhaiser said Simons was one of the nicest young athletes he ever came across in this area.

"Jim Simons and (Butler three-sport star) Eddie Hartman were the best two young men I met as a sportscaster," he said. "Jim was always very quiet, very humble.

"One of our favorite (Butler Area) Hall of Fame stories was Jim's speech. He was at the podium talking when coroner Digger Young was called out to an accident scene. Digger left, pronounced the person dead, came back to the banquet and Jim was still talking. … He was really proud of that induction."

Simons was so dedicated to golf that Lokhaiser said "he'd play in the snow with an orange ball and sweep the greens off with a broom" at Butler Country Club.

Simons told the Butler Eagle in an article last year that he believed strongly in computer analysis, data and camera angles depicting a person's golf swing.

"I see golf in the future. … We'll all be better than we are now. We'll be more consistent than we are now," he said.

Simons recognized that golf was where he made his mark in life.

"I've spent my whole life golfing and have the most credibility there," he told the Eagle last year. "If I play a round of golf with Donald Trump and I tell him about golf, he's all ears.

"If I tell him about business, would he listen?"

Parisi said Simons' demeanor helped him succeed as a golfer.

"The guy was an absolute gentleman in every way," Parisi said. "It was amazing that a man that soft-spoken could be a fierce competitor in the PGA. Jim had the ability to turn it on and off."

Simons' cause of death is unknown. An autopsy is being planned.

His obituary is on Page A6.