Always on course
PENN TWP — Jim Simons awoke to a sunny Sunday morning in June of 1971 ready to make PGA Tour history.
If only the 21-year-old amateur who was unexpectedly leading the U.S. Open could put his crew-neck shirt on right, that is.
Luckily for Simons, his good friend and Wake Forest University classmate Lanny Wadkins was there to police his fashion.
"I told him, 'You're looking pretty good. You're looking sharp,'" Wadkins said. "'You'd look better if your shirt was on the right way.'"
Simons had reason to be nervous. He entered that sun-drenched Sunday at Merion Golf Club in the suburbs of Philadelphia paired with Jack Nicklaus as he tried to do what no amateur had done since Johnny Goodman in 1933.
Win the U.S. Open.
He ended up finishing fifth as Nicklaus and Lee Trevino battled it out in an 18-hole playoff the following day (Trevino won).
<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE2688695.MOV " width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>But Simons will always be remembered in golf lore for his flirtation with history.That memory was just one of the many stories shared by Simon's parents Ralph and Orpah, family, close friends and golf buddies at the JimSimons Memorial Shelter dedication banquet at Butler Country Club Saturday night."There are so many stories to tell about Jim," Wadkins said. "We spent so much time together — we were like brothers. When he came to Wake Forest, we probably played five days a week for two years. We just did everything socially and golf-wise together."Wadkins was the keynote speaker at the banquet. He turned pro in 1971 and had 21 PGA Tour wins.And he always stayed close with Simons, even though they couldn't have been more different.Wadkins played golf with aggression and instinct; Simons played with diligence and forethought.Yet the two were inseparable during their years at Wake Forest."I always got a kick out of Jim and I playing together," Wadkins said. "We were like the tortoise and the hare. He was a very slow, deliberate player, very analytical. I was a shoot from the hip kind of player. No one played faster."Wadkins sometimes tossed golf balls at Simons as he agonized over a fairway shot, or would feign falling asleep, slumping to the green as Simons pondered a birdie putt."It went both ways," Wadkins said. "It was all in fun."Simons was also ahead of his time.He used yardage books when no one else did, making precision measurements to the cup.He also used metal woods when it was unheard of to do so. Simons became the first golfer to win a televised PGA Tour event with a metal driver."There was always a method to his madness," Wadkins said.His sister, Sally Benson, remembered her brother as the little boy who lived to play golf."When he was 3-years of age, dad gave him a club and a golf ball and said, 'Follow me. Hit it the best you can,'" Benson said.An avid baseball player in his youth, when Simons turned 9, it was golf 24-7."He said, 'Heck with his ball bat,'" Benson said.She spoke of how her brother would sneak onto the Butler Country Club course after sunset to fish golf balls out of the water hazards on the No. 4 and No. 10 holes "to support his habit."Golf was always on Simon's mind."I think of his big smile — except when he was focusing on a 40-foot birdie putt, then maybe you didn't see that smile," Benson said.The memorial shelter built in his honor contains some of his most prized possessions, including a set of his golf clubs and bag and a scorecard from the Butler Country Club course record he set in 1975.When Wadkins heard of the project, he was thrilled."I think it's wonderful they remembered him here and did something that's lasting and gives a glimpse of what he accomplished," Wadkins said. "He was very proud of this area and this club. He felt this golf course was a great basis for his success. What he learned here carried him through his career."But his days on tour were shortened because of physical ailments.His eyesight was poor and later in his life he suffered from fibromyalgia, a syndrome that causes pain in the muscles and soft tissue."When he was playing a lot, he was fine," Wadkins said. "Then he started having problems. He had some bad luck and some tough things that held him back. He never quit. He was a grinder."Wadkins was working on a project with his friend in December of 2005 when he received the call that Simons had died at the age of 55."Like everyone else, I was shocked," Wadkins said.Less than two years after his death, there is a monument now to what Simons meant to golf and Butler."It was a night Orpah and I will never forget," Ralph Simons said.
