Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1996
From the days when he would ride his bicycle at age nine to the Butler (Pa.) Country Club and play throughout the summer mornings and afternoons, to his tremendous career at Wake Forest in the early 1970s, then on to a successful stint as a professional player, Simons has known golf success.
He originally attended the University of Houston, but he transferred to WFU after one year and helped the Demon Deacons win back-to-back Atlantic Coast Conference championships in 1971 and 1972. In '71, he was named the Collegiate Golfer of the Year after earning a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team, making the finals of the British Amateur and leading the U.S. Open after three rounds. He finished fifth in that event. Since 1933, only runner-up Jack Nicklaus (1960) has turned in a better performance by an amateur in the Open.
In 1972, Simons captured the ACC individual title and received Wake Forest's highest honor, the Arnold Palmer Award as the school's top male athlete. He also gained his second straight first team All-America honor.
Simons, who was legally blind, played with two contact lenses in one eye. His early professional career was slowed by physical aliments, but he recovered to win three PGA tour events and earn nearly $1 million. In 1982, he became the second player to win on the Tour while using a metal driver.
Jim Simons passed away on December 8th, 2005.
Golf and Wake Forest University have long shared a special relationship. Jim Simons has added significantly to that storied tradition and was inducted into the WFU Sports Hall of Fame on January 12, 1996.
