Paying tribute to one of South African golf’s greatest characters 

I only remember four left-handers who played on the Sunshine Tour in the early days. The first was the 1963 Open champion and the 1973 SA Open champ, Bob Charles, who beat a strong challenge from Bobby Cole, Graham Marsh and Vin Baker, who all tied for second. Then there was Peter Dawson from Britain, who played in the Ryder Cup. Mike Worrall, who was a member at Wanderers, ended up as a club professional in the US.

The fourth left-handed player I remember was the Germiston Giant, Phil Simmons, who did it all in golf. His nickname is a giveaway, but he was massively long and once finished sixth in the World Long Drive Championship.

Phil was also a really good player who was held back by his temperament. He was a perfectionist who worked extremely hard on his golf but struggled to let go of a bad shot or bad luck. He won the Elephant Hills Classic and finished second to Gavan Levenson at the 1985 SA Open at Royal Durban.

Gowrie Farm

His third love was weapons. Phil would always have at least one firearm on him wherever he went, and also perhaps a knife. His members knew not to buy their golf equipment elsewhere. If he found out that a member had done so, he would pull out a gun, put it on his shop counter and tell them sarcastically: ‘I hope you are happy with your new clubs’!

But Phil had a heart of gold, and everyone who knew him would realise that. After 30-odd years at Germiston, he got a position at Mount Edgecombe where he did a fantastic job of increasing the playing numbers, and finally went to Gowrie Farm.

Unfortunately, Phil struggled with his health over the past couple of years. This is once again where his fighting spirit came to the fore. He never gave up and fought to the bitter end. I attended his funeral, where the turnout was testimony to his popularity. Members from Germiston, Mount Edgecombe and Gowrie Farm were there. It was like a PGA AGM with professionals from all over South Africa present, including Roger Wessels, Hylton Anderson, Gavin Woodroffe and Paul Marks, who all did their PGA apprenticeship under Phil.

He was very proud to be an honorary member of the PGA of South Africa and of holding the highest position for a golf pro, a Master Professional. He had been a member of that association for 55 years.

Gallery below

Stories about Phil could fill a book, but I am pleased to share two that I witnessed.

I was invited to speak at the captain’s dinner at Mount Edgecombe and was seated at a table with Phil, the club captain, the club’s vice-chairman, Mr Good, and two of Phil’s friends. As we sat down, Phil said to me: ‘Dale, you know, the biggest mistake I made when I came to Mount Edgecombe was not to give the vice-chairman a good punch.’ Everybody at the table went quiet until Mr Good burst out laughing because he and Phil had this banter on almost a daily basis!

The second story is about playing the Royal Swazi Classic and the Nomads, who do such an amazing job with golf scoring and managing the leaderboards at Sunshine Tour events. At this tournament, the leaderboard on the final hole had Phil’s name on, except it was shown as Phyllis Simmons – in full view of spectators and seen on the television broadcast! Well, you can imagine that Phil was livid and threatened every Nomads member with their life!

Rest in peace, Phil, you’ll be missed.