THUNDER BAY – Matt Simmons jokes he’s a golf professional, not a professional golfer.
And yet on Thursday the 52-year-old Simmons will tee it up alongside some of the world’s top up-and-coming golfers after earning a sponsor’s exemption into the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada’s Staal Foundation Open.
Simmons received one of six exemptions into the tournament, joining three other locals in the field, a group that includes qualifiers Barry Caland and Jeremy Kirk and former touring pro Walter Keating Jr.
Eleven years after arriving at Whitewater to serve as the course’s director of golf and head professional, Simmons on Thursday said he’s thrilled to get a chance to play in the event, but knows he’s a long-shot at best to survive into weekend play.
“I would love to just enjoy myself and try to get somewhere in the mid-70s. I have no illusions of making the cut,” he said. “We have some great players in the area who might just make the cut. I’m going to play my hardest on every shot and we’ll see what comes out of that.”
It may be a golf cliché, but Simmons said his best shot at success will be controlling the ball off the tee and staying out of trouble.
If only it was that easy, he said.
“I know it sounds boring, but fairways, greens and putts. That’s what’s going to do it for me. I know I’m not going to be as long as some of these guys out there, but if I can keep it in play and just get around, I’ll be happy,” Simmons said.
Tournament director Ken Boshcoff said it’s traditional that the local club pro be offered a spot at Mackenzie Tour events, but this will be a first for the Staal Open.
Simmons simply hadn’t applied in the past, he said.
“It’s a formal process,” Boshcoff said. “You can’t get it unless you’ve applied.”
He’s more hopeful than ever that a local will make the cut and play the weekend. Keating missed the cut by five shots a year ago, after firing an opening-round, even par 72.
No local has made the cut yet in four previous editions of the tournament, which kicks off Monday with the Summer Hockey Classic and the celebrity pro-am.
The other two sponsor's exemptions went to out-of-towners. Long-distance specialist Jamie Sadlowski, who missed the cut by one stroke a year ago, and newcomer, American Billy Walthouse, will also be in the field.
“We know that golf is a matter of very few strokes that determines winners and losers. But the way these guys have been playing this season, it’s been lights out, so anything can happen,” Boshcoff said.
