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SIERRA VISTA — In the fall of last year, Jeff Sims was looking to move west in order to be closer to his wife’s parents who lived in Sierra Vista.
As superlative luck would have it, four-year Pueblo del Sol Country Club pro Steve Rudd was on his way to a club in Georgia for the very same reason.
Sims was hired by PDS in October. He had a four-day crash course on the ins and outs of the job with Rudd, and now, five months into the job, he’s liking it much better than his last as General Manager at the Sugar Creek Country Club in Sugarland, Texas, just outside of Houston.
“It’s kind of nice to be able to focus on the golf side,” said Sims, who at Sugar Creek was responsible for the entire operation to include the restaurant, swimming pool and tennis courts. “My main focus here is trying to make the club as member-friendly as possible. We’re
 Jeff Sims has been the head golf professional at the Pueblo del Sol Country Club in Sierra Vista since late last year. (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
definitely trying to give that little bit extra so you feel like you’re at home.”
The Texas club had about twice as many members as PDS, which Sims said accounted for most of his headaches as G.M. He said at PDS he’s pleasantly surprised to see members walk into his office just to say “hi” or deliver a Christmas gift. In Houston, a member rapping at his door usually meant a problem was at hand.
Sims, a native of Porterville, Calif., played golf collegiately at College of the Sequoias in Visalia in 1987-88. After that, he put aside his professional playing aspirations and enrolled at the San Diego Golf Academy which emphasizes the management side of the game.
“You learn the ins and outs of the industry there,” Sims said.
Sims specialty as a golf manager is in fixing revenue problems, which he said was his primary duty in Houston.
“I got that cleaned up, I honored the (18-month) contract, but other than that I wasn’t real excited,” Sims said.
Sims said he began leaning toward a career in golf course management early in life.
“I’ve always had a passion for the game,” Sims said. “When I was 11 I caught the bug. My father and I were paired with two other guys one time and come to find, one of them was the dean of the San Diego Golf
Academy.
Sims said that while the PDS job is much more relaxing, he still doesn’t have as much time as he’d like to play the course.
“I saw myself playing a little more golf than I do,” Sims said. “But this is a beautiful place with great people.”
Nor does Sims have much time for giving lessons. He tries to squeeze in at least one lesson per day once the morning throngs are out on the course and ready to make the turn.
“Communication is 100 percent of giving good lessons,” Sims said. “It’s not how much you know, it’s how well you pass it on. As long as you understand ball-flight laws, it’s all about how you communicate to the student.”
Prior to his job at Sugar Creek, Sims was the General Manager and Head Professional at the Columbia Country Club in Columbia, Missouri.
Before that he was the assistant pro at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore., and at the
Sharon Heights Country Club in Menlo Park, Calif.
Prior to that he was a teaching pro at the InGolf Corporation in Sunnyvale, Calif. from 1991-93.
