Longtime Palm Beach County resident Jeff Simke has been good to the game of golf, and golf has been good to him. These days, the 70-year-old Simke spends most of his days at the Village Golf Club in Royal Palm Beach, where he offers his skills as a golf instructor at Jeff Simke’s Golf Academy. He’s also the head coach of the boys varsity golf team at Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach.
Simke’s experiences in golf date back to the mid-1970s, when he was a student at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He graduated from FSU in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
“I didn’t start playing golf until I was in college,” Simke recalled. “I was pretty good by the time I graduated.”
He took that passion for golf and transformed it into a career.
While Simke is an accomplished golf coach and a proven instructor, one of his claims to fame was a stint working as a caddie for golf legend Jack Nicklaus, aka the Golden Bear. He interviewed for the job as caddy for Nicklaus in September 1981 and started working for him in 1982. While it has been more than 40 years since he worked for the 18-time major golf champion, the memories flood back like it was yesterday.
“Initially, I had a 15-minute meeting with Jack to interview for the job as his caddy,” Simke said. “Well, that 15-minute discussion lasted nearly two hours. We ate lunch in his office, and he offered me the job that day as his caddy. I accepted.”
Because Nicklaus played very little golf in the fall, Simke didn’t start working for his new boss until January 1982.
“My first PGA Tour event caddying for Jack was the 1982 Wickes-Andy Williams San Diego Open, which was held at the Torrey Pines Golf Course,” Simke said. “Jack shot a course-record 64 in the final round and lost by one shot to Johnny Miller.”
Another close call for Nicklaus took place that March when the Golden Bear played in Arnold Palmer’s PGA Tour event at the Bay Hill Golf Club in Orlando.
“At Bay Hill, Jack lost in a playoff to Tom Kite,” Simke said. “In the playoff, Kite chipped in from off the green, and then Jack just missed a 15-foot putt to stay in it.”
The highlight of 1982 for Simke was Nicklaus’ win at the Colonial National Invitation, which was held at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth in May. Nicklaus had a four-round total of 273 (seven-under-par), and he defeated Andy North by three shots.
“That was one of Jack’s last official PGA Tour wins,” Simke said. “He won his Memorial Tournament in 1984, and then he won the 1986 Masters, which was his final major championship win on the PGA Tour.”
Simke also remembers the weight of Nicklaus’ all-leather golf bag.
“It was about 40 pounds with clubs,” Simke said. “He played MacGregor clubs, and his putter was a George Low Wizard 600.”
As Simke reflects on the experience walking inside the ropes carrying Nicklaus’ golf bag, he was impressed by Nicklaus’ ability to focus and concentrate on every shot.
“I was amazed at his ability to consistently hit the shot that he wanted to hit,” Simke said. “After the shot, he could turn off his concentration and resume a regular conversation about what he was doing that night or the following day. With a golf club in his hands, Jack was laser focused. His concentration was eye-opening.”
As focused as Nicklaus was on the golf course, he didn’t pay too much attention to the play of his fellow competitors. That’s where Simke helped his boss.
“My job was to keep track of his opponents’ score for the official scorecard,” Simke said. “I feel that I also brought youth and enthusiasm to the golf course. I was in my mid-20s, and Jack was in his early 40s.”
Simke’s golf roots in the western communities can be traced to when he started working at what was originally the Divots Golf Center off Southern Blvd. in Loxahatchee Groves in November 1994. That facility — which had a driving range, a nine-hole par three golf course, and, eventually, an 18-hole miniature golf course — was later renamed the Southern Pines Golf Center. Once it became predominantly a paintball facility, it was renamed Hot Shots Paintball. It was sold in 2020 and is now the Piquet Entertainment and Race Park. Simke has had a teaching presence at the Village Golf Club since 2016.
While Simke is no longer working as a caddy, and Nicklaus has since retired from tournament golf, Simke still relishes spending time on the golf course and on the driving range, helping golfers enjoy a game that has always been good to him.
