Golf Success Story: Eric Fitzsimmons
This golf success story starts in Connecticut: Eric Fitzsimmons was born and raised in central Connecticut to a couple parents enthusiastic about academics and sports. From a young age he was exposed to any sport that was readily available. He excelled at soccer, basketball, and baseball, but baseball won out early on as his true passion, and he continued this passion through college. This didn’t leave much time for golf, as the seasons are the same in Connecticut. On the rare occasion a few times year that he did get to golf, the same bad advice everyone gets was shared, so nothing amounted from his casual play. He always had fun with golf though, keeping a passion for it, and one summer he even made a little chip and putt course in his yard using coffee cans for cups.
He ended up heading to a small school in Lynchburg Virginia where he played baseball, and received 2 degrees, one in Computer Science, and one in Sports Management. Shortly after finishing school, his job brought him to Las Vegas, but the same injuries that had limited his baseball opportunities prevented him from even playing casually, so he needed something to fuel his competitive nature, and golf was there to fill that void. His passion for the game came quickly, especially with the quantity and quality of new courses available to him in the area.
He started playing and practicing more and more, but wasn’t getting much better. He tried out a couple teachers and made changes, but nothing was really clicking, and his body was telling him that something was off. A chance encounter with a respected employee at the course he practiced at led him to Bob Byman, and his golf world was never the same. They clicked immediately and lessons were highly anticipated, and why wouldn’t they be going from a 20 handicap to a 6 in 3 months, then to a 3 in another 3 months, and within 1 year of his first lesson with Bob he was a scratch golfer, and had started playing some competitive events. His body was feeling good, he kept working hard at his game, and he kept getting better with a newly learned understanding of the direction he was headed. Within the next few years he won a number of events, and had been player of the year for the Southern Nevada Golf Association.
Towards the end of this time he had decided to pursue golf as a profession, where he could compete in tournaments, and teach the same things he learned that had changed golf for him forever. He has a great passion for this sport, and truly enjoys helping others get better making the sport more enjoyable for them as well.