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.

 

Bob and Ed, as brothers, started playing golf at an early age and grew up playing a lot of golf together. Their games continued to develop and improve over time to the point where they both qualified for the PGA Tour at the same qualifying school in 1978. Ed’s golf career highlights include being the 1972 Mexican National Amateur Champion, the 1974 Mexican National Open Champion and the 1975 Manitoba (Canada) Open Champion.
He left the Tour in 1980 to pursue other interests and played golf only sparingly for the past 30+ years. At the encouragement of his two sons he decided to start playing Senior Golf a little over a year ago. The first person he called for help was his brother Bob. They have worked together multiple times to build a repeating golf swing that could stand up to tournament pressure. We started with the grip, stance and posture and then moved to understanding the loading and unloading elements of the golf swing. His improvement was both immediate and continuous. They continue to get together as often as possible for further refinement. He recently qualified for the US Senior Amateur finishing in the top 4 in a 90 person sectional field. The Championship will be held September 26 –October 1.

Eric “Fitz” Fitzsimmons

Fortunately, I came to golf later in life. This allowed me to learn with a deeper understanding of much of the information that many professional players learned unconsciously. Finding a world-renowned instructor to learn from like Bob Byman must have come from some good karma. Because of this chance encounter and continued mentorship, I was provided with a framework for learning. Using that framework, and then making it my own through playing and working with other better players allowed me to have an intimate relationship that I can use to help others.

It all starts with fundamentals and understanding how yours are helping or hurting your game and body right now. Along with what you’re doing, you have to be able to evaluate what’s going on with the result, which means you must understand basic ball flight laws. After that, we work with how your body naturally moves to make a swing that works for you. Finally, we have to connect the technique with a way to practice to bring this to the course, as well as be able to keep getting better on your own as long as you can. Being an athlete helps us to relate other movements to what you want to do, but this process works no matter your age, sex, athleticism, or what habits you may have already formed.

My name is Eric Fitzsimmons, but everyone calls me Fitz, and I look forward to working with you.