Golf great gets back to where it all started
Former PGA Tour player returns home to conclude long career.
Bob Zimmerman’s first notoriety came at Community Country Club when he was 10. Nearly 70 years later, he’s giving lessons here again.
The Dayton Daily News has featured Bob Zimmerman in its pages for 70-plus years.
In 1950, in a blurb about junior clinic stars, 10-year-old Bobby — as he was known then and throughout much of his career — was pictured swinging a club at what was then known as Community Country Club, demonstrating his talents for a group of 40 kids and 12 Miami Valley pros.
Three years later, this newspaper featured a photo of Bobby and his dad Bill, who was nicknamed Bones, kneeling with clubs in their hands at Community after the George Klockson Memorial Tournament. Bobby had fired a 77, then his best score, and his dad shot a 63. They were the first father-son duo to win the tournament since 1948.
In 1957, a story under the headline “Finesse wins for Zimmerman” told of his victory against John Blesi in the finals of the Dayton Amateur Golf match play championship at Walnut Grove. He was 16.
“With the touch you have, you ought to be a surgeon,” Blesi told Zimmerman. “You’d have to be the world’s best.”
Zimmerman did not take that advice and turned his touch into a long career in golf, and that’s why the headlines continue to this day. In March, he moved back to the Dayton area from Florida to be closer to his son, Bob, who runs a tiling business, and also to teach lessons at the golf course where he learned the game.
“It was just time,” Zimmerman said. “I’m getting a little older and wanted to come back here. I wanted to finish my career at Community, where I started. My dad started me here when I was 9, and here I am at 79, 70 years later.”
Teaching philosophies
As Zimmerman surveyed the scene at Community Golf Club on Wednesday, he remarked on how much has not changed. The house where he grew up at 1316 Melrose Ave. in Kettering — a little more than a block from the parking lot at Community — is still there. The clubhouse has had a similar look for decades. The course has changed but still has the big hills where he used to sled in the winter and hit drives in the summer.
Zimmerman has given three or four lessons already, and anyone interested can call his home phone (937-938-7900) or cell (937321-8252). On Saturdays, he gives advice for free on the practice tee.
“There’s usually 15 to 20 people hitting balls,” he said. “I’ll spend four or five hours going up and down the tees and giving everybody tips. I think most of the people really appreciate that. Of course, I get a few lessons off that. That is something that’s not done at many golf courses.”
Zimmerman said he takes an old-school teaching approach and doesn’t use new tools, but his main approach centers around making adjustments without changing the swing.
“I know what I went through on the tour when I tried to change my swing,” Zimmerman said, “and I was a good player at the time and had trouble making a change. It’s
‘I wanted to finish my career at Community, where I started. My dad started me here when I was 9, and here I am at 79, 70 years later.’
Bob Zimmerman
very hard when you’ve done something for a long time to make a change. What I do is if somebody’s doing two or three things wrong that I can adjust, then I will take those one at a time until they get them corrected and then they all work together.”
Record-breaking career
Anyone who takes lessons may hear a few stories. Zimmerman has plenty.
As a junior at Fairmont High School in 1957, Zimmerman finished second at the Ohio state championship, four shots behind Upper Arlington’s Jack Nicklaus. A year later, Zimmerman won the individual championship and helped lead Fairmont to a second-place team finish.
After high school, Zimmerman attended the University of Dayton for a semester but left to become the golf pro at Madden Golf Course and later Moraine Country Club.
The Dayton Daily News stories about Zimmerman — most written by Ben Garlikov from the 1950s into the early 1970s — continued as he pursued a professional career. In 1967, Garlikov traveled to Pensacola, Florida to write about Zimmerman, who was working as a pro while traveling all over the country for tournaments.
Zimmerman played on the PGA Tour from 1965-68 and on the Senior PGA Tour in the 1990s. He played in 17 major tournaments in his career on both tours, including four U.S Opens, three of which Nicklaus won. In the Senior British Open in 1993, he shot a 69 in the first round to lead the field and ended up 16th.
Zimmerman had 42 straight rounds under par in 1962. He has shot 63 four times and 64 eight times in his career. He even shot 64 the year he turned 64.
Early in his career, Zimmerman set three course records. One was recently broken. Cameron Willis shot a 61 at Moraine Country Club earlier this month. Zimmerman’s record of 64 had stood since 1968.
“Records are made to be broken,” Zimmerman said. “In today’s world, with the equipment and how strong the younger guys are, they hit the ball farther. Eventually, it’s going to happen. You’d like to keep it forever, but in any sport, almost every record is going to be broken sooner or later. I think it’s great the guy shot 61. That’s fabulous.”
Zimmerman said his putting stopped him from making it big on the PGA Tour. He could hit the fairways and greens as well as anyone but averaged about 32 putts per 18 holes when most golfers averaged 28 or 29.
Zimmerman moved to Florida in 1997 and represented The Villages, a self-contained retirement community, on the senior tour for three years. He lived in Port St. Lucie on the east coast for the last 20 years until he moved back to Ohio in March with his wife Dawn. They were in Ohio about 10 days before everything got shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “It was kind of tough for me and my wife. It was pretty difficult staying in and being used to 80- and 90-degree weather and coming back to the 30s, 40s and 50s. The only way I could get her up here was to make sure I take her down there in the winter for three months.”