The Edward Little High School and Colby College graduate played competitive golf throughout his youth — it was his grandfather who introduced him to the game.

“I think the first time I played was when I seven,” Simard said. “Paris Hill had a junior tournament for really young golfers for six- and seven- year-olds. For a couple of summers, I went up there, playing in that. From there it went into the junior (Maine State Golf Association) events, which made it for busy summers with baseball and golf. I did as many as I could, I probably played six or seven a year. I was fortunate to play at EL and Colby.”

He played both baseball and golf at Colby

As often happens, life became busy with work and starting a family. Golf became secondary. A few years ago, he got back to playing on a more frequent basis and started to qualify for the Maine Amateur again.

“It was busy with work, kids and family,” Simard said. “I still played, but I played once a week, maybe. I graduated and was able to play a little bit more. I am at the point now where I am at a pretty good spot. I have some great kids that are very involved in the game. Things are great at home, things are great at work that allows me to play at least four times a week, usually it’s five or six. It’s great, the whole family is involved which gets me (to the golf course) more often.”

Simard has four daughters. The youngest three play regularly. He has a specific night that he has for each of his daughters that he will take them out. On the weekends he has a regular foursome that he plays at Martindale.

On June 21, he was one of 29 players who qualified for the Maine Amateur, shooting a 71 at Poland Spring. While Simard hasn’t played at Poland too much in the past few years, he worked at the course when he was small. He said while he hasn’t played as much there lately, he knows the course like the back of his hand.

This year, the Maine Amateur will held at the York Golf and Tennis Club from July 12-14. It’s been two decades since he has played the course and hopes to get a practice round in before the tournament.

“If I recall, putting is going to be very important,” Simard said. “I think whoever putts well will probably do well. (There’s) a lot of tricky shots, there’s a lot of yardages that are a little deceiving. It looks a little further than it is or a little shorter than it is. There’s some false fronts and some of the greens there are challenging.”

Simard said there’s no difficult transition from a round with one of his daughters to a more competitive round on the weekend.

“I use to put a lot of weight on those qualifiers and on those competitive rounds,” Simard said. “I think now, I love the game, I am at a really good spot in my life, it’s not quite as critical to me to finish well. I enjoy playing with the girls, I hope I play well. If I don’t play well, it not the end of the day. I think it’s just growing up a little bit and like I said I am in a good spot in my life. I appreciate everything in my life and golf isn’t a huge component of it. It’s something I love to do and always love to do. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of other things that make me happy too.”

Right now he believes his game is doing well in all aspects. In June he made two eagles from the fairway in the same weekend.

“They came at a pretty opportune time, it was a lot of fun,” Simard said. “I played a lot of golf that weekend and happened to make a couple of deuces.

That weekend his iron play was on, but he said his game is at the point where one day his putting is on, the next day it might be his drives that carry him through the around or his short game. Just like the other 131 players slated to play in the Maine Amateur, he hopes everything comes together for those three days in the second week of July.

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