Career Highlights
Born in Irvine to English parents – his father worked in Greenock for IBM – Simon Holmes spent his adolescent summers playing golf at Helensburgh, where he is still a member, before setting out for America and Wake Forest University in North Carolina. A decent player, Holmes was good enough to twice reach the last 16 of the Scottish Amateur Championship and hold a handicap of plus two.
It is in Golf Coaching, however, where Simon Holmes found his niche, first as an assistant to David Leadbetter, then as a sole practitioner. Simon worked with David Leadbetter from 1988 to 1992, where at the time, Leadbetter coached the who’s who of world golf including Nick Faldo, Nick Price and Bernhard Langer, and Simon worked with them all.
During the Summers of 1991 and 1992 Simon spent most of the year with Nick Faldo going to most events he was playing in and it was at the end of 1992 where Simon decided to go it alone after coaching Langer independently of his work with Leadbetter.
In 1993 Simon went on to coach Nick Faldo who won the ’93 Johnnie Walker Classic, Bernhard Langer when he won the Masters, Anders Forsbrand and Barry Lane. He also had four players in the 1993 Ryder Cup side – Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Barry Lane and Joakim Haeggman. To date Simon has coached over 80 tournament professionals that have won together over 50 titles and 2 majors. These include:
Retief Goosen, Darren Clarke, Thomas Bjorn, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Robert Karlsson, Soren Hansen, Jasper Parnevik, Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood, Barry Lane, Mark McNulty, Nick Faldo, Joakim Haeggman, Geoff Ogilvy, Tony Johnstone, Darren Fichart, David Carter, Jeremy Robinson, Anders Forsbrand, Peter Fowler, Roger Chapman, Gordon Brand Jnr, Mark Roe, Jean Van der Velde, Marc Farry, Per Ulrik Johansson, Roger Winchester, Mark James, Seve Ballesteros, Mark Davis, Brian Marchbank, Mike Hulbert, Derrick Cooper, Nick Price, Curtis Strange, Ian Poulter, Severiano Ballesteros, Bob Tway, Stephan Ames, Padraig Harrington, Richard Green, Trevor Immelman, Peter Hanson, Constantino Rocca, Jamie Spence, and Suzann Pettersen.