Even Henrik Simonsen’s wife, Tamara, would never confuse him for a super model.
But Simonsen, head professional at The Honors Course, has become a magazine cover boy.
Simonsen has graced the back covers of GolfWeek, Golf World and PGA Magazine this month as part of an advertising campaign for Titleist.
The full-cover ad has a picture of Simonsen standing beside hole No. 17 with his black, white and red Titleist bag and wearing an Honors Course sweater. In a smaller picture, he is working with his son, Oliver, on his swing by the practice facility.
“I’ve worked in Northern California, Houston and Austin, and it’s amazing how folks have e-mailed or sent me texts to give me a hard time,” Simonsen said. “You get in touch with old friends, which is one of the neat things about this.”
Some of the ad text reads: “His passion for the game is contagious to everyone fortunate to be around him. In fact, when members play a round with Henrik or his assistants, they can attest that their enjoyment and appreciation of the game is genuine.”
Three Titleist employees spent an entire day at the Honors and took more than 1,000 pictures at various vistas of the course for the ad. They also selected his wardrobe for the shoot.
“We’re good to Titleist, and Titleist is good to us and The Honors Course,” Simonsen said.
Chattanooga TPC set
The Chattanooga TPC tournament this weekend at Council Fire Golf Club will determine the TPC series player of the year.
Neil Spitalny currently holds the lead in the cup points, but Richard Spangler and Matt Robertson have a shot at catching the area amateur series veteran.
“Neil is the only one who controls his own destiny,” tournament director Mike Jenkins said. “Five of the top six golfers in the area are participating.”
The field is determined based on points earned throughout the year in area, state and national amateur competitions. Typically, the more events in which a golfer participates, the more points he’ll receive toward playing in the TPC, which begins Thursday.
The field for the 18th TPC tournament will be cut to 16 for match play Friday with quarterfinals Saturday and the semifinals and final on Sunday.
“This is to encourage participation in other area tournaments,” Jenkins said. “It’s an honor just to make the field.”
Scratch Golf gears up
Employees from the suits down to the master grinders at Chattanooga-based Scratch Golf are preparing for a bustling offseason.
The custom golf-club manufacturing company based off Broad Street will be flooded this winter by golfers from the PGA, LPGA, Champions and Nationwide tours.
The touring pros, including Ryan Moore and Cristie Kerr, will be looking to tweak their equipment or switch to all Scratch equipment for the 2011 season. David Duval has been using some of Scratch’s equipment in recent weeks.
“We’ll have guys coming into the shop all offseason, so it’s going to be busy,” said Paul Friedrich, the company’s vice president of tour operations. “We’ve got a few other things in the works that aren’t quite ready yet. But we’re excited.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 23-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/UchSports.