Michael Sims is ready to take on the Golden Bear!

No, not Jack Nicklaus himself but the Tour started by the legendary American golfer in 1996 and bearing his famous nickname.

Bermuda's top golfer will compete in the 15-event Golden Bear Tour which runs from early June to the end of September. Sims has chosen this Tour for the backbone of his summer programme because it's played on courses throughout Florida to which he relocated a few months ago from Rhode Island.

Until June, the 24-year-old will split his time between qualifiers for the PGA and Nationwide Tours - formerly the Buy.Com Tour. His campaign begins on Monday when he vies for a place in the Ford Championship at Doral, Miami, before competing in another PGA qualifier - the Honda Classic - the following week in Palm Beach.

Sims, who is in his second year as a pro, recently missed the cut in two South American Tour events - the Guatemala Open and the Encinos Open in Mexico. The latter, he said, was a pity given how he had played and that he missed competing in the final two rounds by one shot.

"The first week I didn't play particularly well so I really didn't deserve to get through. The second week - in Mexico - I felt I had played well and I haven't felt as good as that for quite a while. I was disappointed I didn't make that cut," he said.

"I made a couple of silly mistakes but I had been working pretty hard on my game and certain things, to do with my posture and it was way different from what I had been doing.

"The first week implementing those changes was a little strange but the second week felt a lot more comfortable and I actually hit the ball well. It was just a few silly mistakes, otherwise I would have made the cut."

In addition to his disappointment, Sims suffered the misfortune of falling ill after drinking water in Mexico.

"It wasn't a pretty sight. I was in bed for two days," he said.

Despite that, he termed his South American experience "pretty good" adding that he would do it again if necessary.

"There were different types of grass and we were also up in the mountains in both places so the ball was travelling further because the air was thinner," he said, comparing conditions down south to North America.

"The level of competition was pretty high and the experience of travelling abroad and not speaking the language was interesting. I'll definitely know what to expect if I go down there again."