Brendan Jones’ brilliance earns PGA Tour Champions playing rights
Brendan Jones – file image – courtesy of NZ Open
Canberra golfer Brendan Jones will join the increasing number of Australasian golfers plying their trade on the PGA Tour Champions following the completion of the Final Stage of Qualifying for the 2025 PGA Tour Champions in Scottsdale in Arizona.
Knowing he needed a good final round to force his way into the top 5 who gain full cards for the lucrative over 50’s tour, Jones uncomfortably began the final day with three bogeys through eight holes before things turned around dramatically.
Jones birdied six of his last ten holes for a round of 68 to become one of the three players tied for 3rd place and to earn the final cards for next season.
Jones, the 1999 Australian Amateur Champion, the 2022 New Zealand Open Champion, the runner-up in the 2012 Australian Open behind Peter Senior and a prolific winner of titles and money in Japan, has just completed a horror year in Japan and Asia but his form reversal at both Stage one and the Final Stage of Qualifying has seen him open up a new and potentially lucrative chapter in his career.
“It was an incredibly stressful experience but worth it all now,” said Brendan after receiving his card.
While Jones’s news was good, the same cannot be said for his fellow Australians Scott Barr and Andre Stolz.
Stolz and Barr both missed out on a place in the top five by one agonising shot, Barr, in particular, no doubt rueing a last-hole bogey.
The pair will get their chance to attempt qualifying for events on the PGA Tour Champions but the surety of a card would have made the world of difference.
Mathew Goggin and Brad Kennedy finished 14th and 26th respectively in the field of 78.
