Asian Tour Yearbook: 2023

JONES CROWNED KING OF QUEENSTOWN JAPAN TOUR SPECIALIST FINALLY WINS ONE ‘DOWN UNDER’ Brendan Jones’ (RIGHT) win in New Zealand was his first on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia. S now-capped peaks surrounded Millbrook Resort in Queenstown for the New Zealand Open presented by SKY SPORT but the golf was red-hot for the 102nd staging of the event. Veteran Australian Brendan Jones stormed through with a closing five-under- par 66, to finish on 18 under and win by three from Australian John Lyras (64), New Zealand’s Ben Campbell (66), Korea’s Jaewoong Eom (67) and Tomoyo Ikemura (68) from Japan. Jones, 49-years-old at the time, is a prolific winner of titles on the Japan Golf Tour, where he has won 15 times, but, surprisingly, it marked the first time he had triumphed on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia – despite a glittering 24-year professional career. “This is just incredible. I’ve been supporting this event for many years, and I’ve always said to myself as long as my bum is pointing to the ground, I’ll never win it,” said Jones. “I don’t know what to think. When you are out there playing you aren’t thinking about winning, you are just thinking about playing. I hit a lot of good shots through the middle of the round, made some clutch par saves on a few of the holes coming in.” Jones said he hit “the two best shots of my life” tomake vital birdies down the stretch. Indeed, he drew upon his wealth of experience to edge ahead of a packed leaderboard to claimhis first title in four years. He was tied on 15 under over the closing holes with a group of players but he pulled one ahead with a birdie on 14, went two in front after another gain on the following hole, before opening-up a three-shot lead that would remain with a birdie on the 17th. He had a minor scare on 17, a par-five, when he blocked his second shot right, but his ball kicked off a bank and landed safely in a greenside bunker, from where he splashed out to four feet. Jones started the final round four behind overnight leader Shae Wools-Cobb from Australia and played in the penultimate group. Wools-Cobb struggled on the final day carding a 78 to finish equal 26th. Asian Tour regular Campbell, whose 47 NEW Z E A L A ND OPEN PR E SEN T ED BY SK Y SPORT M I L L B ROO K R E S O R T , QU E E N S TOWN | MA R C H 2 - 5 | P R I Z E MON E Y NZ $ 1 . 6 5 M I L L I ON