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TSN Senior Reporter

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The name is familiar, especially around B.C. And that face is a dead giveaway too. Now the young man wielding a golf club on the Mackenzie Tour is hoping his golf game can live up to his lineage. 

Jimmy Jones will make his second start of the year on PGA Tour Canada this week at the Bayview Place DCBank Open presented by Times Colonist in Victoria. Even though he grew up in Florida, he’s hoping his deep roots in the province might spur him on to some solid play.

Jones is the son of Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Dawn Coe-Jones, a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour who passed away in 2016 after a battle with chondrosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. He’s chosen to try his hand at professional golf and is making his second tour of Canada on the northerly professional circuit.

“I’ve gotten my feet wet, getting some experience in some Canadian events last year,” he stated. “Now I’m learning something every round. I’m just developing my skills on the course and figuring out what I need to do on the course to give myself the best chance to perform.”

Jones first love growing up was hockey and he was a strong player early on, making it onto several elite teams in the Tampa, Fla., area. But at 15, he broke his wrist in a game and made the decision that he was probably not big enough for the physical sport. 

His attention turned to golf and he quickly advanced his game to the point where he earned a scholarship to Florida Southern, a Division II college. He later transferred to University of South Florida where he played Division I. It was at that point where he began to think about making a living as a touring professional.

“Right when I transferred to USF and played Division I against some of the top future pros and posted some good scores,” he said. “At that point, I thought, let’s gear up and try to prepare for the next level and use this as a stepping stone to go forward.”

To finish out his amateur career, Jones played the Canadian Amateur in Toronto in 2017. It was there he elected to honour his mother by playing as a Canadian, something he continues to do. 

“I feel like when I look at the leaderboard, it makes her proud,” Jones said.

Jones played three events on the Mackenzie Tour last year, missing the cut in two and withdrawing from a third. This year, he went to the qualifying school in Florida and earned conditional status. It was enough to get him into the first event last week in Vancouver, where he missed the cut by a shot. He’ll try to improve on that in his second start this week at Uplands GC for one of the tour’s oldest stops.

This year, he’s bringing a different outlook north. He realizes that there are sacrifices that must be made and commitments that must be kept. It’s no longer college golf.

“This is business,” he said. “We’re out here to make a living. We’re not out here to win a team championship any more. You’re kind of on your own. You’re obviously cheering for your buddies, but you have to take care of yourself first.”

Jones will need to play well to get spots in future events. He’s hoping to play the first six tournaments on the schedule but that will depend on his results. Of course, he does have some extra encouragement helping him along the way in the form of his mother.

“Obviously I was a little too young to remember,” he said of his her best days on the LPGA Tour, “but she’s a hero of mine and to many others. I just use it as a positive influence and a lot of times I think, ‘What would she do here?’ I use it as motivation.”

That might just be the edge he needs to take the next step along the path his mother travelled.