Youth on Course Welcomes Harold Varner III As First National Ambassador

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – Here was the lead in a wire services story 53 years ago: “Postman Eardley Jones in Warwick, Parish, Bermuda, is a father, a golfer – and more recently, a hero.” The story detailed how Jones jumped out of his mailman’s outfit and dove into rough water on Bermuda’s south shore to save a drowning man. After medics took the man to the hospital, the story goes that Jones nonchalantly slipped back into his work clothes and continued on with his route. “I have a picture somewhere, of my father that day standing in his skivvies,” says Nick Jones, the youngest of Eardley’s six children. It is that segment of the slideshow memory that makes him laugh. The next slide, however, brings a somber, yet respectful reflection. “I’ve met the man (my father) saved,” Nick says. “He’s still alive. It’s that connection that helps me remember my dad fondly. I miss him every day. He believed in me and was the driving force behind me. “There was no shaking his faith in me.” When Eardley Jones died at 73 in 2012, he was praised as “the Arthur Ashe of Bermuda golf,” a Black man who helped end segregation policies on this island. Until 1967, Black golfers could only play Ocean View, but Eardley Jones helped break down that barrier and open the door for Frankie Rabaid, Llewelyn Tucker, Keith Pearman, and so many others. Including, of course, Nick Jones, now 33 and beaming with pride as he prepares to play in this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course. He earned one of three spots in a local qualifier (fellow Bermudians Michael Sims and Jarryd Dillas also got in) and embraces the opportunity before him. “I love that I’m here,” he says. “I love the chance to show what I’ve got.” What Nick Jones has is a story that is equal parts adventure, passion, and pride, with golf being the common denominator. The game took him from Bermuda to high school in Florida. He turned pro at a young age and showed immediate promise with victory in the 2011 Daytona Beach Open, then flew to England to chase minitours while living with extended family. “I can’t be in the United States for three months at a time because of visa (restrictions),” Jones, who has a British passport, says by way of explaining his allegiance to competitive golf in the U.K. By now it’s likely you have heard of those who were stranded somewhere during the beginnings of the COVID pandemic. But Jones can likely top them all. “I was stuck in Palau for almost two years,” he says. Palau is in the Western Pacific, part of an archipelago of hundreds of islands in the Micronesia region. Indonesia is to the south, the Philippines to the north, but Jones, whose wife’s job had moved them to Palau in late 2019, couldn’t leave once the lock-down began in the spring of 2020. “There was a range with a big net where I could hit balls, but during lock-down they down took the net,” Jones says, laughing at the memory. “I could chip and putt, but that’s it. I didn’t touch my clubs for more than a year. I just did a lot of diving and a lot of fishing.” When the lock-down was lifted in the fall of 2021, Jones followed his heart. “Bermuda is home,” he says, “and it’s the golf community here that I love.” Beyond rusty, Jones didn’t get through the local qualifier for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in ’21. But he was so determined to be a part of the tournament that he caddied for a competitor in a Monday qualifier, then stuck around Port Royal to wash dishes at night and even tend bar. The sense of adventure still burns for Jones, who placed fourth in the Trinidad and Tobago Open in the spring and is signed on for the upcoming Jamaica Open. But his time back in Bermuda has returned him to his roots. It’s where he learned the game, and where his father’s legacy still is rich. “My ideal goal is to spend six-to-eight months here,” he says, “teaching kids and rebuilding and developing the junior program, which my father started years ago. Then spend a few months traveling to play in golf tournaments.” He has a soft spot for Spain, has family in the U.K., and says, not surprisingly, “I love all the islands.” His father and other Black golfers from Bermuda were trailblazers who overcame long odds. Rabaid played in the 1971 Open Championship. Eardley played in the Canadian Amateur and once brought Nick, then a young teenager, to caddie for him in the British Senior Open. “My father didn’t have much money, but he had a big heart,” says Nick, whose father played at an elite level while juggling two jobs, as a mailman and a maître d’ at that onetime bustling hot spot in Hamilton called Forty Thieves. On top of that, Eardley Jones led the fight against segregation. “He had to fight for his sport,” Nick adds. That battle won, Eardley Jones then brought kids, Nick Jones prominent among them, into his junior program right here at Port Royal. “He didn’t force me to play, but he made sure I wanted to play,” Jones says. “He gave me the freedom to fall in love with the game.” Mission accomplished, Eardley. Mission accomplished.

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LIST WINS AT TORREY PINES FOR FIRST TOUR EVENT Luke List waited nearly two hours after completing his final-round 66 at the Farmers Insurance Open to learn whether his 15-under total at Torrey Pines would be enough for a playoff. The wait was miniscule compared to a decade of waiting for his first PGA TOUR victory. The Vanderbilt alum earned his first PGA TOUR card via the 2012 Korn Ferry Tour, and he made 205 TOUR starts prior to this week’s annual stop in San Diego – recording four top-threes and 22 top-10s, but without raising a trophy. That all changed on a picturesque Saturday evening in San Diego, as List entered a playoff with rising star Will Zalatoris after the latter’s 8-foot birdie try on the 72nd hole broke 2 inches left of the cup. List dialed a wedge to kick-in range on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th at Torrey Pines (South), and after Zalatoris’ 15-foot birdie effort failed to drop, the 37-year-old was set to greet his wife and two children greenside with the emotional words, “Daddy won the trophy.” With the victory, List accrues 500 FedExCup points and moves to No. 4 in the season-long standings, forever armed with the knowledge that his best is enough to earn the distinction of “PGA TOUR winner.” BOUND FOR PEBBLE BEACH A short trip up the California coast for the PGA TOUR takes a top field to the Monterey Peninsula for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Reigning FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay leads the notables and is right at home at the iconic course, having finished T3-T11 in his last two starts. Daniel Berger returns to defend, joined by 2017 winner Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, 2015 winner Brandt Snedeker and Jason Day. Day could become only the fifth non-American to ever win at Pebble Beach, and form is in his favor after a T3 finish at Torrey Pines. A three-course rotation returns after using only two layouts in 2021. Players will take on Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and Monterey Peninsula Country Club before the closing round at Pebble Beach on Sunday. Celebs return for the fun as well with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, two-time World Series winner Mookie Betts, country musicians Jake Owen and Darius Rucker, soccer superstar Mia Hamm and, of course, Bill Murray all set to tee it up. VIDEO OF THE WEEK MIC CHECK “She told me for a long time, ‘Daddy, I want a trophy,’ and I got her a trophy.” – Luke List holding his young daughter Ryann after winning the Farmers Insurance Open BY THE NUMBERS 1 – First-ever APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational concluded on Sunday. It was broadcast on Golf Channel with Damon Hack as the lead analyst. Farmers announced last week a five-year extension with the APGA Tour and sponsorships with Kamaiu Johnson and Willie Mack III. 45.625 – Will Zalatoris has started the new year playing with a driver shaft length of 45.625 inches, resulting in added distance off the tee. The change has paid dividends already with a T6 finish at PGA West and a runner-up at Torrey Pines. 179 – Brandon Harkins won his first Korn Ferry Tour event at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club. It was his 179th start in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event. COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10

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