Locals tee up for Trinidad challenge
and also including pros Herbie Minors and Philip Smith and amateurs Dave Purcell, Malcolm Burgess, Allan Richardson, Barry DeCouto and Glen Robinson, is ready for the challenge that lies ahead in the Trinidad and Tobago Open which starts today.
Jones, who first competed in this tournament back in 1972, the year he turned pro, had a good warmup in the pro-am on Sunday and Monday when his four-man team placed fifth with a 22 under par 122 for the two round, three ball best ball tournament.
Jones shot a 75 on the first day and a 79 on the second while Pearman shot a 75 on the first day and a two under par 70 on the second. The individual champion was former Bermuda Open champion Jeff Lewis who finished with a six under par 134.
"I played quite well but I had problems on the greens yesterday,'' explained Jones. "The greens are tough here. On the first day I had four birdies but on Monday I made just one birdie.
"One of the guys in my team (Raymond Eccles) is a judge and he had to be in court by 11.30 so we played off at 6.20. The greens were very wet then which made a big difference.'' Both Jones and Pearman have aspirations of entering as many PGA qualifying tournaments as possible and will use this event (this is Pearman's third participation in the T&T Open) to guage the position of their respective games.
"I feel Dwayne should do very well,'' said Jones of the Belmont and Bermuda PGA champion who was 14th overall last year at St. Andrews.
Both the junior and senior competitors will play four rounds, provided the seniors survive a third round cut-off.
One doubtful starter today is recent Bermuda Open competitor Ted McDougal who injured a foot climbing a cliff during a boat trip to an island for the players yesterday. McDougal was beaten by Lewis by one stroke last year and was one of the pre-tournament favourites.