Jones Comerford: Giving them stick

He’s just 16, but Dubbo’s JONES COMERFORD has just tucked the Victorian Junior Masters championship trophy under his arm, and is by all accounts headed for the giddy heights of professional golf. But this grounded young gun with the model looks and extraordinary sporting talent isn’t for one second about to take anything for granted.

I haven’t had more than two weeks off playing golf since I was seven

– and I’m 16 now. I remember asking my dad, Phil, for a set of clubs but he wanted to make sure I’d actually use them before he invested in a set. So I went down to the course every day for the next three months and borrow a couple of clubs and practice with them. Then he bought me my first set.

I did a lot of practice before I started doing competitions – I wanted to make sure I could hold my own.

I picked it up pretty quickly and I knew from a young age that it was something I could be good at. It was also something different to what everyone else was doing. My first competition was at Mudgee when I was ten – and I won that. I knew I was better than most kids my age, but I also knew I had to practice.

You can’t just take it easy and not put in the effort.

It’s like anything – you can’t expect to get results if you’re not prepared to work at it. I realised this pretty quickly once I started travelling away to competitions, and going interstate – I had to really work hard to be better than other players my age.

I don’t really think about winning – I focus on what I’m doing.

I’ll work with my coach on various aspects of my game and not focus on the next tournament – so that when I get to that next tournament, I’m prepared. I’ll hit 200 balls a day and not think about where I’m headed, I just focus on practice. When I was younger, I used to practice because I enjoyed hitting balls, but now it’s more about polishing technique. That pays off in the long run – which I’ve just proved again with the win in Victoria. I’ve also represented NSW in the state team; I’ve flown around the country to represent the state.

Bonnie Doon Golf Club in Sydney offered me a scholarship after they noticed me through various competitions

– they pay my fees, I get free access to their club and they sponsor me to go away to competitions. They obviously saw something in me that they liked, so it’s been a great help. I have their support until I’m 21.

Without the support of my parents, Jo and Phil, none of this would have been or would be possible.

They’ve worked really hard to support me. Dad has made sure I’ve been able to take up every opportunity. He does everything for me – he works very hard to help get me to where I am and to keep me going. I don’t take my golf for granted – I see it as an opportunity, and I’m thankful to have it.

Golf is definitely a career choice for me

– whether it’s being involved in a golf-related business, or as a professional player. My ultimate goal is to play professionally, but I’d also like to have some sort of qualification to fall back on. I have a couple of offers to colleges in America, so maybe I’ll take one of those up so that I have some academic qualification if golf doesn’t go my way.

My school, St John’s College in Dubbo, has been really supportive.

I have a great year co-ordinator who sets me up with work when I go overseas or interstate for golf, so that I don’t miss out on schoolwork and fall behind. I’m going into Year 11, so I hope it’s the same this year because I have a very full schedule with golf this year and I don’t want to let my schoolwork slip.

It’s tough managing school work with social life and golf, but I’m not going to complain

because it’s something I want to do. I get up really early every morning and I’m usually pretty late to bed, because I’m trying to get everything done. But I compartmentalise – when I’m at golf, I’m at golf. When I’m at school, I focus on school. When I’m with friends, I focus on them.

Since my name goes under Bonnie Doon Golf Club, people don’t always realise I’m from Dubbo.

Bonnie Doon is a very well known and respected Sydney club, so when the members of Golf Victoria found out I was actually from Dubbo, they were really quite surprised. But they shouldn’t be. Hitting balls in Dubbo is no different to hitting balls in Sydney. The clubs in the city tend to have more facilities, but our course here is pretty good for a country club – we’re lucky to have it. If you’re going to be a good golfer, it’s more about practice and dedication than facilities.

The win in the Victorian Junior Championships was my greatest achievement so far, but it was a hard competition.

There were about 300 players from interstate as well as

from China, the US and other countries. There was a cut after two rounds, which eliminated half the players and it went from there.

(In the final) I had one over par in the first round at Churchill Gardens in really tough conditions with wind and rain.

It was a grind of a day. One over par isn’t the best score, but I knew that in those conditions and the way the course was playing, that it was going to be a pretty good score. In the second round, I had even par, which wasn’t bad, and I was about three behind the lead.

On the last day, we played 36 holes and it was a tough day.

It was windy and hot and there was some rain, but I shot two under in the third round to get within one shot of the lead. Conditions were awful in the last round and I shot three over par. I needed to birdie the last and my chip lipped out for the win.

Then it was down to a sudden death playoff with a kid from Victoria.

There were a lot of people watching – there were a lot of cameras, a lot of screaming. It was nerve wracking. Because he was from Victoria, there were a lot of people there cheering him on and wanting him to win, but you can’t think about that.

You just have to think about the shot. You don’t think about winning, you don’t’ think about losing;

you just think about what you’re doing and being in the moment. You do what you have to do. I birdied the playoff hole to win by one.

It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in my life.

Just walking off that green knowing I’d just won an international tournament… I can’t describe it. And it was so tough. In the final round I made a triple bogie on the ninth hole to go from one under to two over and that was just so hard mentally.

To have a three shot lead and then just lose it in one hole – I kind of had the feeling of well, there it goes.

I had to steel myself to stay positive. I birdied 14 and made really good putts on 15 and 16…. And yeah, that feeling was just incredible. To walk off and have people coming up to me and congratulating me, and to be doing interviews and having lots of media around… it felt amazing.

It felt like I’d finally done something to reflect on all my hard work.

It’s more than just a trophy – it’s acknowledgement of all the dedication that I, and my family have put in. And it’s given me access – I’m now in the Victorian Open in February, which will be my first professional tournament and then I have access to the Port Stephens Amateur and the NSW Amateur.

I’d like to think I could be a role model for younger players, in all sports.

I have a good temperament and that’s something I’ve learned from playing at higher levels and by representing Bonnie Doon club and my state. They’re not going to select kids who spit the dummy and carry on. And to kids who are wanting to achieve their goals, I’d say just focus on what you want and work hard to get it.

This stunning shot of local model

Bess Pascoe, who recently entered Australia’s next top model, was taken by local photographer Sam Read at Dubbo’s Shoyoen Japanese gardens. Since completing his HSC last year, Sam has embarked on several projects aimed at expanding his portfolio, including fashion/ editorial style shoots and fine art self portraits. Sam has also been director of photography for a local documentary. The aspiring young photographer says he believes successful art is about storytelling. “This is an element I place great importance on in my works. When photographing models I want the image to tell a story, and take the viewer on a journey. There are many beautiful places and faces in this city and my goal is to photograph as many as possible before leaving my home town in February. I will be undertaking studies at Wollongong University in theatre

and photography.”