Howell High School’s Dawson Jones chips up on the 10th hole during the Freehold Regional High School District golf tournament held May 17 at Gambler Ridge in Upper Freehold Township. Jones capped his freshman season with the Rebels by finishing in a tie for sixth place at the NJSIAA Group IV championships at the state Tournament of Champions. ERIC SUCAR staff Tim Hogan vividly remembers the first time he saw Dawson Jones hit a golf ball. Hogan was at Howell Park with his Howell High School golf team for a dual meet when he got a glimpse of Jones, who was then a seventh-grader.
“I saw him rip the ball around trees on a dogleg and I thought, This kid is special,” Hogan said. “I said, ‘I can’t wait until he comes to Howell.’ ”
What stood out was Jones’ swing.
“His swing is beautiful; it’s a great thing to watch,” Hogan said.
When Jones, who is now a freshman at Howell, joined the golf team this spring, he was everything Hogan expected and more.
“Mentally he’s not a freshman,” the coach said. “He’s so far beyond.”
On May 21, Jones capped a brilliant freshman season by finishing in a tie for sixth place at the NJSIAAGroup IV championships at the state Tournament of Champions at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club. His season included winning the NJSIAA Central/ South Jersey state sectional title.
On a Hopewell Valley golf course that was soaked by rain and better suited for ducks, Jones shot 80 to lead Howell to a fourth-place finish in the Group IV event.
“He shot 42 [on his first nine holes],” Hogan said. “He kept grinding and shot 38 [on his second nine]. That’s what he’s all about.”
Jones said he had not carded a score of 40 for nine holes in quite some time.
“It was a rough day,” he said. “I kept trying to fight through it.”
The freshman was pleased that he salvaged his day on the back nine.
Jones arrived in high school as an experienced tournament player. He won the Rutgers Junior Open last year and also has the Monmouth County Junior Amateur championship on his résumé. He has competed in Metropolitan Golf Association and Junior PGA events and won age group state titles.
It all started for Jones when his father, Dana, put a golf club in his son’s hands when the youngster was 4 or 5 years old.
“He had me swing the club and it felt good,” Jones said.
It is Jones’ natural swing that Hogan so admires.
By the age of 7, Jones was competing in tournaments.
It’s not that golf was Jones’ only athletic option. He played baseball for five years, he also played basketball, and he tried roller hockey, but none of those endeavors stuck to him like golf. Jones said he likes the individual aspect of the sport.
“You can only rely on yourself,” he said. “It’s a fun game. I love it.”
Like all serious golfers, Jones is a perfectionist and is never satisfied. He is always looking for the perfect shot and the perfect round. When he is not playing for the Rebels or in a tournament, he can be found at Eagle Ridge in Lakewood working on his game at any time of the year.
Jones’ goal for the 2013 season is to be more consistent. He said that this year when he hit his driver and irons well, his putting was off. When he putted well, his tee-togreen game was not perfect. That is why he considers his freshman season to have been a “pretty average year.” Few observers of the high school golf scene would call his season average. Hogan said Jones got better as the season progressed, culminating in his round of 72 to win the state sectional crown.
Jones’ season mirrored that of Howell’s other standout on the links, Chase Carrick, who is now playing for Monmouth University.
Carrick was the first Howell golfer to win the Central/South Jersey state sectional title and he did so by carding the same score of 72 on the same Linwood course that Jones played several weeks ago. At the state Tournament of Champions, both golfers shot 80.
Carrick set the Howell record for average (36.6 for nine holes) with Jones just 0.2 strokes behind him (36.8). With 35 birdies in 2012, Jones did break Carrick’s season record in that category.
Hogan said Jones’ best golf is ahead of him and said the young man is “committed 110 percent.”
Having gotten his first taste of high school golf and all of the championships (county, conference, state) he can pursue, Jones said it gives him “something to shoot for. I know what to expect.”
Jones, who said he likes the individual aspect of golf, got caught up in the spirit of playing for a team.
“It’s a little different,” he said. “I liked it. You’re looking to shoot a low score to help the team.”
The Rebels’ fourth-place finish in Group IV capped another championship season for a golf program that has become one of the best in the Shore Conference.
The Rebels finished with a 14-3 record in dual meets, and with a 9-3 mark in the Shore Conference A North Division, they are assured of no worse than a tie for the A North public school crown with Freehold Township High School.
Freehold Township (7-3) still has two A North matches remaining and must win them both to tie Howell for the A North public school honors. The Rebels and the Patriots split two matches during the season.
Christian Brothers Academy, a private school, won the overall Shore Conference A North Division title.
“Five straight years we have won or tied A North, we made it to the Tournament of Champions for the second time in three years, and we had the individual winner in the state sectional meet in two of the last three years,” Hogan said. “Absolutely it was a great year.”
At the NJSIAA state Tournament of Champions, senior Rich Jakubowski tied for eighth place with a round of 81. Howell’s other scorers were Mike Kochenash (83) and Josh Friedman (96). Howell’s team score was 340.