Steve Jones (golfer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steve Jones (born December 27, 1958) is an American professional golfer who is best known for winning the U.S. Open in 1996. Jones was born in Artesia, New Mexico. He was a semi-finalist at the U.S. Junior Amateur in 1976. He attended the University of Colorado and turned professional in 1981. In the early years of his professional career he did not have much success. He played the PGA Tour in 1982, but only made three cuts. His first top 10 finish on the PGA Tour came at the Texas Open in September 1985, and in 1986 he won the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament to retain his card for the following year. This marked the beginning of a more successful period. Jones won on the PGA Tour for the first time at the 1988 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. 1989 was the winningmost year of his career with three PGA Tour wins, and he finished a career best eighth on the money list.

In November 1991 Jones suffered ligament and joint damage to his left ring finger in a dirtbike accident, and he missed almost three years of play as a professional. After playing two events in 1994, he began his comeback in earnest in 1995, when he picked up two top 10 finishes. In 1996 he achieved three top ten places by May, but he was still a rank outsider when he picked up the U.S. Open title that June, which was the only major championship of his career. He defeated Tom Lehman and Davis Love III by one stoke, and was the first sectional qualifier to win the tournament since Jerry Pate in 1976.

Jones picked up two more PGA Tour wins in 1997 and his last to date in 1998. Since then he has slipped steadily down the money list, but he is exempt on the PGA Tour until 2006 as the majors carried a 10-year exemption back in 1996. He missed part of 2003 and all of 2004 after undergoing surgery for tennis elbow, but starting playing again in 2005.

Jones played for the United States in the 1996 World Cup of Golf and was captain's assistant for the United States team at the 2004 Ryder Cup.

1 PGA Tour wins (8)
2 Results in major championships
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] PGA Tour wins (8)

1988 (1) AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
1989 (3) MONY Tournament of Champions, Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Canadian Open
1996 (1) U.S. Open
1997 (2) Phoenix Open, Bell Canadian Open
1998 (1) Quad City Classic

Major championship is shown in bold.

[edit] Results in major championships

Tournament	1987	1988	1989
The Masters	DNP	T30	T31
U.S. Open	DNP	DNP	T46
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	CUT
PGA Championship	T61	T9	T51

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
The Masters	T20	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	CUT	T26	CUT
U.S. Open	T8	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	1	T60	CUT	CUT
The Open Championship	T16	T64	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	CUT	T48	T57	DNP
PGA Championship	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	CUT	T41	DNP	CUT