Jones will make his senior tour debut at the Cologuard Classic just two days after turning 50 having earned a 2025 card at Qualifying School in December.

As torturous as that final day in Arizona may have been, it has provided arguably Australian golf’s most under-rated career with a second shot to make it in America.

Jones had won three of his 15 career Japan Golf Tour titles when he played the then Nationwide Tour in 2004, winning the LaSalle Bank Open on his way to a sixth-place finish on the moneylist.

That secured status on the PGA TOUR for the 2005 season, where Jones admits he lost sight of what had got him there in the first place.

“My game was pretty good then, but I did everything wrong,” said Jones, who finished tied second at the BC Open that season but narrowly missed out on retaining his card.

“I was an absolute novice, a rookie that just thought that you had to do things differently now that you’d made the PGA TOUR.

“I’ve had a lot of years to think about my performances in 2005, 2006. I could have extended my time in the US for who knows how long if I had have just done it my way that I’d done to that point.

“When I got there, I was practising more, I was playing more, and I was just burnt out by May. I was thinking, Well, I can’t take time off because I’m sliding down the moneylist each week. I’ve just got to keep working at it. And for me, that’s not the way I’ve played my best golf.

“If I could go back, I’d change a lot of things about the way I approached it, but going over there now, I’m more experienced.”

As the latest Aussie to join the PGA TOUR Champions, Jones not only brings experience but relative youth to the over-50s circuit.

Although plagued by injuries the past decade, Jones is in the type of physical shape that would be the envy of most 50-year-olds.

He knows that two decades on, his best chance of tasting success in the US against some of the greats of the game may come in his rookie year.

“The Japan Seniors is always a fallback for me but I just thought now’s the time to do something that I probably didn’t see myself doing,” Jones admitted.

“I never had this real desire to play there, but now that I’m 50 and, if I played well, it was an option and now it’s come to fruition.

“It’s exciting again. Getting beat up by these young kids on tour, it’s not a lot of fun when you’ve been one of those guys beating up on the young kids.

“I’m going to be playing with the guys that I watched on TV growing up, which is going to be pretty cool. But also at the same time, I’m a fresh 50 and raring to go.

“These guys have been doing it for years and years and years so it’s going to be fun, The people that I’ve spoken to have said it’s such a fun tour to play.”

Jones is one of 11 Aussies in the field for the Cologuard Classic while we have a four-pronged attack teeing it up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The Ripper GC boys are back in action at LIV Golf Hong Kong and Minjee Lee will seek to continue her good form at the Blue Bay LPGA in China.

Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Round 1 tee times AEDT

PGA TOUR
Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard
Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Florida
11:50pm          Min Woo Lee
12:40am          Jason Day
1:35am            Cam Davis
3:35am            Adam Scott

Recent champion: Scottie Scheffler
Past Aussie winners: Rod Pampling (2006), Marc Leishman (2016), Jason Day (2017)
Prize money: $US20m
TV times: Live 11:30pm-10am Thursday, Friday; Live 12am-10am Sunday; Live 11pm-9am Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

Puerto Rico Open
Grand Reserve Golf Club, Rio Grande, Peurto Rico
10:40pm          Aaron Baddeley
11:24pm          Karl Vilips

Recent champion: Brice Garnett
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US4m
TV times: Live 2am-5am Friday, Saturday on Fox Sports 507; Live 6:30am-9am Sunday; Live 5:30am-8am Monday on Fox Sports 505 and Kayo.

LPGA Tour
Blue Bay LPGA
Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course, Hainan Island, China
10:48am          Cassie Porter
10:48am*         Fiona Xu (NZ)
11:43am*         Minjee Lee
3:07pm            Karis Davidson
3:51pm            Hira Naveed

Recent champion: Bailey Tardy
Past Aussie winners: Minjee Lee (2016)
Prize money: $US2.5m
TV times: Live 3pm-8pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

DP World Tour
Joburg Open
Houghton GC, Johannesburg, South Africa
3:50pm            Danny List
5:30pm*          Kazuma Kobori (NZ)

Recent champion: Dean Burmester
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: ZAR20.5m
TV times: Live 10pm-3am Thursday, Friday; Live 9:30pm-2am Saturday; Live 8:30pm-1:30am Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

LIV Golf
LIV Golf Hong Kong
Hong Kong Golf Club, Fanling, Hong Kong
Australasians in the field: Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones, Ben Campbell (NZ), Danny Lee (NZ)

Recent champion: Abraham Ancer
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US20m
TV times: Live from 5pm AEDT Friday, Saturday, Sunday on 7 Plus.

PGA TOUR Champions
Cologuard Classic
La Paloma Country Club, Tucson, Arizona
Australasians in the field: Steven Alker (NZ), Steve Allan, Stuart Appleby, David Bransdon, Greg Chalmers, Mathew Goggin, Richard Green, Mark Hensby, Brendan Jones, Rod Pampling, Cameron Percy, Michael Wright.

Recent champion: Joe Durant
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US2.2m
TV times: 6pm-7:30pm Saturday; Live 9am-11am Sunday; Live 8am-11am Monday on Fox Sports 505 and Kayo.

Korn Ferry Tour
Astara Chile Classic presented by Scotiabank
Prince of Wales Country Club, Santiago, Chile
9:55pm*          Rhein Gibson
3:52am            Harry Hillier (NZ)

Recent champion: Taylor Dickson
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US1m

Epson Tour
Atlantic Beach Classic
Atlantic Beach Country Club, Atlantic Beach, Florida
11:52pm*         Robyn Choi
4:16am*           Su Oh
5:44am*           Caitlin Peirce

Recent champion: Briana Chacon
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Prize money: $US250,000