Vale Peter Jones

CAROLYN Jones won’t ever forget the first time she met her future husband.

She was at school in Grafton (NSW) in the mid-1950s when ‘new boy’ Peter Jones turned up after his dad, a policeman, was transferred to the town.

“I first met Peter at school in Grafton,” Carolyn recalled. “When I was about 14 another girl said to me ‘there is a new boy over there, I wonder who he is’? 

“I told her I had seen him playing golf with my brother Peter (Langham).

“We were very young then and met again when we finished school and became an item.”

Sadly, Peter Jones passed away after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease and body dementia. He would have turned 80 on September 8.

“We were together for 58 years and if you count our engagement it was 60 years,” Carolyn said.

Born in Griffith (NSW), Peter’s family moved around a lot due to his father’s work.

“He often lived in police headquarters and I remember him saying he was often woken up by the drunks in the police cells,” Carolyn told Inside Golf.

“Peter’s parents played golf and he took up the game in his teens and later reduced his handicap to four.

“When Peter was 19 he was offered a job with Slazenger’s in Sydney and I followed him there. He played golf at St Michael’s Golf Club.

“After that we moved to Melbourne where he worked for other sporting companies including Grey Nicholls and Puma. He joined Kingston Heath and played pennant for the club.

“We spent 17 years in Melbourne and then we moved to the Gold Coast.

“He was the manager at Sporty’s Warehouse for a while and started his own business – Cougar Golf and Peter Jones Sports Marketing.”

He joined Burleigh Golf Club and later took up membership at The Grand Golf Club where he spent seven years as the club’s CEO.

Through his sports marketing company, Peter, along with teaching pro Gary Edwin, helped run the Daikyo Palm Meadows Cup in the late-1980s and early-1990s. He also was involved in running major women’s events at Paradise Palms Country Club at Cairns.

“He rejoined Burleigh Golf Club and played there for a couple of years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease,” Carolyn said. “He played there until about three years ago and spent the last two years of his life in care.”

Long before his illness, Peter and Carolyn sold the business to Drummond Golf and took off on golf adventures to America where they enjoyed playing golf at top courses including Palm Springs and Scottsdale in Arizona.

Peter is survived by his wife Carolyn, children Chris and Katie and four grandchildren.