When the clubs belonging to a player in a charity outing at the Fishers Island, N.Y. club went overboard after being transported by ferry to the property, Assistant Pro Oliver Jones put his new-found snorkeling skills to work and rescued them from 12 feet of murky water.
Oliver Jones, an Assistant Golf Professional at Fishers Island Club, Fishers Island, N.Y., recently took service to new levels—actually, depths—when he snorkeled in 12 feet of murky water in the Connecticut Sound to help rescue a player’s golf clubs that had gone overboard while being transported via ferry to the club.
Getting to Fishers Island requires a 45-minute ferry ride from the Connecticut mainland, or 25 minutes by private charter, and while clubs for players who were heading to the club for a charity outing were being loaded off a boat after making the trip, one player’s bag accidentally went into the water off the dock.
The bag was fished out with a fishing gaff and the player’s woods were pulled in after they floated back to the surface. But the putter and all of the irons quickly sank to the bottom after being tipped out of the bag.
And there weren’t a lot of options for providing the player with new clubs at that point, Jones says. “We only have one set of left-handed rentals and they’re Walter Hagen Shopko clubs that have been used one time—because everybody who comes to Fishers Island brings their own equipment, especially if they’re lefty,” he notes.
A native of Montana, Jones, 23, just learned to snorkel this past summer, because the house that he has been renting with other Fisher Island staffers is renting is right on the beach, and they’ve found spearfishing to be a fun way to pass the time. So when the club’s head pro, Dan Colvin, asked for volunteers who might want to dive in and try to find the other clubs, Jones was both willing and able.
Finding golf clubs in 12 feet of water was easier said than done, however.
“I put on my swimsuit, fins and snorkel and jumped in the water,” Jones says. “I looked straight down with the snorkel mask on and realized it was murky as could be from all the boat traffic. I couldn’t see anything.”
Plus, Jones adds, sand sharks like to frequent that area—they had caught a six-footer two weeks before—so he was a little wary. But he wasn’t willing to give up.
“I dove down and swam all the way to the bottom, and couldn’t see more than a foot in front of me,” he reports. “I wound up finding the divot tool , but no clubs. I brought that up, and we were kind of laughing at that point. So I went back down—swiped my arm around—and eventually hit some club shafts. I grabbed three or four clubs.
“After I brought those up, I asked, ‘How many clubs is he missing,’ and they didn’t know. So the next time, I moved a little closer to the dock—and about the fifth try, there they were, sitting up like flowers on the bottom, since the grips float. So I picked up all five of them and brought them to the surface.”
“I kind of figured I didn’t do anything that the other members of our staff wouldn’t have done,” Jones, who will be able to refine his snorkeling skills during his winter position at Kapalua Golf’s Plantation Course in Hawaii, says of his extra service effort. “I just was in the right place to be able to help somebody out.”
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