Australian Open: Second Round from The Australian Golf club

“Not really, I could have given him one though… getting wet on the 14th”, he said, referring to his club selection on the hole, obviously suggested by Williams.

Major victor Adam Scott (68) is nine shots off the lead.

Defending champion Jordan Spieth will head into the final round of the Australian Open three shots behind leader Matt Jones after fighting back from a poor start for a four-under-par 67 on Saturday.

Five birdies and two bogeys kept Spieth in touch with Jones who had set the clubhouse target earlier in the day.

“I made a couple of bad swings and a couple of bad decisions”, said Spieth.

Spieth’s strong finish left him closer than he had expected to be after that nightmare start, though he admitted he had been hoping for more after the eagle-birdie finish, only to see Jones pick up shots on the last two holes as well.

Scott said there had been some relief when the 197-yard iron shot landed on the green and stayed there, rather than spin off into the water lurking on the right side of the hole.

“After yesterday’s round I probably had a little bit of confidence the way I struck the ball and went out there with that confidence today and managed to shoot three under”, Jones said. But today was one of the great fightbacks I’ve had.

Asked if he’d practice in the afternoon, he replied: “No, I’ve played plenty of golf, I’ll just go home”.

The 35-year-old Aussie traded six birdies with three bogeys and is desperate his hands on the trophy.

Now the 22-year-old Masters and US Open champion will be favoured to kick on after he won last year’s championship with a course-record final round of 63.

Adam Scott, who like defending champion Jordan Spieth opened with a 71, failed to take advantage of the easier conditions, shooting 73 to move further down the leaderboard.

Behind him on the golf course, however, Jones was producing his own heroics, holing a lengthy putt from off the green at the 17th then finishing with a birdie at the last to extend his lead over Spieth to three. “Of course we play golf for a living and to have the chance to win is what you want, and to go up against the number 1 in the world is better still”.

“I don’t know if it will be good enough, but I think that I’ll peak tomorrow”. “Just going out there, teeing off under par, it’s always a good feeling but the difference between 5 or 6, or 7 and 8 shots is so huge”.