Local Jones holds off Spieth, Scott to win Australian Open

Jordan Spieth posted the best score of the day on Saturday at the Australian Open, a 5-under 67 that left him in solo second place, three shots behind the leader – his good buddy and frequent practice partner Matt Jones.

Matt Jones captured the Australian Open on home soil after narrowly beating world number one Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott.

Ogilvy hooked a drive into the pines and Spieth was down the middle but from there he hit an very bad iron shot that barely scrapped it’s way into the front bunker.

Rhein Gibson is five shots behind Jones following his 68, while Lincoln Tighe (70) and Aron Price (70) are a stroke further back.

Jones had endured a hard round that included four birdies, a triple bogey, a double bogey and a bogey.

His birdie on the par-4 17th put him at 8 under, level with Spieth’s record, and then the 46-year-old Australian made a 60-foot eagle putt on the 18th to break the mark.

It was perhaps appropriate that a local should win the 100th edition of the Australian Open and few were more local than Jones, who has been a member of the host Australian Golf Club since he was 15.

Adam Scott eagled the last hole of his third round to give himself a glimmer of hope of winning the Stonehaven Cup for the second time.

“I knew I’ve been playing well, but I couldn’t get anything going earlier in the tournament”, Pampling said.

The leading New Zealander is Daniel Pearce on one-under after shooting 69, putting him two strokes ahead of compatriot Ryan Fox.

Spieth went to two under par with a birdie at his fifth hole, however, he ended up dropping a shot at the next one, then went to two under par with a birdie on his ninth hole.

“So boy, it was a round that could have been and that made it so frustrating as I found myself finally getting into a nice rhythm as I was hitting fairways and giving myself opportunities but I just couldn’t quite gauge the wind”.

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

“I thought that it would all be there today and I just didn’t start out strong enough”, said the U.S. Open and Masters champion.

“So to completely rebound with that birdie on five was key as that settled me down so much as it was fantastic golf from there on”.