Jones maintains lead at Australian Open, Spieth Three behind

Jones recovered with two birdies but a triple-bogey seven on the ninth left him with work to do on the back nine.

The Sydney-born player regrouped to post a final round two-over-par 73 and claim the honours with an eight-under-par 276 total.

Overnight leader Jones watched Spieth’s eagle shot from the 16th tee and responded by birdying his final two holes to card a three-under-par 68, moving to 10-under for the tournament and finishing three strokes clear of his American rival.

MALELANE, South Africa (AP) – South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel shot a 5-under 67 to open a five-stroke lead in the European Tour’s season-opening Alfred Dunhill Championship.

Amazingly, he never fell out of the lead, or a share of the lead, all day.

“I’ll have to have them yell during Jordan’s backswing or something”, Jones said.

Pampling and Scott were quick to take advantage.

After a bogey-free outward 32, Spieth made birdies on the back-nine par 5s, Nos.

Spieth was impressed with Jones’ resilience.

“It’s one Major I would love to win, it’s one Major that I think suits my golf game the best”.

“Twelve was by far the tipping point in the round”.

“I was in position at the start of the day to make a bit of a move but then I became lazy in my decision-making as you saw with those early bogeys”.

The former world number one ended his round at one under for the championship and six shots behind Jones. He’s tied for seventh, nine strokes behind, as is Darren Clarke, who shot 70.

But Spieth missed a long eagle putt on the final hole that would have forced a playoff.

For the preceding three hours, Pampling sat in the clubhouse as the new leader of the tournament, probably still blinking in surprise as to how he had just managed to smash the course record of the fairways in front of him.

VETERAN Rod Pampling had to explain to his three young kids why daddy was late home on Sunday after a jaw-dropping career round of 61 catapulted him from nowhere into Australian Open contention.

“So I am going to give it everything I can as I would love to have my name on that trophy alongside the likes of (Jack) Nicklaus, Norman and it would be awesome”.

“I had it at the PGA but I battled away today all day, which is fantastic the way I did”.