Australian Open: Jordan Spieth three off the lead in Sydney

“It would be fantastic if I won the Australian Open and it’s something I have thought about growing up and watching the likes of my boyhood hero Greg Norman winning this event”, said Jones.

Spieth drained an eight-foot downhill putt on the 11th to also move to six-under and Scott, ahead on the 14th, joined him to make it a four-way tie for the lead.

Pampling recorded a new course record score of 61 – ten under par – on the final day and ultimately finished the tournament on -6, just two strokes short of a win despite having come into the final round at four over par. On the closing half, the Sutherland shire product birdied the par-5 14th, before bagging birdies on the par-4 17th and par-5 closing hole.

At the Australian Open alone, a pair of horror bogeys in the first round meant he needed four birdies on the back nine to salvage par and he made the cut despite a second round in which he failed to once beat par. “Twelve was by far the tipping point in the round”.

Meanwhile, Scott produced an aggressive round of six-under as he rallied from nine shots behind at the start of the day to finish second.

On Saturday, he was three-over through four holes and shot the day’s best round, a 67, “one of the best-fought rounds that I’ve had that I can remember”, he said. The 36-year-old former world number one is trying to avoid finishing winless for the first season in his professional career.

Lee Westwood closed with a 69 and finished at 2 over, 10 strokes back.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke is nine shots off the pace on a a card of 70.

The Texan, whose success has been so recent that he has only previously defended one title, hit a course record 63 to win the tournament past year but said he would be putting memories of that brilliant round to the back of his mind on Sunday.

Cullen tied with fellow Australian Lincoln Tighe, but secured the qualifying place thanks to his higher position in the Official World Golf Ranking – 379 to 1,022.

“But playing this golf course, the front 9 is the tough 9 for me”.

It was a respectable performance after a two-week layoff, “the longest time by a week that I’ve taken off since I was probably 12 or 13 years old”, he said.

“I did it at The Australian Open so why can’t I go and do it at the British Open”.