Matt Jones holds on to win Australian Open

Australian veteran Rod Pampling shot the round of his career on Sunday to break Jordan Spieth’s course record at The Australian Golf Club with a 10-under 61 during the final round of the Australian Open.

Matt Jones held on to win the Australian Open despite a nervy final round on Sunday, while Jordan Spieth never got going.

While the day ended well for Spieth, he first endured a rollercoaster front nine that included four bogeys – three of them in the first four holes – and three birdies.

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

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.

“The support of State Governments is critical with golf tournaments these days and you have to judge the quality of courses, whether the players are happy, will it attract the best, will it suit sponsors and is there the space. I should have had a couple more coffees maybe”.

Rhein Gibson (68) is five shots off the lead in outright third with Lincoln Tighe (70) and Aron Price (70) six back in equal fourth.

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.

Scott is winless this year and his streak of capturing at least one tournament every year since 2001 could end if he doesn’t win his final tournament of the year in early December – the Hero World Challenge at his home base of the Bahamas.

Pampling’s reward for the round of his life was qualification for next year’s Open as one of the top three finishers not already exempt.

It helped Spieth glide his way to an eventual round of 67, or four under par for a seven under par total.

“I felt nice and relaxed out there”, he told reporters.

“I’d like to think I could compete with those guys at the majors and I’ll take as much confidence as I can from this that I can go out and beat them”.

“And now I’m well in contention and in the last group, whether it’s three or four behind, it’s a lot better than I’d thought it would be after four holes”.