Jones boy the man to beat at Aussie Open

But as you would expect from the world number one and defending champion, he came home strongly with three birdies and a bogey to fall short by a shot.

But Jones, a lifelong member of The Australian Golf Club, finished with his own flurry with back-to-back birdies in a 68 to surge to 10 under.

After Tighe came in from the course another Australian player, Matthew Jones, who shot a 67 at second, and a previous Australian Open victor, Geoff Ogilvy, was tied for third place in the tourney with Taiwan amateur Chun-An Yu and Australia’s Todd Sinnott.

Scott, who had difficulty reading the pace of the slower greens due to early-morning rain, shot 73 and was at 2-over, two better than the 4-over cut total, but nine strokes out of the lead.

“I thought that it would all be there today and I just didn’t start out strong enough”, said the US Open and Masters champion, who now heads to his second tournament defence in succession and Thursday’s Tiger Woods-hosted Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

The Australian was three over for his round after two holes, a bogey on the first immediately followed by a double at the first par three.

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

Spieth’s start wasn’t much better than Jones with bogey-bogey and another at the sixth, turning in two-over. He also missed makeable birdie putts on the 12 and 14th holes to make the turn in 1-over 37.

But he enjoyed every minute of his one-day stay – he poured in nine birdies and one eagle – to eclipse the “old” record (set by Jordan Spieth last year) by two shots.

He added: “I had a lot of shots right at the pin, like at nine and 10, and in the middle of the round I could have got something going, but managed to save myself when I got it wrong”.

“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.

The 35-year-old Scott still has a chance for a tournament win if he doesn’t do something special on the weekend in Sydney.

Like last year, when he birdied five of the last six holes to finish tied for second, his extraordinary late charge this year (he finished 4th) has allowed him to again claim one of the three spots available for next year’s British Open.