Spieth wins playoff to claim 2nd Aussie Open

If the left-to-right putt from 12 foot for a fourth birdie in a row at the ninth hole showed his confidence on the greens, the approach shot which left him with a two-footer for his eighth birdie at the 18th was the ideal way to finish.

Following a three-under 69, Speith joined the Australian clubhouse leaders Ashley Hall and Cameron Smith, who both shot final round 66s. “I had a chance previous year on 18 and didn’t hit a great putt and this time I had that same chance with a very similar putt in the play off and capitalised, so drew back a little on that and said, this is our time to close this one out”.

“I hit the ball nicely yesterday but it wasn’t quite as sharp as it was a couple of weeks ago and it gets exposed on a day like this”.

“Playing in The Open at St Andrews last year and the Olympics this year, granted I wasn’t in this position, hopefully I can draw from those experiences and be nice and relaxed and go out and have some fun tomorrow”, 29-year-old Fox said.

Scott mixed four birdies with three bogeys and was upbeat after his 71 despite missing a short birdie putt on the final green.

So after returning to Sydney for a third straight year despite cutting back his 2016, Spieth has every intention of coming back to defend his crown when the Open moves back to The Australian, the scene of Spieth’s first triumph in 2014.

Fox said early on he found it tough to come to terms with the crowd following Spieth around the course, but come the back nine he was on song. “But then hit some good shots coming in”.

Australia’s Jason Scrivener (69) finished at 278 in a tie for fourth with compatriots Rod Pampling (70), Aaron Baddeley (71), Geoff Ogilvy (72) and New Zealander Ryan Fox (71).

Ogilvy – who carried a two-shot lead into the final round – led for most of the day and was spurred on by a chip-in eagle at the par-five seventh. With the fireworks we saw from Ogilvy, Spieth will likely have to go lower than that for the win on Sunday.

The 34-year-old Nitties couldn’t even make the cut at the NSW Open last week, but picked up seven shots on a scintillating second nine on Friday to soar to nine-under for the tournament and a one-shot lead from Fox (-8).

Spieth will be hoping his second Australian Open title will prove as much of a springboard as his first.

“I drove it through the middle pretty average [all day], but I got away with a little bit, putted pretty well and some of them dropped so to birdie the last and be in the lead is a pretty good feeling”.

As such, this column will act as a means to recap everything that you might have missed from us on the previous day, but also more importantly to share with you some of the work from around the internet that is worth your attention as a fan of the game. At one point, the Victorian had carded six birdies, without a single blemish, and was on track to record the best round of the week however that slowed with a bogey on 14.

“I think a lot can be drawn back on 2014 into 15. As soon as I hit it, I thought, it’ll be right, it’ll be on the left edge and it’s kind of where you want to be there”. “I’m going to take that going forward”.