Matt Jones retains a three-stroke advantage midway through his third round of the Australian Open in Sydney. Australia’s Tighe, with seven birdies and two bogeys, had a one-stroke lead after his 66, one of only 18 in the 156-player field who broke par at The Australian Golf Club.
Advertisement
Local boy Matt Jones is relishing a final-round duel for the Stonehaven Cup with world No. 1 and defending champion Jordan Spieth after retaining control of the Australian Open.
Adam Scott of Australia bows his head after missing a short putt on the 10th green during the Austra …
Texas-born Spieth was tied 19th place on the first day after he recorded three birdies and an equal number of bogeys in a level par 71 on the Australian Club course.
Spieth went to two under par with a birdie at his fifth hole, however, he ended up dropping a shot at the next one, then went to two under par with a birdie on his ninth hole.
The top-ranked Spieth won past year at the course.
“I just misjudged the pace of the greens for most of the day”, Scott said.
“Just competing in the Olympics, just walking the opening ceremony, staying in the village and doing whatever it is, meeting these incredible athletes from around the world, hopefully that’s something I’ll be able to experience next August”, said Spieth, who moved on from his Australian victory a year ago to win consecutive majors at the Masters and U.S. Open. We got less than 50 percent of it right today which is frustrating, because I really was striking the ball well.
Ogilvy, who started on the 10th, recovered nicely from a bogey on the 17th and a double-bogey on the par-5 18th, both times from unlucky bounces off trees.
Spieth found conditions challenging, and said: “We played a lot of those holes in side winds”.
Spieth settled down initially on the back nine and had two birdies on 12 and 14 with a 10-foot par save on the 13th. “Even if I up-and-down it, starting tomorrow at one over, unless they come back, I’m pretty much done”.
Advertisement
“There were really only one or two bad swings the entire day; yesterday I was full of them and today I really only had a couple, which is nice and part of that’s the 30 mile an hour breeze yesterday and less today but it’s nearly there and it feels really good”, he said.
