Matt Jones shot a three-under-par 68 on Friday to climb to the top of the leaderboard at the Australian Open. He was one of only 18 in the 156-player field to break par at The Australian Golf Club.
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And hometown favourite Adam Scott failed to record a single birdie in a score of 73 for a two over par tally, but remains inside the four over cut off mark.
Starting his defence on the back nine, Spieth reached two under by the turn but bogeys at four and nine, his closing hole, pegged him back.
He was followed by fellow Australian Matthew Jones, who shot a 67, as former Australian Open victor Geoff Ogilvy shared third place with Taiwan amateur Chun-An Yu and Australia’s Todd Sinnott – all scoring three under par 68s. “I’m more comfortable in this situation and knowing that if I don’t play well it’s not the end of the world”, he said.
The 35-year-old Australian has still not won in 2015 and had declared himself “fired up” to break the drought at the Australian Golf Club this week.
“It’s tough when you get told to hurry up and once we get to 13 Lee hits it over the tower and we get told, “you know what happened, but you still need to make up the time”, Spieth said.
“So I think I’ll get some rest”, he added.
Spieth and Scott will be joined by 1997 Australian Open champion Lee Westwood, 2011 British Open champion Darren Clarke and former Australian champions Geoff Ogilvy, John Senden and Greg Chalmers.
Spieth, however, says to count him in unless he’s injured or, by some miracle, the world’s top-ranked golfer fails to qualify.
“It’s not a team event in golf, I think unfortunately”, Spieth said. I just didn’t have the speed dialed in. I was actually two clubs off when thinking [the wind] was actually helping when it was hurting.
“I’ve been pretty open and outspoken that it’s not really a priority of my scheduling next year, which is based around the majors”.
After discussing Australian sports – including cricket- with the kids, Spieth appeared perplexed when asked what type of ball he uses.
“Even though I made some mistakes, I can come out and have a good front nine tomorrow and I will be right on the front foot again”, he said.
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Playing at a course he has been a longtime member of, Jones’ only blemishes came with an errant approach on the 17th hole which found a bunker and another bogey three holes later on the long par-three second.
