Matt Jones of Australia made a decisive birdie on the 16th hole and held on for a one-stroke victory over fellow Aussie Adam Scott and top-ranked Jordan Spieth in the 100th Australian Open at the Australian Golf Club in Sydney.
The 35-year-old Jones’ three-foot putt for par lipped into the 18th hole to complete a 2-over-par 73, as he overcame a triple-bogey 7 on the ninth hole and a double-bogey 5 on the second hole to claim his second professional victory with a bogey-free back nine..
“I got the job done, but there was a lot of stress and anxious moments,” said Jones, who also won the 2014 Shell Houston Open. “A lip-in putt on the last to get the win. That bunker shot on 12 was probably the biggest thing, because I knew I had some birdies left.
“I really didn’t help myself there on nine. But even after the early bogeys, I knew I had time to make it up. … I battled away today. I could have let it slip and let it get away easily, but I fought it out.”
Spieth, who won the tournament by six strokes last year when he closed with a 63, missed a long eagle putt on the final hole and finished at 71.
Playing alongside the winner in the final round, he said holing a bunker shot for par on the 12th hole was the turning point for Jones, who never fell out of the lead.
“I just told him that was one of the best-fought wins I’ve ever seen, to come through what he did on 2, 9 and then that par he made on 12,” Spieth said. “Twelve was by far the tipping point in the round.
“We’re the ones who had the most holes remaining so we control it, and for him to go back to whatever he was, one or two up on me at the time there, was really kind of a game-changer.”
Scott, who won the tournament in 2009, holed a 17-foot putt for par on the 17th hole and had a two-putt birdie on the last to close with a 65.
Rod Pampling of Australia holed a 60-foot eagle putt at No. 18 to cap a course-record 61, breaking Spieth’s mark set in the final round last year, and was two shots back in solo fourth.
Nick Cullen shot 68 and five shots back in a tie for fourth with fellow Aussie Lincoln Tighe, who had a 72.
Geoff Ogilvy of Australia, the 2006 U.S. Open champion who won his national title in 2010, tied for eighth after a 73, 1997 winner Lee Westwood tied for 18th with a 69, and amateur Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis and SMU wound up with a 72 and was in a tie for 30th that included Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, who came in with a 76.
