Date: November 29, 2015
Author: Martin Blake

The near miss: Spieth and Scott regrets

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Jordan Spieth had his chances, right to the bitter end. At the 72nd hole he had a five-metre eagle putt that could have won, or extended, the Emirates Australian Open. He read it to break right; instead it went left on the wind, and missed, leaving Matt Jones to make par from just outside a metre and win. It summarised his day, for the world No. 1 could only manage a 71, even-par, when so many expected better.

Adam Scott was coming from the clouds. Starting out the final round nine shots back from Matt Jones' lead, he knew that he needed to go low. He managed a 65, and held the clubhouse lead for a while. Until Jones' wonky par putt at the 72nd hole closed the door, Scott was in the hunt for a playoff. Scott, the world No. 12, and Spieth, the world No. 1, tied for second at The Australian in a heavily laden leaderboard.

Spieth struggled from the outset when most had expected him to make a bold run, as he did in 2014. He immediately dropped shots at the first and second holes and another at the sixth. "On the weekend youd like to start off your rounds and be able to gain some momentum and I just didnt get anything at the beginning,'' he said. "I hit two greens on the front nine and probably less than nine on the day and still had a chance at the end.''

Jones' issues kept Spieth in the race and at the 18th, an eagle might have done it. A nice drive helped, and with 200 metres to the flag, he went for it. Off the club, he thought it was in the water. The wind blew it back and it ran up to five metres from the flag. "I was trying to hit a high fade kind of let the wind snag it, so when you hit it at the ball sometimes, it actually kind of knuckles through the wind. So it was a really lucky break and had I made that and Matt missed his…''

Spieth and Jones interacted all day, like a couple of pros who play for money sometimes, as they do. " I would have been pretty excited to be in the play off with him, it would have just added to it,'' said Spieth"The crowds were unbelievable this week, much bigger than last year, which was fun, but yeah, for Matt to get it, it's well deserved.  He played the best golf this week.''

As for Scott, he did all that he could. "Yeah it was good stuff this weekend,'' he said. "I've needed a bit of help to get in this position where you have the nerves jangling the last few holes but it was good stuff out there today and I posted a number.''