A lecture from his caddy turns Spieth into a contender at the Emirates Australian Open

Emirates Australian Open leaderboard http://www.ausopengolf.com/scores

They are good friends, mates as they say in Australia, both live and practice together back home in Dallas, Texas and tomorrow they will be in the final pair playing for a lot more that a $100 Nassau.

Jordan Spieth, with a talking to by his caddie of the year Michael Greller after 3 bogey's in his first 4 holes burst into contention with three birdies and a spectacular eagle in his closing seven holes to shoot -4 67 -7 total, just 3 shots behind Aussie, Matt Jones who fired a second consecutive 68, -10 for the lead at his national championship, the Emirates Australian Open.

Jones at 35, only has one win in his pro career, the 2014 Houston Open that placed him at an all time high #41 in the world rankings. Spieth at 22 is of course the world #1, and remember he kicked off his player of the year 2015 season with a final round 63 here last year to get his name on the treasured Stonehaven Cup.

The supporting cast include Rhein Gibson (68) at -5, while Aron Price and first round leader Lincoln Tighe are at -4 after respective 70's.

Geoff Ogilvy is next at -3 (71), with Adam Scott (68), Brett Rumford (69), Darren Clarke (70) and Todd Sinnott (74) being the only others under par at -1 in very windy conditions.

As for the talking to by Greller, Spieth revealed afterwards that after another bogey at the 8th, "Michael did a great of setting the goal for me there,' he said, 'Right, let's get to even par for the day by the time we step on 18 tee box. That way we can shoot under par and move on'.

“He said, 'Enough of this crap. No bad self-talk. Let's hit some greens, you've got some easy holes coming up.That's all I really needed to hear to help turn it around.''

Turn it around he did, highlighted with a holed 8 iron from 170 yards for eagle 2 at 17, then a tap in birdie on 18 to set the stage for later today, Sunday in Australia as Jones tries to join Aussie greats like Greg Norman as their national champion, and his mate Spieth tries to defend.

I'll talk with you then..

Bryan Angus