It's unusual to say a double bogey was one of the keys to winning your national championship, but for Matt Jones that indeed was what happened down in beautifully sunny Sydney, Australia overnight.
Playing with his young friend, neighbour from Dallas and world #1 Jordan Spieth, Jones admitted he was nervous at the start of his round and it showed as he started bogey, double bogey, and having given up the 3 shot lead to the chasing pack it settled his nerves and as he said in his post round interviews, "I knew I still had lots of holes left to make birdies"
He did just that at the fourth and sixth, but then he gave it all away again at the ninth where his second hit top of a tree in front of him and dove into the water resulting in a triple bogey seven and suddenly he was tied for the lead with first Rod Pampling who had a remarkable career round of 61, then Adam Scott playing beautifully and ending with a 65, both players would finish before him at -7, so Jones playing in that final pair knew what he needed to do.
He ended up with what he called a 'sloppy"73 and there were many twists and turns on the back nine but the two keys for me came on the 12th where drove into the trees, punched out and put his 3rd into the greenside bunker, and promptly holed his 4th for par, a shot gained when Spieth made bogey.
Then the second came at the 16th where he hit a perfect 5 iron draw to 10 feet and made the birdie putt to get to -8.
He scrambled down the 17th for par after another wayward drive, and after Spieth added to a grandstand finish by getting on the par 5 18th in 2 with an eagle putt coming from just 15 feet, Jones almost hit his 3rd in the water but as the golfing gods would have it, it bounced onto the green 25 feet away from his name on the famous Stonehaven Cup
Jordan missed the eagle, Jones lagged up to 3 feet, then all the emotion was released as the winning putt just crept into the left side... "I was just lucky it caught the left lip and went in. I thought I'd missed it left but one of those things ... it just went in and I was very, very happy"
"To have my name on this trophy with like (Jack) Nicklaus, (Jack) Newton, Norman, all those guys, it’s a dream come true for me and it's something that I can’t have taken away from me.''
So it wasn't pretty but it was dramatic, Scott 65, Spieth 71 and Pampling 61 all finished a shot behind at -7 but it was the highlight of his career for Jones, who was born and learned to play in Sydney, in fact is a member at the Australian. He moved away for a golf scholarship in the States, became a pro, settled in Scottsdale and had to wait until he was 34 last year for his first win, the Houston Open which got him into the Masters but as I said this 100th playing of the Aussie Open is the big one.
He set off for a night of celebration surrounded by his friends, family including his lovely wife and two gorgeous little blonde haired daughters, and now forever by his heroes and peers as the champion golfer of Australia, with his name on the Stonehaven Cup to prove it.
Bryan Angus
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