Australian Matt Jones became the 2015 Emirates Australian Open champion in Sydney at The Australian Golf Club. The 35 year old achieved his biggest tournament triumph at the club where he played pennant golf whilst a teenager.
An under-rated player on the US PGA Tour for a many years, won by a single shot from the world No.1 Jordan Spieth and the world No.12 Adam Scott when he made par up the 18th, holing a putt from just more than a metre to get his hands on the prized Stonehaven Cup.
Jones struggled to a final-round 73, two-over par, after starting the final day with a three-shot lead. But it was enough to post an eight-under-par total and win the $225,000 first prize.
Spieth missed a putt for eagle at the final hole that would have forced a playoff, leaving Jones to complete his par and mimic his idol, Greg Norman, in winning his national Open.
"It's amazing,'' Jones said.
"It's something I would have thought about from when I was six when I first met him. I tried not to think about it this week because I knew, as you saw today, anything can happen on a golf course. You can be one swing away from doing what I did and having no chance to win.
"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.''
Jones grew up in Oyster Bay in Sydney's southern suburbs and graduated from The Australian Golf Club's pennant team, leaving Australia more than a decade ago to take up a golf scholarship in the US, then turning professional. His win at Houston on the PGA Tour last year was his first and the only professional victory before today.
It was a remarkable final day, not least for the stunning, 10-under par 61 by Rod Pampling that smashed Spieth's course record from last year and at one point, threatened to win the tournament for the Queenslander.
Scott closed with a 65 that gave him a chance, and until Jones' final putt, he had a chance of making a playoff.
Jones' final putt was tricky. It lipped in, from the left. "It's not the most comfortable putt,'' he said later. "I would've much preferred to leave it to a tap-in or gimme distance, but I was expecting Jordan to make that. I've played enough rounds of golf with him where he makes those putts. He didn't putt well today. I thought he was due to make one and he didn't. 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.''
For final scores, go to www.ausopengolf.com/scores
golf.org.au