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NewsDay

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De Jonge falls short

Sport
TOP Zimbabwean golfer Brendon de Jonge failed to build on a strong start to finish outside the top 30 at the Australian Open at The Australian golf club in Sydney at the weekend.

TOP Zimbabwean golfer Brendon de Jonge failed to build on a strong start to finish outside the top 30 at the Australian Open at The Australian golf club in Sydney at the weekend.

The 34-year-old who was the only African in the field carded a 69-75- 73- 74 for an over par 7 to finish tied 38, a massive 20 shots behind eventual winner Jordan Spieth.

Only eight players finished the tournament under par.

It was a poor finish for de Jonge who had an impressive first round in the challenging and windy conditions of the revamped Jack Nicklaus-designed layout which was being played as a par 71 for the first time.

At 2 under at the end of Day One, the burly golfer slipped down to 2 over 75 after a horrible bogey littered second round. He dropped seven shots in that forgettable round, against just three birdies.

There was a slight improvement in the next round when he dropped just five shots which he almost compensated with an eagle and a birdie.

Four bogeys after the turn in the last round summed up de Jonge’s performance at the tournament as he slipped down the leaderboard.

It was rising American star Spieth who dominated to win the tournament by six shots and leave world number one Rory McIlroy and third-ranked Adam Scott floundering in his wake on the final day on Sunday.

Spieth carded a sizzling new course record of eight-under par 63 to finish the A$1,25 million One Asia co-sanctioned tournament at 13-under 271.

It was 21-year-old Texan’s second tournament win after last year’s John Deere Classic in Illinois. Spieth was runner-up at the Masters last April behind fellow American Bubba Watson, just missing out on being the first Masters rookie to win since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

The Australian Open is the first qualifying tournament for the 2015 Open Championship and offers three spots to the top finishers not already exempt.

Selected final scores

271 — Jordan Spieth (USA) 67-72-69-63 277 — Rod Pampling 73-67-69-68 278 — Brett Rumford 70-69-69-70 279 — Greg Chalmers 71-66-71-71 280 — Adam Scott 74-66-69-71 281 — Jake Higginbottom 71-69-72-69 283 — Robert Allenby 71-69-73-70, Ryan Fox (NZL) 72-72-69-70 284 — Daniel Nisbet 74-72-67-71 285 — Nathan Holman 73-72-73-67, Sung-Hoon Kang (KOR) 73-70-72-70, Aaron Townsend 73-70-71-71, Josh Younger 71-72-70-72, Aron Price 68-75-69-73 286 — Stephen Dartnall 72-71-74-69, Stephen Allan 75-71-70-70, Steven Bowditch 70-74-71-71, Rory McIlroy (NIR) 69-69-76-72, Richard Green 69-71-74-72, Boo Weekley (USA) 72-71-71-72, Alistair Presnell 74-72-68-72, David Bransdon 72-70-71-73 287 — Conrad Shindler (USA) 70-68-81-68 289 — Patrick Rodgers (USA) 70-74-77-68, Jin-ho Choi (KOR) 74-68-75-72 290 — Joon-woo Choi (KOR) 72-71-73-74 291 — Brendon De Jonge (ZIM) 69-75-73-74