SYDNEY, Australia -- The sunshine warmed everything it touched on Friday, except Jordan Spieth's putter. His magic wand was as cold as ice in the second round of the Australian Open.
In glorious conditions with no wind to speak of he struck the ball well from tee to green but had 33 putts in an even par 71 to leave himself a long way off the pace in his title defence at one-under. "It just was a bad day with the flat stick, it happens," Spieth said post-round.
He was particularly frustrated after working diligently during his time off to improve his putting from four to 15 feet.
"It's been a work in progress this off season to improve," Spieth said.
"It's a bit disappointing because that's mainly what I've been spending my time on. But I started to gather a nice comfort level towards the end of the round and really put some nice strokes on it on the (second) nine; even putts that didn't go in were just misread, once I started to really get assertive.
"I was a little tentative to start. The greens were slower than I thought and I left everything just a foot or so short. If I'd made one of those earlier, it could have been a completely different story today."
Starting on the 10th he had good looks for birdie at 10, 11 and 12, and had a close-range eagle putt on 14 but missed and had to settle for a two-putt birdie. His irritation levels rose substantially on 18 when he missed another birdie chance from inside 10 feet. He then two-putted seven straight holes on his second nine before finally getting one to drop on his last hole of the day.
He was left treading water as his playing partners went past him. Matt Jones made six birdies in his first 12 holes before giving two back on the run home to card a 67 and get to four-under for the tournament. Cameron Smith overcame a horrific double bogey on his first hole of the day to sign for a 69 and also get to four-under.
Young Australian Lucas Herbert shot 67-66 on Spieth's side of the draw to get to nine-under. But Spieth believes he is still in the hunt.
"I'm going to look to make a putt early in the round tomorrow and maybe jump start a weekend like two years ago or three years ago," Spieth said.
"I feel like you can make up more ground and come from behind here over I think any tournament I've played this entire year.
"Just given the golf course will start to bake out and you get really calm conditions in the morning that leave the windier conditions for the afternoon. So I'll have a pretty gettable golf course I imagine in the morning tomorrow with the guys really having to watch themselves in the afternoon and if I can post something like five, six-under, then I'm very much in this tournament."
Spieth has great memories of weekend charges in this tournament at this golf course.
In 2014, he shot a breath-taking 63 on the final day to win by six strokes. In 2015, he gave Jones a four-shot head start after 36 holes and fell just one shy of forcing a playoff.
But he needs a hot putter to be any chance.