Matt Jones in dilemma over Open defence or US Tour card

Australian Open champion Matt Jones is weighing up whether to sacrifice his defence of the Stonehaven Cup.

Australian Open champion Matt Jones needs more points on the US Tour to retain his full playing card.

Australian Open champion Matt Jones is weighing up whether to sacrifice his defence of the Stonehaven Cup in order to save his place on the US PGA Tour.

Jones’s coach, Gary Barter, who has just returned from a trip to the US to work with Jones and PGA Tour rookie Brett Drewitt, confirmed that the Open cham­pion was planning to play the RSM Classic in Sea Island, ­Georgia in mid-­November, which clashes directly with the national championship at Royal Sydney.

But those plans could change if Jones returns some good results over the next month, although his Open defence appears in jeopardy as he looks to cement his place on the world’s most lucrative tour.

Jones is only guaranteed 10 to 15 starts in the US this season after finishing last season in 126th place on the FedEx Cup list. Only the top 125 are guaranteed full status.

He finished an agonising $5168 behind 125th, a shortfall that now threatens his defence of the Stonehaven Cup as he looks to ­secure his future in the US.

Jones’s absence would be another blow to Open organisers after the earlier withdrawal of world No 1 Jason Day, who pulled out of the tournament after suffering a back problem in the latter stages of the US PGA Tour.

Jones held off former world No 1s Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott to win his maiden Open on a dramatic final day at The Aust­ralian Golf Club last year.

Scott and Spieth are expected to figure prominently again this year in a field that promises to be strengthened by additions from the World Cup, played the week after the Open.

World No 11 Rickie Fowler has been earmarked as a potential ­replacement for Day — he will be part of the US team playing in the World Cup at Kingston Heath, which also features world No 17 Jimmy Walker.

Barter made it clear Jones’s ­desire was to defend his title and he had not officially withdrawn from the Open field. However, ­results over coming weeks are set to prove decisive as the 36-year-old Sydneysider attempts to make some early ground on the US PGA Tour. He will play the Sanderson Farms Championship this weekend before backing up in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas in early November.

Should he record good results at those events, he may yet return to Sydney to defend his title. Otherwise, he will be forced to remain in the US as he desperately attempts to improve his status before the big guns return to the Tour en masse early next year.

Golf Australia recently announced six former winners would take their place in the field for the Open led by two-time champion Aaron Baddeley and another player to have won at Royal ­Sydney, John Senden.

Greg Chalmers, Geoff Ogilvy, Stephen Allan and Robert Allenby will also be in the field along with Scott and Spieth. Ogilvy was in danger of losing his playing rights on the US PGA Tour after a difficult year culminated in him being forced to use his one-time career prizemoney exemption to retain his status.

Allenby has been forced to go cap-in-hand to tournament promoters in the hope of getting a start, having already used his ­career prizemoney exemption.