Ogilvy crushed as fruit of his labours squeezed dry

The Australian Open’s final round had a bit of everything, including a crushed Pineapple and an imploding former champion.

In the morning and early into the afternoon a pineapple was making a prickly push up the leaderboard at the Australian Open.

After a hurried review of tournament history it was decided this was the first recorded time a piece of fruit had been prominent in the country’s national title.

Jack Wilson is called Pineapple by his colleagues. A professional since 2011 and a former Victorian amateur champion he wears a beard and appears to have grown a pineapple through his cap.

After his 12th hole he was five-under for the day and nine-under for the Open. Had his swing not gone pear-shaped he might have set a reasonable clubhouse score.

By this stage American Jordan Spieth had birdied the first two holes and momentarily joined Geoff Ogilvy in the lead.

After missing birdies on the timid two opening holes, Ogilvy made a mess of the third. The overnight leader unbelievably hit from one greenside bunker to another on the flip of a par-three. He dropped just one shot but fell out of the lead.

It was a bad technical error. He appeared to try and lift the ball from the sand — one commentator noted he stood up through the swing — and soon enough the top of the leaderboard was concertinaed.

Nonetheless it was a fruit salad sort of day. It had a bit of everything. Ashley Hall, 33, picked up four birdies on the front nine to be 10-under. He joined Aaron Baddeley who had birdied his second hole. After his first 14 holes Jhonattan Vegas added six birdies to his overnight score of four-under and he, too, sat at 10-under. And thereabouts was young Queensland professional Cam Smith, who had turned at nine-under.

New Zealander Ryan Fox joined the lead at 11-under after back-to-back birdies on the 4th and 5th holes only to drop a shot at the next.

So Spieth, who had parred his way from the 3rd to the 8th, had a fight on his hands that he might not have expected.

And then it happened. Ogilvy ran a chip into the hole on the par-five 7th. Up the fringe, onto the green and into the hole. Eagle. Two-shot lead again. On the hole ahead Spieth missed a two metre putt and thus bogeyed. Without a hint of forewarning Ogilvy was three in front of Spieth and two in front of Baddeley and Fox.

Then Ogilvy consolidated the move, driving just short of the green on the short par-four 8th, chipped up to just over a metre and sank the putt. Ogilvy was three in front and what had appeared anyone’s 20 minutes earlier was now decidedly Ogilvy’s.

As for Pineapple, he bogeyed three of his last five and was, well, crushed.

On the 9th Ogilvy went left off the tee. Chipping out sideways he scrambled a bogey. On the 10th Spieth got lost in the woods and bogeyed. It appeared Ogilvy was managing all challengers.

And then it happened. Ogilvy pushed his drive into the trees lining the right side of the fairway on the par-five 16th. He couldn’t get clear of the trees with his second. His fourth landed in the left greenside bunker and he could not get up and down in two. Such a calamity came too late in his round to haul back Hall and Smith, who were 12-under and their cards handed in.

Spieth birdied the 16th and got to 12-under and he protected that to ensure he at least had a chance in a playoff. Which he won with panache, confidently standing over a four metre putt like a man who can read the future. Plop. He hopes to return next year to defend his second Australian Open win.

For Ogilvy the round was frustrating. Like trying to put something together when you have the plans right in front of you but something still doesn’t fit.

“I don’t know if you can tell when you watch, but you can feel it. It was harder work today than it was, than it has been the last month or two. That bizarre tee shot on 9 (veered violently right) into the trees, I haven’t hit one of them for years. It was just, I don’t know, brain fade or something and that kind of threw me for a loop.

“That bunker on 10, 90 per cent of that bunker you can hit it on the green, but I was on the one little bit that you couldn’t,” he said after the round.

The 16th he said was a disaster. “You can hit 10 balls in there, two are dead, five are all right and two you can probably nail it right up near the green and still make birdie, and it’s not a damage, and I got one of the two that were dead. So, that’s the way it goes,” Ogilvy said.

Hall, Smith and Baddeley have all won places in the British Open field through the weekend’s event. But it has done more than that. This Open confirmed Baddeley’s game is recuperating from years of tinkering and tampering. God, he deserves that.

Ogilvy was once one of the very best golfers on the planet — got as low No 3 in the world — and he has found a way back. He still needs a satnav sometimes but you fancy he will be awesome again. And Smith just proves both the quality and depth of our young players.

Our top amateur Curtis Luck held on for a share of 11th, finishing on seven-under-par with dogged skill. And Min Woo Lee, the younger brother of Australia’s top female player Minjee finished on three-under-par for the tournament.

Throw in Pineapple and Australian golf is looking just peachy.