Jordan Spieth jets from Australian Open to defend his title at Tiger Woods’ tourney

As Jordan Spieth gets over jet lag from his first of two straight attempted title defenses, he’ll have to put on some kind of a show to one-up the dominating performance he laid on the tourney host and the other elite players at Tiger Woods’ 2014 Hero World Challenge.

Things did not go quite as planned for the world No. 1 at last week’s Australian Open, where Spieth and Adam Scott finished one shot back of winner Matt Jones. Scott fired a final-round 6-under 65 in his national championship while Spieth’s 71 included an eagle try on the 72nd hole that would have forced extra frames.

“I would have been pretty excited to be in a playoff with Matt as that would have added to this week as the crowds have just been unbelievable and much bigger than last year,” Spieth told AFP Sunday after posting a week-long 7-under. “But for Matt to win is well deserved.”

With both runners-up scheduled to start Tiger’s event in Scott’s adopted home of the Bahamas, the 2013 Masters titleholder will try to capture his first trophy of the year in his 2015 finale as Heir Jordan hopes to start a month-long vacation with his sixth W of the long campaign.

“It was tough this year the way the dates fell,” said Spieth, who made 25 starts in the 2014-2015 PGA Tour season. “From the end of next week to heading out to Hawaii will be the longest break I will have had this year.”

Before he puts down his clubs for a brief hiatus there is work to be done at the event that featured the shocking short game that many may one day recall as the beginning of the end of the tourney host’s career — or that at least signified the unofficial changing of the guard in men’s golf.

While horrific chipping yips led to a last-place finish for Woods, Spieth used his 10-stroke victory over a limited field of elite players to kick-start his five-win tour de force that included two major championships.

Spieth entered last year’s tournament on the strength of a victory at the Aussie Open. This time around, he’ll look to better last week’s runner-up finish before enjoying some R&R ahead of the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January.

Woods, recovering from his third back operation since March 2014, will not be among those participating, though he has said he would be on-site during the December 3-6 event. Bubba Watson, replacing second-ranked Jason Day, who withdrew so he could be with his family after his wife gave birth to the couple’s second child, will be among those who will tee it up.

Watson will join the likes of Rickie Fowler, Billy Horschel, Hideki Matsuyama and Johnson & Johnson (Dustin and Zach) at Albany, which will host the tournament for the first time.

SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. Open champ (2012)