The 24-year-old American carded an even par 71 in his second round at The Australian Golf Club to be one under for the Championship and eight strokes behind halfway leader Lucas Herbert.

Playing in tamer conditions than the winds that blew during his opening round, Spieth was only able to extract two birdies out of his round despite hitting 14 greens in regulation. His 34 putts for the round told the story of his round, but he drew some inspiration out of holing a 15-footer for birdie at his final hole.

“I saw a putt go in and I told Cameron (McCormick his coach and stand in caddie this week) early in the round, If I hit one to go, it’ll all start going,” Spieth said. “It just, unfortunately, took me 17 holes to make one.

“That was my second one-putt of the day, the other coming from about four feet for a par on the 13th.

“It just was a bad day with the flat stick; it happens.”

Spieth holes his second birdie putt for the round on his closing hole. PHOTO: William West/AFP/Getty Image

The reigning Open Champion said his putting has been a little off in 2017 and was working with McCormick on improving his putting before the 2018 season.

“It (putting) hasn’t been a strength the last year,” he said. “The strength of my game is in ball striking, so it’s (putting) been a work in progress this off season to improve. 

“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 back 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 I could do on them 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.

RIGHT: Spieth and his coach/caddie this week, Cameron McCormick, are looking for solutions to his putting woes. PHOTO: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images.

“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.”

When Spieth won his first Stonehaven Cup at The Australian in 2014 he ventured into the weekend rounds at three under after rounds of 67-72. He added a third round 69 before steaming home on Sunday afternoon with one of the greatest final rounds in the history of the Championship. His eight under 63 in windy conditions that afternoon saw him overhaul the leaders and he claimed the title by six strokes.

He’s hoping for a similar scenario this weekend.

“On this golf course more than just about any that we play, 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,” Spieth said.

“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.

“If I can post something like five, six-under, then I’m very much in this tournament.”