Australian Open officials have "put more teeth" into the home stretch to protect The Australian Golf Club from another Jordan Spieth-like beat down this weekend.
Spieth ran away with the Stonehaven Cup last year with a course-record final-round 63 at the revamped layout in Sydney.
But tournament director Trevor Herden, who ranks the Jack Nicklaus-designed course as traditionally boasting the most-challenging front nine in Australia, suspects Spieth, Adam Scott and the like will find it more difficult to tame in 2015.
The 16th hole has undergone the most-significant change since last year, lengthened by 34 metres to 430m.
The par-5 14th has been extended by 13 metres to bring the hill into play off the tee, making it more demanding for the big hitters to bomb over the rise and set up eagles.
"There's length in a couple of holes," Herden said on Tuesday.
"The 16th's gone back 30 metres, which will put a bit more teeth into those back four holes when you're winning a major championship.
"We couldn't use that last year because it wasn't quite ready."
The fourth and 10th holes have also been toughened up, but Herden says there's no guarantees the top-ranked Spieth or his challengers won't shoot low again.
Spieth won last year at 13-under-par for the championship but, with a putting game to die for, the American is again favoured to raise the Stonehaven Cup.
"These major championship courses normally throw up 10 to 12 under and that's pretty much based on the players," Herden said.
"The players just seem to get it done. They putt and, if you have a look at these putting surfaces, they'll hole putts from everywhere this week - I guarantee you that.
"If the weather's calm, they'll get around it. If that wind kicks in, it'll be a test.
"You can't get that close to flags here - that's one of the things with these greens.
"(They're) a great set of greens but to get it actually close all the time around this golf course is difficult but you can hole some monsters, because they're pure, the greens are pure."
Spieth admitted "anything from about up to 30 feet, I'm looking at a way to make a putt".
"It depends on the putt," he said.
"You can have a 15-footer that it can be so tricky that you're just trying to coast with the right speed and, if it falls, it falls.
"And you can have a 30-footer that doesn't break much and maybe it's slightly downhill and it's a relatively makeable putt."
Winds of 20 to 30 knots are forecast for Thursday's opening round.
"It should be a good balance for both morning and afternoon players when they cross," Herden said.
"So it should be quite fair."
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