"You know 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," the world No.2 said after scratching out an even-par round at The Australian Golf Club on Friday.

"Just given the golf course will start to bake out and you get really calm conditions in the morning ... that leaves the windier conditions for the afternoon, so I'll have a pretty gettable golf course I imagine with the guys really having to watch themselves in the afternoon.

"And if I can post something like five or six under, then I'm very much in this tournament."

Rarely has he looked so negative, and yet sounded so positive. If it had been sprouted by anyone else - Spieth is eight shots shy of midway leader Lucas Herbert - you would have told them they were mad. But this is Spieth. And this is the Australian Open. At the same The Australian Golf Club he's torched before.

Why not again?

Asked if Spieth was still a contender on the weekend, his playing partner and 2015 Australian Open hero Matt Jones couldn't nod fast enough.

"Of course he is," the US PGA Tour winner said. "He hits it great and he putts great. He's going to tee off before any wind [on Saturday] so he can go out and shoot six-under easily and then he'll be right in there."

But only if his putter finds its mojo. After one maddening miss midway through his second round, Spieth grumbled to himself "six of them today would have gone in if you just hit them harder". He eventually did on his last hole, clawing to one-under for the tournament with a confidence-boosting birdie.

"I'm going to look to make a putt early in the round [on Saturday] and maybe jump start a weekend like two years ago or three years ago," he said.