Jamie Arnold started his day at The Australian tied-58th. He ended up leapfrogging into the top five, courtesy of an extraordinary, third-round 64 in the Emirates Australian Open today.

Sydneysider Arnold, 36, was the only player to collar the course on a difficult day, fluky breezes filtering through the pines and with tough pin positions to deal with as well.

Ironically, he had not started so well, one-over par through five holes. But he caught fire with a birdie at the par-four sixth, and he rolled in seven more for the day. He had just 20 putts for the day, and a total eight birdies.

“It was great. Nice to finally hole a few putts and come in with a great score. It was a great round,’’ he told Channel Seven after his round.

“I pretty much hit it in the same spots, just on the back side I made some nice putts. I got a couple of bonus putts – one on 18, another one on 15. It was just making a few putts was the difference. It was just nice to see a couple drop.”

Arnold headed home for a rest and planned on taking up the chance of watching his brother Scott play.

 The significance of his performance was that other players struggled mightily in the conditions.

The scoring average was above  72, one-over par and of those who had finished their rounds, the next best score was 69.