McKINNEY, Texas \u2014 Jordan Spieth could only watch a year ago as good buddy Scottie Scheffler became the first of the two to\u00a0win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the hometown event they both cherish.<\/p>\n
Spieth is giving himself a good chance to answer.<\/p>\n
The three-time major winner started his back nine \u2014 the front side of TPC Craig Ranch \u2014 with six consecutive birdies on the way to a 9-under 62 in the second round Friday.<\/p>\n
Spieth is one shot behind playing partner Sungjae Im, who aced the par-3 seventh moments after Spieth’s sixth birdie in a row and shot 61. The South Korean was tied for the early second-round lead at 13-under 129 with Japan’s Kensei Hirata.<\/p>\n
Scheffler started at 5 under in an afternoon pairing with Brooks Koepka,\u00a0who opened with a 63\u00a0and is looking for his first victory since his return to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf.<\/p>\n
Tyler Duncan shot 66 to join Spieth at 12 under, one stroke ahead of first-round leader Taylor Moore, who followed his opening 62 with a 69.<\/p>\n
Spieth credited a par 4 at No. 18 for setting up his birdie binge, which started with a 12-footer. He hit the first four fairways after struggling off the tee on his first nine, made a 12-footer at the par-3 fourth, a 4-footer on the par-5 fifth and capped the surge from 9 feet on the sixth.<\/p>\n
After Spieth put his tee 29 feet right of a pin to the far left at No. 7, Im bounced his 222-yard shot between the fringe and the hole and watched it roll in, raising his arms and looking skyward after the ball dropped out of sight. The 28-year-old was tied for the lead at that point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the prettiest hole-in-ones I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Spieth said. \u201cPrettier than any one I ever made. There\u2019s only a few people that would land that left of it on purpose. He might be one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spieth’s birdie run ended when his 29-footer at No. 7 came up about a foot short, while Im added another eagle with a 14-foot putt at the par-5 ninth. Spieth finished a bogey-free round with a birdie on No. 9. Im had a bogey and seven birdies to go along with his hole-in-one and eagle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hurting my head trying to figure out what our best ball was,\u201d Spieth said. \u201cI think it was 57, which is pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spieth, who contended on Sunday as a 16-year-old high schooler at his first Nelson in 2010, finished fourth a year ago when Scheffler won by eight at 31 under while tying the tour’s 72-hole scoring record of 253.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old Spieth with 13 tour victories was actually worried about the cutline when he was 5 under at the turn. Then he went on to match his career best at the Nelson from the final round last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a lot of it just comes down to knocking in putts,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a normal week, and it\u2019s fantastic. Now that our families have grown and stuff, you get the little kids coming out, and it makes it even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hirata, a six-time Japanese tour winner looking for his first PGA Tour victory, followed a 64 that included an eagle with a bogey-free 65. A short birdie putt on the ninth pulled him even with Im.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Hirata had missed the cut in five of his previous seven starts this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery week, even some bad weeks, I learn to not give up,\u201d Hirata said. \u201cJust don\u2019t give up. Just give some chance. Yeah, just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spieth has been telling himself the same thing for 16 years in a beloved event he probably thought he would have won by now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McKINNEY, Texas \u2014 Jordan Spieth could only watch a year ago as good buddy Scottie Scheffler became the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-687849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}