Jordan Spieth second-nine birdie spree leads to 62, one shot off lead at Byron Nelson
Jordan Spieth finished one shot off his best round in more than a decade Friday at TPC Craig Ranch.
Spieth's bogey-free 62 included a second-nine where he recorded seven birdies — all to get him to 12 under par, within a stroke of playing competitor Sungjae Im (61) and Kensei Hirata atop the CJ Cup Byron Nelson leaderboard, before the 36-hole cut is made later in the day.
Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka still have 18 holes to get within Im and Spieth.
Nonetheless, there's plenty for Spieth fans to celebrate. The Texan has given himself a chance to win his first Tour event in more than four years — in front of a hometown crowd.
"The hole started to look big, so that allows me to play a little bit safer on my approaches," Spieth said of the groove he got into on his second nine.
Spieth, who began the round on the 10th hole, tied his career-best for most consecutive birdies on that second nine. He previously accomplished the mark during his opening round at the RBC Heritage in 2020.
Spieth went six-for-six on hole Nos. 1-6 after carding a 33 on his first nine holes Friday. The birdie fest was snapped at the par-3 seventh where he two-putted for par.
"It's nice to capitalize, right? Play the hole, and you've got a wedge in your hand, you've got a shot that you see, and you're kind of thinking, 'I should make birdie here.' It's just nice to do it," Spieth said.
"Just a lot of it just comes down to knocking in putts," he added. "It felt good. I had a lot of family out today too. I certainly have that tomorrow, and my kids will make an appearance this weekend, which will be fun because they don't come out very often."
Tyler Duncan shot 66 to join Spieth at 12 under, one stroke ahead of first-round leader Taylor Moore. The 32-year-old Moore, who was born in Texas and also lives now in Dallas, followed his opening 62 with a 69.
Golf Channel StaffSpieth has been circling this type of day all season, with seven T-25 finishes and seven rounds in the 60s over the last month.
"Sometimes I've certainly shown that I can get streaky with it and was able to kind of get on the right side of that today," he told reporters.
Im earned a share of the lead with an ace on the par-3 seventh. He then closed his round with an eagle at the par-5 ninth to finish at 13 under.
"[Sungjae] hit one of the most beautiful — that was one of the prettiest hole-in-ones I've ever seen. Prettier than any one I ever made," Spieth said. It's 222 [yards], and the wind is off the left to the left pin. There's only a few people that would land that left of it on purpose. He might be one of them.
"He just hit this just perfect 5-iron that held the breeze and came down and went in like a putt, breaking left to right," Spieth added. "From that distance, that club, I was like, 'Sungjae, all these other par-3s were way easier to make a hole-in-one on than that one.' He obviously closed out with an eagle on the last to make our chances of playing together hard for tomorrow, but maybe Sunday."
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