Jordan Spieth shares halfway lead at Hero World Challenge
Sunday 6 December 2015 17:13, UK
Jordan Spieth recovered from an erratic start to battle his way into a share of the halfway lead at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
The world No 1 was one over for the day after five holes, but he bounced back with three straight birdies before coming home in 32 to card a 66 and close on 11 under, a score later matched by fellow Americans Bill Haas and Jimmy Walker.
Spieth, who recorded a hole-in-one at the second on Thursday, had to settle for birdie on day two after knocking his tee shot to five feet, but he missed the green with his approach at the next and needed two attempts to get his ball up the slope and onto the putting surface.
The Masters and US Open champion pulled his tee shot into a terrible lie to the left of the fifth green and could not get up and down, but he holed excellent putts for birdie at the next three holes before draining a 30-footer for an eagle at the 11th.
He converted a sublime approach to four feet at 13 and splashed out of a cavernous bunker to within a foot of the cup for another birdie at 14, and he did well to get up and down for par at the last following a wayward second to the run-off area.
"For the majority of the round, until 15, we had as scoreable conditions as possible," Spieth told the Golf Channel. "There was no wind, and the greens were receptive. I had a rough start but boy it was a great bounce-back to go seven under after being one over through five holes."
Haas also made light of the hot and humid conditions with a 66 in which he opened with a birdie and followed an eagle at the sixth with birdies at seven and nine to race to the turn in 31.
Walker made it a three-way tie at the top as he carded seven birdies against two bogeys in a 67, while Chris Kirk reeled off five consecutive birdies around the turn and picked up one more shot at 14 before completing a 65 that lifted him to 10 under.
Patrick Reed is also just a shot off the lead after he kept a bogey off his card in a seven-birdie 65, and Bubba Watson joined the share of fourth place thanks to his second straight 67.
Paul Casey, who shared the first-round lead after opening with a 66, lost ground on the leaders when he dropped shots at 15 and 16 in a disappointing 70.
The Englishman made a mess of the par-five third and ran up a scrappy six, but he responded with a superb run of five birdies in six holes from the fifth before his late mistakes left him three off the pace.
But Justin Rose heads into the weekend a distant 10 shots behind after a frustrating level-par 72, and only Hideki Matsuyama (+4) is below him in the 18-man field at Albany.
Tournament organisers also announced that Saturday's third-round tee-times had been brought forward due to the threat of adverse weather. Rose and Matsuyama will go out first at 2:10pm (GMT), with the final group out at 3:30pm.
