Jordan Spieth did much better Saturday at the Valspar.
The world’s No. 1 shot a four-under par 67.
That’s the good news for Jordan Spieth.
The bad news is he got beaten by a college kid — 22-year-old Lee McCoy, a senior at the University of Georgia. McCoy, playing in the event on a sponsor’s exemption, shot the round of the day, a five-under par 66 and he shot that with a double-bogey at the difficult par four 16th where he hit his tee shot in the water that borders the right side of the hole.
“This is as good as it gets. That’s about as good as I can play, minus 16,” said McCoy, who grew up in the neighborhood, just a par five away from the Copperhead course. “It was incredible to grow up here and get the experience on this golf course early in my life.”
McCoy finished at two-under par through 54 holes, tied with Spieth.
“The ball striking is there,” said Spieth, who hit 16 greens on Saturday. “Very stress-free, the kind of round you want to have around here,” said Spieth, whose big shot of the day was a 52-foot eagle putt that he holed at the par five 14th that put the icing on his round. “The one on 14 was real nice,” Spieth said.
Spieth is finally getting the feel of the slow greens.
“You have to feel,” he said, “like you’re hitting it too hard.”
