The Darling Of Dallas, their All-American home-town boy had ’em whooping it up on a sunny Texas afternoon out there at the McKinney Ranch, the land of birdies and Jordan Spieth didn’t disappoint a throng of Jordy fans who gathered in masse to cheer on their guy.
No, Jordy was there for them on Thursday at the Byron Nelson, fresh off his winning battle with The Plague Of The Planet — COVID. He was no worse for the wear and neither was his game as he stood at seven-under par on the 18th green, lining up a 55-foot eagle putt that had to go up and over a ridge on its way to the hole located back right on the over-sized green.
As his ball tracked its way to the cup, Jordy gave it some body English, raised his left leg then saw the ball disappear into the hole.
The roar that ensued let everyone within a half mile know that the crowds were back on the course and Spieth was back on his game.
“About as loud a roar as you’ll hear on Thursday,” Spieth said with that wry Spieth smile on his face. Jordy The Slump-Buster shot 63, a cool nine-under par that gave him a share of the lead on a day when you really had to go low to be anywhere near the top. All a five-under par 67 got you was a tie for 30th and that’s what Jordy’s playing partner, Scottie Scheffler, signed for. Scheffler may have had one of the strangest cards in the field — no pars on the back nine (he shot one-under) and he was five-under despite having five bogeys on the day.
“It was cool,” Spieth said of his bogey-free round, and he doesn’t have a lot of those. “With the rain (earlier in the week) the course was gettable.” As for that big putt at 18: “I was just trying to hit the right speed,” he added. As good as that 63 looked, consider that Spieth squandered what looked like a sure birdie on the driveable (314-yard) 14th where he was just 32 yards from the hole and chunked his second, sending it about 10 yards. For the record, he also missed a 12-footer for eagle at the par five 12th.
But it didn’t matter to that Spieth crowd. He is one of the most popular sports figures in Dallas and it showed. “We had a lot of support today, it was really fun,” Spieth said as he played along side fellow Dallas guys Scheffler and Will Zalatoris. Zalatoris struck it like a million dollars but putted like fifty-cents on day one until he smashed a long-iron at 18 within 15 feet and holed it to match Jordy’s eagle and bring out a second roar.
By day’s end, the field scoring average was around 68, four-under with 74 players shooting that or better, including the highest-ranked player in the field, No. 2 Jon Rahm, who was right on that number (68).
There were underachievers. Distance-obsessed, driver-crushing, rules-arguing, Kyle Berkshire-admiring, U.S. Open-winning, Masters-floundering Bryson DeChambeau didn’t exactly tear it up. Bryson shot 69 and that got you a tie for 75th.
Bum-knee Brooks Koepka’s 71 left him tied for 114th, meaning he’s got a lot of work to do on Friday.
But this day belonged to Spieth, who has worked his way back to No. 28 in the world and would love nothing better than to win in his hometown.
For the record, he was tied with J.J. Spaun at the top. Spaun is No. 478 in the world rankings and it might be considered a miracle to see him in the winner’s circle come Sunday.
As for Spieth, it won’t take a miracle, just more solid golf from The Darling Of Dallas.
