Spieth manages to stay even after blustery opening round at Colonial

Defending Dean & DeLuca champion Jordan Spieth had an opening round Thursday that swirled in as many directions as the wind did at Colonial Country Club.

He was upbeat about his round, though, after birdies on the 17th and 18th gave him an even-par 70.

Spieth was 2-over par through his first four holes, and after rallying with birdies on the fifth and seventh, the Dallas native was back in black numbers when he took a drop and a penalty shot due a wayward drive on No. 10.

His situation wasn’t quite as high-leverage as a week ago Friday, when two sprayed drives on No. 16 in the second round of the AT&T Byron Nelson made the week at his home tournament a short one, but he knew he needed to get things turned around.

“I was telling Michael [Greller, Spieth’s caddie] when we were over, ‘look, we can birdie 11. We’ll get another opportunity. We can shoot under par on the round.’ ”

Spieth knew what he was talking about, as birdies on the longest (the 622-yard, par-5 11th) and the shortest (the 168-yard, par-3 13th) holes on the golf course. Lo and behold, Spieth was under par on his blustery afternoon.

But a more inopportune moment awaited. Spieth double-bogeyed No. 15 after taking too much club (an 8-iron) into his shot out of the fairway bunker, where the wind pulled the ball into the water left of the green.

“I didn’t need to hit an 8,” Spieth said. “It was actually a perfect club, but I just completely forgot the water was on the left side. My eye was solely on getting it back there by the pin and continuing momentum. I had to carry the lip, so it got up in the air higher than I wanted, with more spin, and the wind just took it straight over.”

A third rally on the round, this time with back-to-back birdies on Colonial’s finishing holes, brought Spieth back to even on the day. He hit his approach on the 18th to within a foot, but backspin left him with a birdie putt of just over 5 feet to finish his round.

This story was originally published May 25, 2017 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Spieth manages to stay even after blustery opening round at Colonial."