Locals Spieth, Sabbatini charge into contention at Colonial

Rory Sabbatini emerged victorious the last time rain plagued the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in 2007.

An 8-under 62 in the third round helped him do that.

Sabbatini didn’t go that low this year, although he felt he might have been able to after leaving a couple shots on the course after a 4-under 66 on Saturday.

Either way, Sabbatini feels good about his game and his chances going into the final round Sunday. He’s at 7-under 203 for the tournament, four shots back of leader Kevin Na.

“I hit the ball a little better than I did yesterday and I seem to be getting better each day with my ball striking,” said Sabbatini, who lives in Fort Worth. “I’m putting the ball well, too, so if I can build on that and keep hitting solid golf shots ... anything is possible.”

Sabbatini wasn’t the only DFW player to make a move up the leader board.

His playing partner, Dallas’ Jordan Spieth, rebounded from a 3-over 73 Friday to post a 3-under 67 Saturday.

Spieth sits at 6 under, and knows he has an uphill battle being five back. But Spieth believes he’ll have a chance if he can get hot and fire something along the lines of a 63 on Sunday. That would put him at 13 under for the tournament, a number he suggested could win it.

“Obviously shooting [63] tomorrow isn’t ideal, I would have liked to have grabbed a few more today,” Spieth said. “But all in all I just want to find the fairway tomorrow, get off to a good start and just kind of get in the flow of the round.”

Spieth started off strong Saturday with birdies on Nos. 1 and 3, but gave a stroke back at the always-challenging No. 5. He closed out the front nine with a pair of birdies, highlighted with a 33-foot birdie putt on No. 9.

On the back nine, Spieth’s two birdies were offset by two bogeys.

“I didn’t really have the best stuff, still made six birdies,” Spieth said. “[Birdies] are out there. Just need the looks.”

Sabbatini gave himself plenty of looks in the third round, hitting 17 of 18 greens. He got off to a birdie-birdie start by rolling in a couple of lengthy putts, but immediately gave them back with bogeys on Nos. 3 and 4.

But Sabbatini bounced back with three birdies in a five-hole stretch, capped by sinking a 17-footer on No. 12, the 445-yard dogleg left par-4. He ended the round with a birdie on No. 18, knocking his approach shot to less than three feet.

“I knew it was going to be a tough day [with the weather], but the key is putting the ball in play,” Sabbatini said. “I had two mental errors on the front side there; otherwise it could’ve been a really low round.”

Simply getting in contention, though, is a positive for Sabbatini. He’s had a feast-or-famine season so far, missing five cuts in his last six events coming into this tournament. But when he makes the cut, he has played well, with seven top-25 finishes, including three top-10s.

Maybe it’s only a matter of time for Sabbatini to add a win for the first time since 2011.

“I’ve made a couple changes to things I was doing, and the last couple of weeks it’s starting to pay off,” Sabbatini said. “I’m starting to find more of a consistent factor out there and becoming more confident. And, obviously, confidence is key in this game.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2015 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Locals Spieth, Sabbatini charge into contention at Colonial."