The emphatic win not only gave Spieth, who turns 23 on July 27, his first win in his home state after three second-place showings in Texas, but the performance came in his third start since his back-nine collapse at the Masters last month.
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Jordan Spieth ended any discussion about a hangover from his Masters back-nine meltdown in emphatic fashion Sunday while winning the Dean & Deluca Invitational and immediately pushing his name back onto the short list of favorites for the upcoming U.S. Open.
Spieth will carry a one-shot lead over Ryan Palmer (66) and Webb Simpson (67) into the final round.
“A Longhorn and Aggie, that’s going to be the fun part of the thing”, Palmer said. “It will be cool because as a member he’ll have tons of support, and we have had tons of support this week”.
The second-ranked Spieth was alone in the lead at the Dean &Deluca Invitational after three birdies and a huge par save in a four-hole stretch in the middle of his round.
With only one other top-10 finish to his credit this season – a tie for fourth at last month’s Valero Texas Open – Piller’s focus in his second stint on the PGA Tour is finishing inside the top 125 on either the money list or FedEx Cup rankings in order to keep his exempt status. He finished three strokes ahead of runner-up Harris English, while leading the field in total strokes gained.
“I’m actually not sure what my career scoring is on No. 5, but that’s one of my least favorite tee shots in the world”, Spieth said.
He hit only three of 14 fairways and 11 of 18 greens in regulation. On No. 17, it was a miss right off the tee that put him in a juicy lie in the rough that caused his approach to go over the green, short-siding him with the back-hole location. Spieth holed a 13-footer to save par at 14, a 20-foot birdie putt at 16, a 20-foot pitch-and-run from behind the hole at 17 and a 34-foot birdie putt at 18.
Jordan Spieth says to win in his hometown of Texas was incredible and hailed the atmosphere after winning the Colonial by three strokes in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Seventeen was one of the luckiest holes I’ve ever had personally”.
With the first-prize check of $1.2 million, Spieth has earned more than $24 million on the PGA Tour.
Jutanugarn became the first Thai victor in tour history three weeks ago in Alabama and followed that up last week with a victory in Virginia. Last year, actually was a stroke out of a playoff.
“I fought the speed on my putts all day”, Palmer said. “But not engage as much and just kind of stay focused and work on the task at hand”.
But Palmer had two bogeys and not another birdie until the last hole, after Spieth had already made his final putt.
Compatriots Harry English and Webb Simpson finished second and third.
The American world number two’s only blemish came at the 18th as he moved into 12 under overall at the Colonial Country Club.
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One shot further back are Harris English, Kyle Reifers and Martin Piller while 2013 US PGA Championship victor Jason Dufner is three off the lead in seventh place.
