Steve Stricker was two shots out of the lead until he made a double bogey on the par-5 11th and never recovered.
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Spieth opened with a tap-in birdie, added a 31-foot birdie at the 12th and sank a 51-foot eagle putt at the par-5 14th hole.
MacKenzie shot a 67 as the pair were one shot clear of Bill Haas, Graham DeLaet and Daniel Berger.
He walked up the 18th fairway with Jordan Spieth at his side and thousands of people lining both sides of the fairway and packed onto the terraces of the corporate tents.
After an opening 76, Spieth has been ranked inside the top three in strokes gained-tee to green each of the past two rounds. But, yeah, I mean I’m still in this golf course, something like 7-under tomorrow which is feasible. “When the short ones go, we’ll really have some fun”. I thought it was really strong what we did after that.
It was hard work, and there is plenty left.
McCoy will get another chance to play for free on the PGA Tour in a few weeks. The 22-year-old college senior couldn’t resist. Six players were as close as four shots of the lead, and even Spieth believes he is still in the mix. He answered a bogey at the par-3 13th with a chip-in birdie at the par-3 15th to grab his seventh career 54-hole lead, his first since winning previous year at Palm Desert, California.
“He came up with the swing I’ve had for three days, and I’m leading”, Haas said.
“You don’t expect shots like that to go in but I’ll definitely take it and it propelled me to have a good backside”. “My goal is to be there more often and so far this year it’s been a little bit of a struggle – some good weeks, some bad – and the ball-striking still is just not quite where I would like it”.
The large group at 3-under 139 included Justin Thomas, who hit a sharp slice to escape the trees on his first hole of the day (No. 10) and turned potential bogey into birdie on his way to a 67.
As defending champion, and defending champion at the Masters next month, not to mention as No 1 in the world, the last thing Spieth wants is speculation that he is bang out of form, on the slide, especially when he feels his form is not a matter of concern.
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“Today was all about the cut”, a relieved Spieth told reporters.
