Spieth began the day with a 1-shot lead over Colonial member Ryan Palmer and Webb Simpson.
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Spieth reached the mark in emphatic fashion with a closing 65 to finish at 17-under-par 263 at Colonial Country Club, keeping ahead of Harris English.
Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, the top three in the world golf ranking, are all going to Muirfield Village for the Memorial coming off victories.
The US Open champion described it as one of the most important days of his career.
LPGA: Ariya Jutanugarn became the first player to win three straight events on tour in three years, closing with 5-under 67 for a five-stroke victory in the Volvik Championship iat Ann Arbor, Mich. Jutanugarn, 20, of Thailand is the first player since Inbee Park in 2013 to win three straight tournaments and the first to make her first three career victories consecutive. The Australian dropped nine shots in his first 10 holes to tumble down the leaderboard and wound up shooting a 78 to tie for 15th at 3 under. “I’m very proud to have him on my side”.
“It’s not like I hadn’t won – and we’ve won two majors”.
The victory was the eighth of his PGA Tour career before his 23rd birthday, or one more than Tiger Woods had won at a similar stage.
However, he found bunkers with his first two shots on the par-four 12th and a double bogey dropped him back to nine under overall before his round was suspended three holes later due to the descending darkness.
Asked if he’d ever been hit by a ball, Gustaf laughed and said: “I’ve hit people with balls, but this was a first”.
Tony Bellew, who played “Pretty” Ricky Conlan in Sylvester Stallone’s film “Creed”, knocked out Ilunga Makabu in the third round to win the WBC cruiserweight title. Although his driving accuracy was a bit mediocre throughout the week, Spieth was solid enough with his putter to card 22 birdies, tied for first among the field in that category. Picking up $1.2 million, Spieth has now earned more than $24 million on the PGA Tour in just four years on the circuit.
“I was hitting good shots but the speed was just off on my putting on the front-nine”, Spieth said.
“Felt like I struck the ball well, got off to a good start again and then short game really kept me in it in the middle of the round”.
“I started having more fun, even when it wasn’t going great”, Spieth said.
Spieth chipped in from 32 feet for a birdie at the par-5 11th, then left his approach at the par-4 12th inches from the cup for a tap-in birdie to grab the lead at 12-under.
“Either way”, Spieth said when asked if it was a jibe or a gee-up, “there’s a little red-ass in me – and it came out on the next few holes”.
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He added a six-foot birdie putt at the par-3 16th but missed a nine-footer for par at 18 to settle for a one-shot lead.
