Spieth much better at Colonial

Jordan Spieth has always considered Colonial a hometown tournament as well. He also has had much more success at Hogan’s Alley than at the Byron Nelson, where he played his first PGA Tour event as a 16-year-old high school junior.

“I’ve been coming out here since I was 6, 7 years old, too. It was always a fun couple of weeks,” Spieth said Wednesday. “School was letting out into summertime and the PGA rolled through Dallas and Fort Worth way back when I was just falling in love with the game . ... Both places have the extra aura, too.”

Now 24 and with three majors among his 11 PGA Tour wins, Spieth has won only once in his home state of Texas. That was two years ago at Colonial, where he has four top-10 finishes in five starts. He was the runnerup in 2015 and last year.

Webb Simpson, a top-five finisher in the last two Colonials, was off last week after winning The Players Championship earlier this month. He was the 54hole leader at Colonial last year. Simpson skipped the Colonial five years in a row after missing the cut in his first two appearances (2009, 2010), using the PGA Tour’s Texas two-step for a two-week break.

“I didn’t play well here or Byron Nelson, and so it just made sense,” Simpson said. “Then I got to the point where I really wanted to focus on courses I thought fit my game well. I watched on TV, watched guys play, and it seemed like the kind of course where if I would come and kind of learn it over again I might have success. You know, it worked.”

Kevin Kisner is the defending champion at Colonial, the longest-running PGA Tour event still played at its original site - since 1946. Aaron Wise, the 21-year-old Tour rookie who won the Nelson last week, is in his first Colonial.

Local companies are backing the event known this year as the Fort Worth Invitational . Upscale grocer Dean and Deluca withdrew as title sponsor only two tournaments into a six-year deal.