Defending champ matches last year’s opening-round 63

CROMWELL — Both Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy were paired together for the first two rounds of the U.S. Open last week. Both men missed the cut.

Suffice it to say, both golfers were looking for an immediate bounce-back performance in Thursday’s opening round of the Travelers Championship. And both men got what they hoped for … and a little bit more.

Spieth, the defending champion, matched his first-round total from last year at TPC River Highlands, a 7-under-par 63, and is tied for the lead with Zach Johnson. McIlroy, playing in the group behind Spieth, is tied for third with a 64.

“I would probably call it the third best (round) of the year, behind the first and last round at Augusta (for the Masters),” Spieth said. “I had a good one at Houston I remember. But, yeah, this golf course I played it really smart today. It was probably the smartest round I’ve played this year, really the last couple years.”

Said McIlroy: “Sometimes when you take your focus away from the results and from the way you are actually scoring like and focus on what you are trying to do within your golf swing, you sort of have days like this.”

What would the folks at the Travelers Championship give to have a weekend pairing of Spieth and McIlroy? How many fans would be looking to buy tickets?

Maybe it’s looking a little too far ahead, but with the two top-10 rock stars — Spieth is ranked fifth, McIlroy seventh — on the leaderboard, there’s at least a realistic possibility.

And Spieth holed another bunker shot — this time on the par-5 sixth hole for eagle and made six birdies (3, 5, 11, 13, 14 and 16). The last one was a nice bounce-back off of his only bogey when he hit his tee shot on 15 into the water.

“Just sticking to our game plan and not trying to get the stroke back that we lost at 15. I just played a safe shot, and from there was able to have a look at birdie,” Spieth said. “They’ve got some kind of magnetic sand for me. It was actually a pretty tough shot there, almost a little down slope and I had to hit close to the ball, which you just have to commit to it. I just hit the shot that was necessary. It probably would have gone four or five feet by, but I couldn’t hit it any better than I did. It was obviously fortunate to hit the pin and go in.”

As for McIlroy, his 64 matched his final-round score last year. He hit the first 17 greens, resulting in seven birdies. He missed