Spieth does it easy

World No. 2 back in the fight after conquering ‘Horrible Horseshoe’

LOS ANGELES: Jordan Spieth made light work of the “Horrible Horseshoe” to surge into contention after his second round of the weatherhit Colonial tournament in Texas.

Bryce Molder tops the leaderboard at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth on nineunder after 15 holes of his second round, a stroke ahead of Webb Simpson (67).

Spieth shot a 66 to post a sevenunder 133 halfway total and is tied for third at sevenunder with Patrick Reed, who played just eight holes on Friday.

Half the field did not complete the second round due to a fivehour morning thunderstorm delay, with some managing only six holes.

Spieth, who started at the 10th, picked up four shots in five holes after the turn, including birdies at the difficult fourth and fifth.

“That was a big back nine to climb back into contention. I was very pleased with that run there,” Spieth told Golf Channel.

The world No. 2 added that he was shaping 90% of his shots with a draw, moving the ball from right to left, to increase his “comfort level”.

“That’s important for me right now, to know where the ball is going to start and if it’s going to move one direction.”

In his third tournament since he frittered away the US Masters with a quadruple bogey at the 12th hole during the final round, Spieth sounded upbeat with the US Open three weeks away.

“I was set up by fairways hit,” he said.

“The greens were two feet faster than yesterday and it took me a little while to adjust but once I made that adjustment (the birdies followed).”

He was particularly satisfied to play the difficult threehole stretch from No. 3 dubbed the “Horrible Horseshoe” in twounder.

Molder looked set to take a handy lead to bed after five frontnine birdies, but a doublebogey at the parfour 12th brought him back to the field.

Clubhouse leader Simpson has had to adjust to a regularlength putter since ditching his long stick last year ahead of the Jan 1 “anchoring” ban and expressed satisfaction with his work on the greens.

“I’ve switched putters and been putting great the past couple of days,” said the 2012 US Open champion.

“The good thing about me and the bad thing about me is once I get confidence, I seem to be really confident, and once I get a little down, I seem to be get really down. But through two days it’s been solid, so I’m excited.” — Reuters