Spieth, Garcia shoot 63s, share lead at Colonial
FORT WORTH, Texas —
Phil Mickelson kept hearing congratulatory words as he made his way around Colonial, and a huge roar erupted from the crowd when the PGA Championship winner made a long putt to finish his round. Jordan Spieth kept making birdies in the same group.
ROUNDUP
Spieth shot a 7-under-par 63 on a breezy Thursday and was tied for the first-round lead at the Charles Schwab Challenge with Sergio Garcia, who had a 15-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole that circled the edge of the cup but didn’t go in. Both former Colonial champions had bogey-free rounds.
Mickelson, 50, four days after becoming the oldest winner of a golf major, was 10 strokes back after a 73 that ended with the 22-foot birdie while playing with local favorite Spieth and defending Colonial champion Daniel Berger (68).
“Yeah, I didn’t play well,” said Mickelson, the 2000 and 2009 Colonial champ. “But I won the PGA, so.”
Garcia matched the closing 63 he had at Colonial when he got the first of his 11 PGA Tour wins 20 years ago at age 21. He was 5 under on the four-hole stretch in the middle of the round.
Right after Mickelson’s final putt at the 387-yard ninth, Spieth had a tap-in for his third birdie in a row and seventh overall. The 2016 winner and two-time runner-up had his best score in 33 rounds at Colonial, one of two local events for the Dallas native, after rolling in a 12-foot birdie putt to start the day.
■ Champions: At Tulsa, Okla., three weeks after beating Steve Stricker in a playoff in the Regions Tradition for his first major title, Alex Cejka got off to a solid start in his pursuit of a second.
The 50-year-old Las Vegas resident led the morning wave with a 3-under 67 in the Kitchenaid Senior PGA Championship. Stricker also was 3 under but had played only seven holes when storms forced the afternoon wave off the course. Play was suspended 2 hours, 12 minutes later.
■ European PGA: At Farso, Denmark, two weeks after becoming the tour’s oldest first-time winner, 48-year-old Richard Bland shot 5-under 66 to share the Made in Denmark firstround lead with defending champion Bernd Wiesberger and three others. UNLV product Kurt Kitayama was five strokes back.