Peter Malnati and Billy Hurley III top delayed Zurich Classic leaderboard

SAN ANTONIO — Jordan Spieth continues to look for an older version of himself. The search shows moments of success. He shot 2-under-par 70 on a gusty Friday afternoon at the Valero Texas Open. He enters the third round with share of second place at 7 under par, two shots behind the leader, Cameron Tringale. Winless since 2017, the 27-year-old Spieth will again be a factor on the weekend in 2021. He often has been since early February at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. That was the week his work toward finding his older self — the golf swing of his youth — took a beneficial turn. He started rehearsing a move on the practice range at TPC Scottsdale in an effort to shallow the plane of his downswing. He wanted to swing like he was that freshman in 2012 at the University of Texas, beating Justin Thomas in the final match of the NCAA National Championship. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Tringale leads by two at Valero Texas Open "A swing feel that’s kind of like an artistic motion," is how he explained Friday, "like I almost can see it happening from behind me as I’m feeling it." The Valero Texas Open is his seventh start since embracing the drill. He's had three Top 5 finishes, a tie for 15th and two wins last week at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, where he lost in the Round of 16. For those anticipating a return to form for the 11-time winner from Dallas, the trend inspires hope. He is trying, he said, "to go back in time." He wants to find his swing of his 15-year-old self, or at least the one that brough him so much acclaim so soon. Spieth wants to reverse "essentially everything," he said, "all the bad habits I got into." He said his attack on the ball got too steep after 2017, when he won three tournaments, including The Open Championship. Then came all the questions and doubts. "I could sit here and tell you six different things I'm thinking about," he said. "I want it to be one or two." He appears, at times, to have achieved that simplicity and purity. He shot 5-under 67 on Thursday at TPC San Antonio, seven birdies against two bogeys. He birdied his first two holes Friday. He was 2 under after nine. He expected stress and it came. Texas in the springtime is a windy place. He made bogey at the 11th and the 13th. But he followed those with birdies at the next two, which included an approach on the 459-yard par-four 15th to 4 feet. Spieth coasted through the last three holes, wind and all, with straight pars. "I’m really pleased with where things are at, but they’re not where I want them to be at," he said. "I’m trying to kind of take it slowly and patiently and reward myself, be excited about the good ones and not get too down about the bad ones." So on goes the search. "I’m really just trying to go back in time structurally to a place that I’ve been," he said. "Trying to work backwards."

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Wine country. Three post-round concerts (including Billy Idol, whose real name, by the way, is William Michael Albert Broad). Fresh faces and a fresh start – and a familiar defending champ — for a new PGA TOUR season. It’s Safeway Open week. Here’s a look at what you need to know as we enter the fall portion of the 2018-19 campaign. THE FLYOVER Few closing holes on the PGA TOUR are easier than the par-5 18th on the North Course at Silverado. The 575-yard hole played to a stroke average of 4.690 last season, making it the seventh easiest closing hole. Four eagles were made on the hole, with 46 percent of all second shots attempting to reach the green (just over 10 percent were successful). LANDING ZONE What do the 360-yard 8th hole at Silverado and the famed 315-yard 10th hole at Riviera have in common? Each played to a stroke average of 4.055 last season. Only one par-4 hole shorter than Silverado’s 8th was more difficult last season – the 354-yard 10th at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. More players do not go anywhere near the green, opting to find the wider portion of the fairway for a short iron into the green. Here’s a look at where all tee shots landed in 2017. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner: “There is a slight chance of showers Thursday morning with clearing skies by Thursday afternoon. Sunny skies are forecast from Friday through Sunday with cool morning temperatures and pleasant afternoon highs. High winds are possible on Sunday as a front drops through the central valley of California.â€� For the latest weather news from Napa, California, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK I do love the fresh start here, being back to zero. BY THE NUMBERS 50.3 – Percentage of fairways hit by the Safeway Open field last season. That was the second lowest percentage of any course recorded by ShotLink. The toughest was Firestone South (50 percent). 50 under – Brendan Steele’s cumulative total under par at the Safeway Open since 2014. That’s the best score to par by any player in that stretch. 21 – Number of rookies on the PGA TOUR this season. SCATTERSHOTS This week offers players the first opportunity to earn FedExCup points this season. Ending the fall portion of the schedule has proven to be an important barometer. In each of the last five seasons, the FedExCup leader after the end of the fall events has reached the 30-man TOUR Championship. Former Oakland A’s all-star pitcher Mark Mulder in the field thanks to a sponsor exemption. Mulder has won the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship three times and was also the runner-up at the event this summer. Cameron Champ led the Web.com Tour in driving distance last season (343.1-yard average) en route to earning his TOUR card. He also ranked a respectable 48th in driving accuracy. Said Champ: “I kind of created a shot I like to hit, just kind of my ‘get in the fairway” I call it. It’s kind of a lower shot that I’m very comfortable with if I’m under pressure or if I’m having a bad day. If I can’t really find a fairway, I’ll usually go to that so I think that’s really helped me with the driving aspect.â€�

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Justin Thomas announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend Jillian Wisniewski, a mainstay in his galleries on the PGA TOUR, on the “No Laying Up” podcast. The hour-long interview was almost over when Thomas started going into his holiday plans and offhandedly mentioned he’ll be tying the knot with Wisniewski. “We have a place in Nashville we’re going to go for Thanksgiving,” said Thomas, the world No. 6 and 14-time TOUR winner. “Me and my new fiancé, Jill, her family’s going.” Asked if their engagement had previously been made public, Thomas laughed and said no. The news comes as no surprise, as Thomas and Wisniewski have been dating for around five years. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and has worked at an ad agency in Chicago when not with Thomas in South Florida. They have been highly visible as a couple at Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups, and are prominent on social media, along with their dog. Wisniewski is close friends with Jordan Spieth’s wife, Annie Verret, and Rickie Fowler’s wife, Allison Stokke. Thomas, Spieth and Fowler routinely room together on the road. Thomas had already made a big change recently, albeit a smaller one, hiring a new caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, formerly the caddie for Phil Mickelson. Mackay had been working as an on-course reporter for the Golf Channel and filling in for players, including Thomas, as needed. The winner of the 2017 PGA Championship, Thomas is coming off a third-place finish at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba last weekend, his second start of the new season. This, despite being admittedly rusty and playing his first nine holes in 3 over par. His highlight of last season was winning THE PLAYERS Championship, an important victory that he nevertheless said didn’t conceal the fact that it was an off-year by his lofty standards. He did not mention a date for the wedding, and joked that his foreseeable future would be, “Probably just her doing a lot of wedding planning and me just chillin’ and playing golf.”

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