Poulter overcomes shank on final hole

DUBLIN, Ohio – Jordan Spieth’s revival continued on Thursday at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, where the former FedExCup champion opened with a 6-under 66. Related: Leaderboard | Tiger shoots 2-under 70 But the 11-time PGA TOUR winner was measured with his thoughts after a round that had him just one shot off the early lead. Spieth was able to climb the leaderboard thanks to some brilliant scrambling and pure putting. He chipped in twice and dropped in a 35-foot eagle putt over the course of his round. “It was okay. Some more work to do on it. I missed three greens with wedges and plugged one in a bunker with a punch 8-iron. So I had four opportunities, ended up off the green on all of them,â€� Spieth said post-round. “Some of those short clubs can certainly get a little tighter. Two chip-ins certainly helped. I felt like I stole a couple early in the round to be under par, and then just kind of played the shots that needed to be played. “I hit a lot of fairways, which was nice, which gave me plenty of looks at birdie, and seemed to capitalize on quite a few of them.â€� Spieth is winless since the 2017 Open Championship, but ended a 10-month drought without a top-10 over the last two weeks, as the Texan finished T3 at the PGA Championship and T8 last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Given Spieth’s trend this season has been good early scores but fades on the weekends, he wasn’t getting carried away. The 2015 FedExCup champion says all the work on revamping his swing is showing results and the important mental side of believing he’s on the right track is paramount. He was also particularly cognizant of saving energy, given this is a fourth straight tournament, a run he is using to really ingrain things. “Trying to trust things on the golf course in tournament play is big for me now because, like I said, it’s kind of a significant type of feeling through the swing that if I took a couple of weeks off and came back, it’s a little harder to trust that right away,â€� Spieth explained. “But if you’re used to trusting it, it’s almost like playing through the… I don’t want to say slump… but playing through anything that’s been a little off. And more trusting the golf course the better.â€�

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Figuring him out isn’t easy, and always leads to questions. Was the wincing at The Open more than everyday aches and pains? Was it a bad week in the cold? It’s how things work these days with Tiger.

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Retief Goosen made it clear in the early week that he didn’t come to THE PLAYERS Championship to soak in another round at TPC Sawgrass. He wants to compete and put himself in the mix come Sunday. “I would like to play well and see what happens by the end of the week and hopefully have a chance to take a run at it,� said Goosen at his Wednesday press conference. He’s certainly given himself a chance to make the cut after a 2-under 70 in Round 1 that included three birdies on his inward nine. He’d be the first Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS winner to make the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship since Mark O’Meara in 2011. The first round 70 is the best Round 1 score by the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS winner since O’Meara in 2011. Goosen got off to an ominous start with a bogey on the 10th. He got his first birdie on the 12th and made the turn in one over. The 51-year-old quickly got in red numbers with back-to-back birdies on holes one and two. Goosen then finished with a strong par save on eight after his tee shot landed right of the green and he had to hit a difficult flop shot. He then took advantage of the par-5 ninth with a perfect bunker shot to 5-feet and rolled in the birdie to finish. “I didn’t hit the ball great, but my putting was good,� said Goosen. “Tomorrow morning, I’m first off and it’s going to be totally different conditions and it’s going to be a totally different feel out there with no spectators so it’ll be quite interesting.� Goosen tees off at 7:40 a.m. in Round 2 on Friday.

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