Power Rankings: Barracuda Championship

SAN ANTONIO — Jordan Spieth hasn’t lost his flair for the dramatic. First, he holed a delicate 70-foot lob shot from behind the green and over a bunker for birdie at the par-4 11th. “Slid under the ball really nicely on that chip shot, landed right on my spot, just trickled in,” Spieth said. “I was just trying to make 4.” Then he went one better at the par-5 eighth, holing a 56-degree wedge from 113 yards for eagle, and slapping five with caddie Michael Greller and lifting his lid in celebration. That capped off a second straight 68 for Spieth and was good for a five-way tie for the 36-hole lead at 8-under 136 among the morning finishers at the Valero Texas Open. “Certainly a bonus with that hole-out on 8,” Spieth said. “All in all, I think I progressed today from yesterday and that’s all I’m looking forward to doing day to day.” Spieth and Greller have tracked his holed shots from off the green since Spieth’s rookie year in 2014 and place a friendly wager on the total. It’s a tradition they picked up from Jason Day and his former caddie Col Swatton. Spieth’s over/under is based on the previous year’s total (hole outs at majors and from over-100 yards count double). Surpass that figure and you win; loser has to buy dinner and the tab tends to get steep.   “I’ve really taken advantage of it,” Spieth said. “One time I brought 20 people along.” Spieth recalls holing out somewhere in the neighborhood of 23 or 24 times in 2015 en route to winning the Masters and U.S. Open, which set the bar so high that Greller was able to win the following year and enjoy dinner on Spieth at Cafe Sydney during the week of the Australian Open. But Greller wasn’t too happy about winning last year’s bet when Spieth figures he dunked only eight shots all season — a career low. His two hole-out round Friday was a flash back to his 2015 glory days. “This feels more like the way it should be, to be honest. It’s like me, I guess,” Spieth said. “I told Michael I already have more (hole outs) than all of last year combined…so at least I won that bet already.” Spieth’s short game has helped him overcome a crooked driver — he’s hit just 11 of 28 fairways, but color fellow former Texas Longhorn Jhonattan Vegas impressed with Spieth’s ability to scramble. “You’re going to miss shots around this golf course, which he has, we all have, but he manages to do his scrambling a lot better than a lot of us, so game’s looking good,” said Vegas, who backed up a first-round 67 with a 71. “I thought he’s supposed to be in a slump?” a reporter asked. “If that looks like a slump, I want to be on it for the rest of my career,” Vegas said. Spieth shares the top spot on a crowded leaderboard with Canadian Corey Conners, Korean K.H. Lee, and Americans Adam Schenk and Harold Varner III. What Spieth’s four co-leaders all share in common is that they’ve neither won on the PGA TOUR nor have they qualified for the Masters yet. (Only Conners, the 2014 U.S. Amateur runner-up, has ever played in a Masters.) Conners is playing out of category 32a this season, the No. 126-150 finishers on the prior season’s FedExCup points list, and had to survive a 6-for-1 playoff in a Monday Qualifier this week just to earn his way into the field. “Just pumped to be out here,” said Conners, who shot 67 and is 8 under this week on hole Nos. 14-18. “I hit the ball really well, and never got myself out of position except for No. 10, where I drove it a little right. Other than that, it was really solid ball-striking. I was able to make some putts.” Lee held the solo lead until he made bogey at his final hole and settled for 67. Lee, 27, withdrew after the first round of the Valspar Championship in March with a left hip flexor injury, but said medicine and stretching had made a difference. “Not withdrawing this week,” he said with a smile. Schenk and Varner III both posted 66, tied for the low round of the 72 players in the morning wave on Friday. Varner is coming off a stretch where he’s missed three cuts in his last five starts and his best result is a pedestrian T-51. “Every year I’ve had some type of stretch where I’ve not played well and I think that was my stretch,” Varner said. Schenk, 27, started on the back nine and raced out to a hot start with five birdies. He’s trying not to look ahead and think of the perks that come with a first-time victory. But if he were to earn the last spot into the Masters awarded to the champion of the Valero Texas Open, he’s bound to have a better experience than the one time he attended Augusta National as a patron at a practice round with his Purdue University teammates. “I lost my wallet and was sick and laid down and slept the whole time,” Schenk said. Tonight, he just might get to sleep on a share of his first PGA TOUR lead.

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Tiger Woods has two weeks to get his game ready for Carnoustie and The Open. What’s good, what’s bad, what needs works? We take a look.

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AVONDALE, La. – Jon Rahm and his teammate Ryan Palmer have increased their candy intake this week. For every birdie they make, Rahm’s caddie Adam Hayes feeds them one Skittle – a fun little reward that also has helped keep their sugar level intact during some long days at TPC Louisiana. The Rahm-Palmer team has made 24 birdies this week, which explains why they share the 54-hole lead at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with the team of Scott Stallings-Trey Mullinax. Of course, they may also want to avoid stepping on a scale anytime soon. “We’ve got to keep it going,� Rahm said. “It’s been working out pretty good.� “It’s only eight or nine Skittles a round,� added Palmer. The Skittles consumption, though, will likely be reduced Sunday, since the final round uses the Foursomes alternate-shot format. Unlike in Four-balls, in which birdies are plentiful and bogeys are rare, Foursomes produce fewer low rounds and more danger, as teams can easily go off the rails if both players are struggling. A year ago, the team of Kevin Kisner-Scott Brown entered the final round with the lead before stumbling to a 5-over 77. The two teams tied for second also shot over par. That opened the door for Billy Horschel-Scott Piercy, who carded a 67 – one of just seven rounds in the 60s that Sunday. In 2017, the first year of the team competition, Foursomes was played in the third round, with just five rounds posted in the 60s.Three of the teams near the top of the standings shot 74 or worse. “There’s a lot more opportunity for something disastrous to happen in Foursomes,� said Austin Cook, who is tied for sixth with teammate Andrew Landry. Indeed, while Four-balls is all about aggressiveness, Foursomes can leave players in a defensive posture, not wanting to make a mistake or an errant shot and leave his partner in a bind. “Stepping a little bit back, getting a little bit more defensive,� said Branden Grace, who is one shot off the pace with South African teammate Justin Harding after they posted 12 birdies in a third-round best 61. Grace-Harding have made 26 birdies this week. “I don’t think it’s defensive. I just think you’re playing more aware of the situation,� said Stallings. “The last thing you want to do is put your partner in a tough spot. “I don’t want to hear him be like, ‘Oh, man I didn’t want to hit a bad shot for you.’ We would rather be, ‘Man, I was trying to execute the shot and I didn’t do it.’ That’s a completely different mindset.� Related: Tee times | Rahm/Palmer an unusual partnership that works | Grace/Harding a potential International Team duo? | Day/Scott team misses cut at TPC Louisiana Several teams have no-apology agreements in order to avoid the guilt of a bad shot. One of those teams is Rahm-Palmer, whose second-round 65 is the lowest score in Foursomes in the three years of the Zurich Classic’s team format. “We were on fire at the right time, and that’s why the score was so low,� Palmer said. “Hopefully tomorrow we can do the same thing.� Of course, there is a strategic element with Foursomes, with teams having to alternate tee shots. Stallings, for instance, is determined to put driver in the hand of the longer-hitting Mullinax as many times as possible. The difference in their length was so evident on Saturday that Stallings noticed CBS on-course reporter Dottie Pepper laughing. Experience might also help out. Sergio Garcia and Tommy Fleetwood, who are tied for sixth, four shots back, were Ryder Cup teammates in Paris last year, with Fleetwood winning all of his matches with partner Francesco Molinari. Garcia, of course, has been a mainstay on the European team for years. Asked if they had the experience advantage, Garcia replied: “Maybe a little bit, but at the end of the day, it just comes down to playing. If you play well, (even) if you don’t have experience, if you keep hitting good shots, it’s going to work.� “It’s very, very different. The rhythm is different,� added Fleetwood. “If you’re not playing that great, it’s tougher to get back into a rhythm. … It’s a more difficult format. There’s less leeway. But I think that suits us.� Essentially, it’s about staying out of trouble. “The biggest thing tomorrow is just eliminating bogeys,� Landry said. “Tons of pars, tons of opportunity on every single hole to try to make a birdie. Just give ourselves good looks all day long.� Rahm-Palmer had seven birdies in Foursomes in the second round, so a low score could still be achieved. But the previous two years at the Zurich Classic have shown that weekend Foursomes can be nearly as eerie as the above-ground tombs that dot the local cemeteries. Best to step carefully and let others wade into the scary parts.

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