Golf roundup: Spieth shakes off slow start at Nassau

Spieth’s second round score was matched by fellow leader Bill Haas and they were joined on 11 under par by fellow American Jimmy Walker who shot a 67 in Albany.

The scenery and tropical sunshine made it feel like a working vacation, and a gentle breeze off the tip of New Providence island only added to the relaxation.

“When we started rolling the greens and mowing them down at tournament height, and then the sun came out, we had a situation in a lot of places where you couldn’t differentiate between the collar and the green”, said Mark Russell, the tour’s vice president of competition. Rarely has this holiday event with an 18-man field featured so many players near the lead.

“[It was] a rough start, but it was a great bounce-back to get seven birdies after being one over through four holes”. He traveled from Sydney, Australia, to the Bahamas (with a brief stop at home in Dallas to do laundry) and began his push up the leaderboard with an eagle on the par-5 11th hole from about 30 feet.

With the table-toppers at 11-under 133, Patrick Reed (65), Chris Kirk (65) and Bubba Watson (67) were one shot behind.

Spieth could have taken sole leadership of the competition had it not been for bogies on the third and fifth holes, but he recovered with a further five birdies to ensure a share of the lead. “Coming off how much golf we’ve been playing, I’m still going to be about making sure I’m resting….”

“Absolutely flushed it right at the hole and didn’t think it went in”, Spieth said.

Paul Casey, who shared the first-round lead after opening with a 66, lost ground on the leaders when he dropped shots at 15 and 16 in a disappointing 70.

“I believe I can get better certainly in different specific parts of my game and I can grow mentally as a player as well”, he said.

“I started hitting it a little bit better….”

Spieth, the reigning US Open and Masters champion, used a 6-iron from 172 yards for his hole-in-one and followed with a bogey-free round that included birdies at the seventh and back-to-back at the 14th and par-5 15th.

Walker also went a shot over on two holes, but things could have been worse had he not made a fantastic shot from the bunker to set up a birdie on the 15th.