In the opening round of the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open, Jordan Spieth registered a 7-under 65 on the North Course, good enough to place him just three strokes back of leader Jon Rahm heading into Friday.
The putter was working just fine, thank you very much.
Jordan Spieth used another strong putting round to shoot 65 on Torrey Pines’ North Course on Thursday in Southern California. He is alone in fifth place, and his 22 putts were one short of his career-low, according to the Golf Channel’s Justin Ray.
He hit just five fairways in the Farmers Insurance Open’s first round, though.
“I scored tremendously well because I made a lot of putts,” he said. "It’s good to have to scramble and to make a lot of putts to keep rounds going. That was a great round considering some of the spots I was in.”
Spieth has shot 11-under 131 (66-65) over his last two rounds on the PGA TOUR. This is the first time since last April that he shot consecutive rounds of 66 or lower.
His putting struggles have received plenty of attention, but he has seen improvement since the opening round of his last tournament, the Sony Open in Hawaii. He missed the cut there, but shot 66 in the second round.
“I’ve just been riding with it since,” he said. “It’s really nice to see them go in from anywhere.”
This is Spieth’s first appearance in the Farmers Insurance Open since 2015. He’s missed the cut in two of his three appearances. Thursday’s 65 was just his second sub-70 round at this tournament. He shot 63 on the North Course in the second round five years ago.
He is 9 over par in five career rounds on Torrey Pines’ South Course, which he will play Friday. He’s shot 75 in each of his last three rounds there and has never shot lower than 71.