Newz(AP) — Jordan Spieth believes he’s playing better golf and he finally got a score to show for it Thursday. He was bogey-free for a 5-under 65 that gave him a four-way share of the lead in the FedEx St. Jude Championship and boosted his hopes of extending his season.
Rocket Classic champion Michael Thorbjornsen, Jake Knapp, Michael Kim and Kurt Kitayama also opened with 65s in the sweltering heat at the TPC Southwind. Spieth and Kim are outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the BMW Championship next week. This is the second straight year Spieth, at No.
54 and winless in more than four years, has been on the bubble going into the postseason. 48 a year ago and fell out of the top 50. He said the difference is the way he feels he is playing, even though he is the only player from the top 70 who qualified who has yet to register a top 10 this year.
“I’m just in a very different place about the game of golf than I was the last couple seasons heading into this event,” Spieth said. “Again, if it’s going to work out, great. If it doesn’t, I know next year is going to be an awesome year for me.
So it takes a lot of the stress off of this week.” Kim is at No. 61 and likely would need to finish at least 11th to have a chance to move on. But it’s just one round, and it was crowded at the top.
Seven players, including defending FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Gary Woodland and Adam Scott — were at 66. Four others were another stroke back. So much emphasis is on getting into the top 50 because that locks up all the $20 million signature events for next season.
Summary from source