ORLANDO, Fla. – It was the most Jordan Spieth of Jordan Spieth rounds.
Day 1 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational started well enough with Spieth playing his first six holes in 3 under but on the par-3 seventh hole things began to get interesting with a 32-foot birdie putt he left 5 feet short – bogey.
At the par-4 eighth hole, a wayward drive forced a layup and another bogey. That was followed by a third dropped shot at the ninth with another three-putt.
“It’s tough to get off the bogey train once you start making them,” Spieth said.
The adventure continued on the second nine with birdies at Nos. 11, 12 and 14, followed by a bogey-6 at the 16th hole that included a tee shot that sailed out of bounds. He closed his round with a 23-footer for birdie at the last for a 3-under 69.
“I think it was more solid than maybe the scorecard dictates. I hit a lot of fairways today. I hit a lot of greens. Ended up three-putting a couple that I left too short on the first putt. That’s unusual,” he said. “The mistakes that I made, I feel like I can clean up, and there weren’t a whole lot of them.”
