Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth barely eeked into the weekend at the Valspar Championship but made their presence felt on Saturday at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort.
Spieth got things going early by making three birdies in his first four holes and went out in 2-under. Thomas went out in 1-under before hitting the jets with an eagle at the par-5 11th. Thomas followed with birdies on 12, 13 and 14 before a bogey at 15 briefly stalled his momentum. But the two-time major winner responded with a birdie at 16 to come in 30 and card a 6-under-par 65. He currently sits at 5-under.
Spieth, meanwhile, made three birdies and a bogey on the back nine to shoot 4-under on the day and is 3-under for the tournament.
Thomas and Spieth have played all three rounds together at the Valspar Championship this week. The last time they did that was at the 2018 Players Championship. The two close friends feed off each other’s energy during rounds like Saturday, and Thomas hopes a certain U.S. Ryder Cup captain was taking note as he and Spieth zoomed up the leaderboard.
“I think both of us would probably be lying if we said no,” Thomas said when asked if he and Spieth feel like they are playing head-to-head when paired together. “I mean, he got it going. Hopefully, Keegan was watching. I think we had a good best ball today. But, I mean, a little bit. We obviously enjoy each other’s company and have played and are comfortable playing with each other and played a lot of golf together. But definitely makes it a lot better when you’re out a little earlier than you would like on a Saturday morning, but you can kind of get the crowd into it. And we made a couple putts there on 4 and then he made a long one there on 7 and it seemed like that kind of got the crowd going and that’s fun for us.”
“At the end, I wanted to get to where I was tied with him so we could just play again tomorrow,” Spieth said. “But we always want to beat each other when we’re playing with each other, and that pushes us to play better. But the last couple times, he’s gotten the better of me, so … and he was going to be hard to beat at 6-under today.”
Spieth struggled with an uncooperative putter during the middle of the round before draining a 21-foot birdie on 17. Now in his sixth event back following offseason wrist surgery, Spieth feels like he’s finally rounding into form with the Masters less than three weeks away.
“So it was nice to see one go in on 17, and I feel good with the putter in my hands,” Spieth said. “I just would like to be a little more fluid on some of the shorter ones and I feel like I’ve created enough opportunities tee to green, big improvements from last week in approach play. It just shows that this is really where I’m at, and last week was kind of a fluke on that golf course. So I feel really good about where the game’s at, I feel like I’m playing better than I’m scoring this week and that’s a good thing, especially if you’re not winning.”
