Two shots ahead with one hole to go, Jordan Spieth had the option to finish the 18th and final hole in the rain-hit second round of the US $ 3.5 million Hero World Challenge. But looking for a second win in as many weeks and in different ends of the world, Spieth decided to come back in the morning to finish the hole and avoid any errors.
The afternoon stoppage lasting just over an hour and a half delayed play and the last two groups – Steve Stricker-Rickie Fowler and Spieth-Zach Johnson – were engulfed in darkness. While Fowler from second last group and Johnson from lead pair decided to finish, Stricker and Spieth chose to come back in the morning to complete the hole.
The 21-year-old Texan Spieth had moved to 11-under with one hole to play and was two clear of Henrik Stenson (67-68), while Patrick Reed, who donned the 'Tiger's Sunday colours – red and black – set the course alight with a nine-under 63, after a first round 73. Reed was seven-under for the front nine with five birdies and an eagle, and admitted to thoughts of a sub-60 at one stage. But he finished at nine-under 63 with a two-under 34 on back nine.
Starting from second last overnight at one-over 73 after 18 holes, he zoomed to tied third at eight-under after 36 holes. Another low round came from nearby Lake Nona resident Justin Rose, who was one-over after five, but then birdied nine of his next 13 holes for a round of 64 to move to tied third with Reed. Rose had an even par on Thursday.
Tiger Woods, who was four-under dropped a double bogey on the last to finish at 70 and at three-over, he was still 18th and last. The sharp afternoon downpour halted play for a little over 90 minutes which meant the late starters were reduced to playing in near darkness towards the end.
When asked if the rain was helpful, Spieth said, "Yeah, there was no wind. There was two miles an hour wind afterwards, just dead. It was nice. The greens were receptive. The hardest part was not spinning it too much with some of the wedges coming in."
He added, "So it was nice for us. The greens putted a little slower. I left a couple short after my tendency the first couple days had been to hit them a little too hard. So they significantly slowed down, but the conditions got a lot easier." And he made good use of that to put himself in a position to have to back-to-back wins.
Spieth seemed rather subdued on the front nine as he holed to birdies on the third and seventh and in between he had a double bogey on sixth. Spieth with birdies on 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 16th was five under for the back nine and five-under for the round when he marked his ball and took the option to return on Saturday morning to complete the 18th.
He had reached the turn level after two birdies and a double bogey but the birdies on back nine saw him move past Stenson. He said, "If I did it over again, I may have stopped playing on 17 but I thought we may be able to get it in (finish) here. With a tricky lie down there into the green it's just a good idea to hit that pitch tomorrow, because I knew I wouldn't want putt in darkness."
Stenson carded a 68 and he may well have been alongside Spieth were it not for bogeys on 15 and 16 which dropped him into second after six birdies in his first 13 holes. The star of the day was Reed, who followed a first round 73 with a 63. He admitted that after turning in seven-under 29, he did think of sub-60.
He said, "After I birdied 10 it kind of got in my mind, but I thought it for about hole 11 and 12 and after that I was like, 'you just need to get back and play golf'.'" He added three more birdies and dropped one bogey and ended the day at nine-under.
Rose was also on eight under courtesy of a 64 which saw him birdie nine of his last 13 holes after dropping over par for the day with a double bogey on five. Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker were a further shot back with Jason Day, Keegan Bradley, Chris Kirk and Zach Johnson all on six under.
Woods opened with a birdie but gave that shot back on eight before an eagle on the par-five 13th brought his round to life. A birdie followed on 14 and another on 16 had Woods four under for the day but a rain delay of around 90 minutes after he came off 17 halted his momentum and a double bogey on the last meant he was three-over for the tournament.
"It wasn't a whole lot different,' he said. "I maybe hit two less worse shots than I did yesterday, but it really wasn't that much different." "Sometimes it takes me a few holes, sometimes it can only take me a shot to feel like I'm back into tournament mode," he added. "It all depends on my preparation, but also it depends on my feels."
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