Jordan Spieth Soars Up CJ Cup Byron Nelson Leaderboard With Lowest Round in a Year

A Friday 62 had Spieth one stroke off the lead after his early round, looking for his first win since 2022.

Jordan Spieth fired a 62 on Friday at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Jordan Spieth’s head was hurting.

That’s because after the second round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, he was trying to think of his group’s best ball score.

“I think it was 57, which is pretty good,” Spieth said.

Indeed.

In his hometown tournament, where he made his Tour debut as a high schooler at Dallas Jesuit in 2010, Spieth fired a bogey-free 9-under 62 on Friday morning at TPC Craig Ranch to get to 12 under, one stroke off the lead. It was Spieth’s lowest round since a final-round 62 at this same event a year ago.

Spieth’s playing partner, Sungjae Im, edged him by a stroke, though, firing a 61 with a hole-in-one on the par-3 7th. At the end of their round, Im led at 13 under with rookie Kensei Hirata of Japan.

“You're feeding off each other, right?” Speith said. “There’s a lot of good golf going on. … That was one of the prettiest hole-in-ones I’ve ever seen. Prettier than any one I ever made. It's 222 [yards], and the wind is off the left to the left pin. There’s only a few people that would land that left of it on purpose. He might be one of them.”

9 birdies. ZERO bogeys.@JordanSpieth finishes his round in a tie for second @CJByronNelson.

📺 PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/cSvQVnbaO5

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 22, 2026

Spieth, however, had some heroics of his own. When Im made his ace, Spieth had just carded his sixth birdie in a row.

Starting on the back nine, Spieth made a par on No. 18 and was hovering around the expected cut line. So he knew he needed to have a big second nine—and did.

“I thought making the par on 18, hitting the fairway on 1, I just hadn't found any fairways,” the three-time major champion said. “When that happened, I was like, ‘All right, I should get some wedges coming up. My putting feels good today.’ Made some nice adjustments last night.”

This season, Spieth’s ball striking has mostly been superb, but his putting has held him back. Ironically, that wasn’t the case today. He was first in the field in stroke-gained putting, accumulating over three strokes, while being 92nd in stroke-gained off the tee.

Luckily, for Spieth, it doesn’t appear there’s a premium on driving accuracy this week. Brooks Koepka, for example, shot 63 in Round 1, hitting all of three fairways.

“I’ve been driving the ball the best of my life, and I drove it horribly today, like really badly,” said Spieth, who has hit just half of his fairways this week, tied for 130th in the field. “Putting was the best. I felt fluid with it. I felt like I—in what I’ve been trying to do, I’ve been trying to put it all together. I know what needs to happen, but putting it all together into a fluid stroke and then being able to be outwardly focused has been the goal.”

The 32-year-old, who has seven top 25s in 13 starts this season, is looking for his first win since the 2022 RBC Heritage. And there have been signs that he’s close; he just needs to put it all together.

Spieth doesn't think he’s far off. Perhaps Friday was proof of that.

“I got pretty off for a long time,” he said. “I've been trying to build it back, and then I’d compensate and do what worked. This last off-season, I said no more compensating because, to be consistent, I’ve got to get it back to a certain place, and it's been work from then to try to get there. It’s all in mechanics and health.”

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