Steve Stricker fights back pain to shoot 65 in Fort Worth

FORT WORTH, Texas — Steve Stricker was worried about withdrawing from the first round of the Fort Worth Invitational. Now he’s near the top of the leaderboard. Stricker felt his back crack on his fourth hole on Thursday and had trouble walking on his front nine. He signed for a 5-under 65 at Colonial Country Club, though, and was two back of leader Charley Hoffman after the morning wave completed play. Stricker, who won at Colonial in 2009, started Thursday’s round on the 10th tee at 8:06 a.m. The pain hit when he made impact with his 6-iron tee shot on the par-3 13th. He bogeyed the hole to fall to 2 over par. “I felt my lower-back crack right where I had surgery back in 2014, pretty much right on the spot,â€� Stricker said. “I tried to walk to the green and that wasn’t going so well. It kind of tightened up on me. “There were a couple times there where I was wondering if I should even be trying, if I should walk off and not risk injuring it some more.â€� He did keep going, and mounted an impressive comeback around the turn. He was 7 under par and bogey-free on his final 14 holes. He played the six-hole stretch from Nos. 15-2 in 6 under, including an eagle on the par-5 first hole, where he holed out from a greenside bunker. He added another birdie on the par-4 seventh to match his lowest score of the season. “It didn’t look or feel very good for a while,â€� he said. “I somehow just managed through it. It seemed to kind of loosen up and let go the more I kept playing. “I just kept plodding along.â€� Stricker, 51, has two wins and two runner-ups in four individual starts on PGA TOUR Championship. He’s made the cut in four of six PGA TOUR events in 2018. Stricker is No. 149 in the FedExCup standings, and needs some good finishes to make it back to the postseason. He has failed to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs just once (2015) in the 11 years since the FedExCup’s inception. This is his third consecutive week of competition. He finished T23 at THE PLAYERS and runner-up at the Regions Tradition, one of PGA TOUR Champion’s majors. “I’ve been feeling fatigued the last week or so. I don’t know if that has played a role in it. Maybe I’m old and I’ve played too much,â€� Stricker said. “It was a little scary. It was a pretty good crack and I had no idea what had happened.â€� He said that he would seek further treatment and diagnosis after his round and would skip Thursday’s post-round practice session to rest his back. NEW PUTTER PAYS OFF FOR HOFFMAN This is Hoffman’s 10th start at the Fort Worth Invitational, and seventh in a row. He’s never missed a cut at Hogan’s Alley, but he’s hardly found himself in contention, either. He has just one top-10 — a T10 in 2015 — at Colonial. That could change this week. Hoffman’s 63 on Thursday was his low round at Colonial by two shots. He missed just two greens and three fairways and didn’t record a bogey. A new putter helped Hoffman have his low round of the season by three shots. He gained more than two strokes on the greens Thursday. He dispatched the putter that he’s used for the past five years for a heavier one. “It worked today,” he said. “Putting is a fickle part of the game, so hopefully the good mojo continues.” Hoffman is one of just two players (Phil Mickelson) to qualify for the BMW Championship in every FedExCup season. That event is reserved for the top 70 in the FedExCup. Hoffman is 95th in this season’s standings, though. He has failed to record a top-10 in 15 events. NOTABLES Rickie Fowler shot 67 in his first round at Colonial since 2014. Fowler, who started on the 10th hole, made four birdies in a five-hole stretch from Nos. 15-1. Hitting fairways is a high priority at Colonial, so Fowler added a 2-iron to his bag to use from the tee this week. “That’s the name of the game on this golf course, get it in the short grass,â€� Fowler said. Jordan Spieth opened with a 1-under 69, his 17th sub-par score in 21 rounds at Colonial. His putting struggles continued Thursday, as he lost more than 1.5 strokes on the greens. He three-putted from 9 feet on the sixth hole, his 15th of the day, but birdied the next hole to get under par. He also was 0 for 2 from 7-10 feet on Thursday.

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