FORT WORTH, Texas _ Stumbling toward a third consecutive missed cut early in Friday's round at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational, Jordan Spieth's mind was reeling.
"It was in my head," said Spieth, who won this event last year. "I normally never talk about the cut line, and it was in my head."
Mired at 3-over par for the tournament through his fifth hole Friday at Colonial Country Club _ precariously close to the cut line at the time _ Spieth resurrected his second round with five birdies that led to a 2-under 68 and 36-hole score of 138.
"I stepped up and hit shots when I needed to hit them, and trusted them and picked the right lines through the greens," he said. "I felt really good about the way we played the last 14 holes. About as solid as the entire year."
By day's end, the cut line for the tournament was 4-over 145, so Spieth is safely into the weekend.
Spieth's two most recent outings, the AT&T Byron Nelson and The Players Championship, ended with missed cuts. The Dallas native had never missed three straight cuts since joining the PGA Tour as a regular in 2012.
"Yeah, when your back is against the wall and you feel the nerves kick up because you know you got to do something or you're not going to be able to play both weekends in town," the DDI defending champion said. "That would've been really, really tough for me to swallow if I missed this cut."
Spieth's opening-round 70 included six birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey. Friday's round, starting from the 10th hole, opened with a par.
Then things got ugly with bogeys on the 11th, 12th and 14th holes.
"First five holes that looked eerily similar to the last two Fridays that I've played. I stuck in there," Spieth said. "I made a great bogey save that was the key to my round on the 14th hole.
"From there I hit great putts the rest of the round, right on my lines. Felt like I had good rhythm in the strokes. Speed was nice."
Spieth made five birdies in the span of eight holes:
_No. 15 _ From 35 feet.
_No. 1 _ Two putts from 31 feet (par 5 hole)
_No. 2 _ 4 feet.
_No. 4 _ 26 feet.
_No. 5 _ 14 feet.
"Felt like I really got back into a rhythm with the putter today," he said. "That was the best putting I've had in a long time. Really, really important bounce-back there."
After his round, Spieth headed to the range.
"This wind has got me a little up in the air, which is normal," he said. "Just got to get to the range and kind of nail it back to where it was yesterday."
Four strokes behind the lead group of four tied at 134, suddenly Spieth likes his chances this weekend.
"Needed it big time," he said. "We worked from missing the cut into contention, and so I feel good."
