Na leads Colonial golf by two shots

Kevin Na has a two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Crowne Plaza Invitational in Texas.

The American went without a bogey in the second round until his final hole on Friday, finishing with a four-under-par 66 at a soggy Colonial.

He is 10 under for the tournament with Englishman Ian Poulter outright second at eight under after shooting a round of three under.

Na had 26 bogey-free holes in a row until his tee shot at the 18th went into a rain-swollen drainage culvert and was swept away by flowing water.

He two-putted from 20 feet after his approach to the back side of the green for what he called a “good bogey.”

Na also made some long birdie putts.

His 30-footer off the fringe at No. 14 came right after rolling in a 22-footer at the 13th, where he broke into a dance for the rowdy fans surrounding the par three situated on the edge of Hogan’s Alley.

“I want to call it the Big Bird dance. … It just came out. I wasn’t really thinking about it,” the 31-year-old Na said.

“You know, the crowd has been very supportive. I felt like I was from Texas.”

Boo Weekley was third at seven under after a 69, while Masters champion Jordan Spieth had a day to forget.

Spieth was alone in the lead before losing four strokes in a two-hole span.

He finished with a three-over 73, nine strokes worse than his opening round that had him in a four-way tie on top.

Spieth finished the day seven shots off the lead at three under while Marc Leishman was the best-placed Australian in a tie for sixth at five under after carding a round of one under.

“I had a goal in mind, and it was a higher score than (Thursday) given the conditions,” said Spieth, the 21-year-old Dallas player playing consecutive weeks at home in North Texas.

About the same time that Poulter rolled in a 14-foot birdie putt at the sixth hole to get to eight under, Spieth was making a bogey two holes back after he missed the green at the challenging par-3 fourth and didn’t make a 6-foot par-saver to drop to seven under.

Spieth followed with a triple bogey at the fifth, taking a drop in the rough after hitting his tee shot way right into a hazard adjacent to the Trinity River.

His approach rattled around in the upper branches of a tree before dropping about 75 yards short of the green.

With a steady rain falling, Spieth then missed a four-foot birdie try at the sixth and bogeyed the par-3 eighth from a greenside bunker.

“That’s kind of unlike me. It’s not something I do, compound mistakes,” Spieth said.

“I had chances to bounce back there, and wasn’t able to do it.”

With more inclement weather expected on Saturday, including the possibility of severe storms in the afternoon, players in the third round will be grouped in threesomes instead of the normal twosomes.

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