SAINTE-JULIE, Que. – A field of 29 fought against 60km/h winds at Club de Golf La Vallée du Richelieu, with Gianfranco Guida, Jean-Philip Cornellier, Tim Alarie, and Marc-Étienne Bussières earning exemptions into the 2016 RBC Canadian Open Final Qualifier on July 18.

Guida of Maple, Ont., stayed bogey-free through 15 holes with a birdie on 13 and an eagle on 14 to claim a share of the top spot.

“It was playing really tough because of the wind, but the greens were very pure,” he said. “Playing golf in Australia really taught me how to play into the wind. You just have to hit a lot of knockdowns and you have to know what clubs to hit.”

The 27-year-old is hoping that the final qualifier will lead to a spot in the RBC Canadian Open field. “My career is at the tipping point of whether I’m going to continue doing it. I’m glad in the sense that hopefully if I get through it will be big validation, and I can continue playing and find it easier to find funding.”

Co-leader Jean-Philip Cornellier of St-Césaire, Que., tallied four birdies on the day, two of which came back-to-back on holes 14 and 15. Tim Alarie of St-Jérôme, Que., and Sherbrooke, Que., native Marc-Étienne Bussières also finished with matching 72s.

At T5, former Team Canada Development Squad member Étienne Papineau (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.), Chad Merzbacher (Eden Prairie, Minn.), and Pierre-Alexandre Bédard (Chibougamau, Que.) will join Guida, Cornellier, Alarie, and Bussières at the Final Qualifier at Heron Point Golf Links in Ancaster, Ont., on July 18.

In total, there are three regional qualifying events, each consisting of 18 holes of stroke play. Provided that there are 100 or more players in the field, the low qualifier receives an exemption directly into the 2016 RBC Canadian Open. Otherwise, the top 15 per cent of finishers at each qualifier become eligible to compete at the final qualifying event.

A minimum of four players from the 18-hole stroke play final qualifier will gain entry into the RBC Canadian Open field.

There is one RBC Canadian Open Regional Qualifier left to be played:

• June 20 – King’s Forest Golf Club, Hamilton, Ont.

Additional information regarding the RBC Canadian Open Regional Qualifier in Quebec can be found here.

DUBLIN, Ohio – William McGirt won for the first time in 165 starts on the PGA Tour, and the timing couldn’t have been better.

McGirt played the final 22 holes of the Memorial without a bogey, and his 6-foot par on the second extra hole to beat Jon Curran, earn a handshake from host Jack Nicklaus and move high enough in the world ranking (No. 43) to get into the U.S. Open in two weeks at Oakmont.

He had to work harder than ever for his first victory.

McGirt, who made one birdie in his closing round of 1-under 71, kept it steady as everyone around him was falling apart on the back nine. His final par in regulation was the most important, a two-putt from 65 feet to join Curran in a playoff.

Curran showed his mettle, too, hitting out of a fairway bunker on the 17th hole to 7 feet for a birdie that carried him to a 70.

They finished at 15-under 273, one shot ahead of Dustin Johnson (71), with Rory McIlroy (68) among those two shots behind.

McGirt was in trouble on the first playoff hole until he played expertly from the deep bunker short and left of the green, using the slope behind the hole for the ball to roll back to a few feet for par. Curran missed his 25-foot birdie putt for the win.

Returning to the 18th for the third time, both players were in trouble. McGirt went over the green from the fairway. Curran went from a fairway bunker into the gallery, pitched long and two-putted for bogey. McGirt played a superb flop shot than ran out just over 6 feet from the cup, and he clenched his fist before it even dropped in.

It was the third straight year the Memorial was won by a first-time PGA Tour champion, following David Lingmerth and Hideki Matsuyama.

Jason Day, a Muirfield Village member who had never cracked the top 25, kept that streak going even though he started Sunday in contention. Day closed with a 74 finished in a tie for 27th, matching his best finish at the Memorial.

Twenty players were separated by four shots going into the final round, and not much changed throughout the day. What finally brought some separation were mistakes, and the surprise was that it came from players with far more experience winning than Curran or McGirt.

Matt Kuchar, the 2013 winner at Muirfield Village, had the lead at 16 under when he played too far away from the pin at the par-3 12th and made bogey, and then effectively took himself out of the tournament when it took two shots to get out of a fairway bunker on the next hole in making double bogey.

Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, who began the PGA Tour season by winning the Frys.com Open, was the first to get to 16 under. It didn’t last long. He began the back nine with four straight bogeys and never quite recovered.

Johnson also had a share of the lead at 16 under until a bogey to start the back nine and a long three-putt bogey on the 12th. He was still in the game until missing a 6-foot par putt on the 16th hole, and his birdie at the final hole was too late. It was his fifth top-five finish this season.

Gary Woodland also was in prime position to win until he ran off three straight bogeys around the turn, and his hopes ended when he failed to get up-and-down from behind the 17th green.

Instead, the final act belonged to Curran and McGirt, neither of whom had ever won on the PGA Tour.

Curran, who plays out of the Bear’s Club that Nicklaus built in south Florida, lost in a five-way playoff a year ago in the Puerto Rico Open. McGirt has had a couple of close calls, including a 54-hole lead at Riviera in 2015 and missing the playoff by one shot in Mississippi last fall.

They both played down the stretch as if they had been in this position before.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., shot 74 and slipped into a tie for 11th place at -11. David Hearn of Brantford, Ont,, has completed his round in 68 strokes to tie for 27th at -9.

DUBLIN, Ohio – A storm system that rolled through Muirfield Village late Saturday only further muddled the outlook at the Memorial.

Emiliano Grillo had the lead, came back from a 2 1/2-hour delay and promptly made double bogey. Matt Kuchar was rolling along after recovering from a freak bounce early in his round only to chop his way to bogey on the final hole.

Kuchar, who shared the 54-hole lead with Gary Woodland and William McGirt, sized up the final round when someone asked what it would take to win.

“You’re guess is as good as mine,” he said.

Kuchar rallied from a rough start and wound up with a 2-under 70 to join Woodland (69) and McGirt (64) at 14-under 202. The starting times were moved up for Sunday with players going off both tees in an effort to beat more bad weather in the forecast, which is easier to predict than the winner.

Twenty players were separated by four shots. Eight of them have never won on the PGA Tour. Three of them can avoid U.S. Open qualifying if they were to win.

And all of them would like nothing more than to relish a winner’s handshake with tournament host Jack Nicklaus.

That includes the No. 1 player in the world.

Jason Day, a Muirfield Village member who has never finished in the top 25 at the Memorial, ran off two quick birdies to get within one of the lead, only to watch a chip roll back past him into the fairway on the 18th hole for a double bogey and a 68. He was three shots behind.

Rory McIlroy was making headway until he dropped a shot at the last for a 70 that put him five back.

The other member of the modern Big Three never recovered from his mistakes. Jordan Spieth, after two quick birdies, went through a stretch of poor swings and missed putts, dropped four shots in a six-hole stretch. He had a 74 and was 10 behind.

So many others were still in the game, although Grillo appeared the least happy. He was at 15 under and on the 17th tee when he says an official told him to wait because the horn was getting ready to sound. It did a minute later, and Grillo said he would have rather hit.

When he returned, his tee shot went deep in the rough, he hacked out to the fairway, just missed the green to the left and took double bogey.

“I had to go home with 10 shots instead of eight, or maybe seven, the way I was playing,” he said. “But it is what it is, and tomorrow will be another day.”

He was at 13-under 203, along with Abbotsford, B.C., native Adam Hadwin (67), Jon Curran (68) and Dustin Johnson, who returned from the delay to tap in a short birdie putt for a 68.

David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., shot 72 to tie for 51st.

Woodland and McGirt are among dozens of players who face 36 holes of U.S. Open qualifying Monday, but they can take care of that with a victory, which would put both well inside the top 60 when the cutoff falls a week later. A victory for Scott Brown, three shots back after a 69, likely would do the same.

“I’m feeling pretty confident about where my game is,” said Woodland, who has made only one bogey in 54 holes at Muirfield Village. “I’ve been playing well for a while, and it’s starting to come together.”

McGirt cares only about winning. He has gone 164 starts on the PGA Tour, and he figures it’s about time. He played like it Saturday, going 5 under through his opening five holes with an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole. McGirt dropped a shot on the tough par-3 16th, answered with a birdie and signed for a 64.

“This game owes you nothing,” McGirt said. “I feel like I’ve put myself in position a few times, and it’s one of those things where you kind of have to screw it up a couple of times before you learn. I feel like every time I’ve been in this position I’ve learned something. So hopefully, tomorrow, if I can make it work out, it would be good.”

Kuchar won the Memorial three years ago. Johnson is a powerful presence at any tournament.

And then there’s Day.

He was determined to show he can play the Memorial better than he has, though little mistakes have held him back. Just short of the 18th, he had a pitch mark behind his ball on a delicate shot, caught it fat and watched it roll off the false front (the pin was in front), past his feet and back to the fairway.

“At the start of the day, if they said you’re going to shoot a 68, I would have taken it,” he said. “I think I played pretty good. I hit a lot better than I did yesterday, and there’s a lot of positives going into tomorrow.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – Two matches at home against Phil Mickelson made Brendan Steele feel inadequate. Two rounds at the Memorial gave him a share of the lead.

Steele put in a little more work and it paid off over two days in soft conditions at Muirfield Village. He had a 5-under 67 on Friday and was tied for the lead with past Memorial champion Matt Kuchar (66) going into a wide-open weekend.

Steele, whose only PGA Tour victory was in his rookie season five years ago, took the last two weeks off to attend a wedding, go fishing with his father and venture over to San Diego to play a few games with Mickelson at The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe.

“He just drummed around for a couple days, so I knew that I needed to really work hard on my game when I got here,” Steele said.

The mathematical definition of getting drummed turned out to be 2 and 1 on the first day, 5 and 4 on the second day.

“But the second day, he shot 10 under, I just felt like my game was very inferior to his,” Steele said.

He made a quick fix with swing coach Rick Smith, had time for a few more tweaks, and he took that straight to the course for solid play over the last two days. And while there was nothing at stake, he has Mickelson by five shots at the moment.

Mickelson gets credit for a tip.

“I think it’s hard in an off week to find out where your game is at unless you play against some good competition,” Mickelson said. “It identified the area that he needed to work on. He called up Rick, he came out and worked on it, and now here’s the result. That was kind of the benefit.”

As for the description of Mickelson “drumming” Steele?

“I use a little more flamboyant term, but that’s fine. You can use that,” he said.

Steele and Kuchar were at 12-under 132, the same score that led a year ago.

The scoring was so good, however, that the cut was at 2-under 142, the lowest since Jack Nicklaus started this tournament in 1976.

Jordan Spieth for a brief moment looked as though he might be on the wrong side of it when he opened with two bogeys in four holes. He made six birdies over his last 12 holes for a 68 to at least stay in range, six shots behind at the halfway point.

“The more you think about the cut line, the easier it is to hang around the cut line,” Spieth said. “I looked up at the board when I was at even and I thought, ‘You know, I’m 12 back. That’s a lot. How can we do our best just to do a little dent in it and maybe make some magic happen after that?'”

Rory McIlroy was mildly disappointed with his 66, but only because he played the last seven holes in even par.

“I thought it had the potential to be something quite special after 11 holes,” McIlroy said. “I don’t think you can ever be too disappointed with a 66, but at the same time, it had the potential to be a little bit better.”

Jason Day was thrilled with a 71 because he lost his swing and figured it should have been something in the upper 70s.

All of them are still in the chase, and they have plenty of company.

Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, who won his first PGA Tour event as a member at the Frys.com Open, feasted on the fast greens for a 66 and was one shot behind with Gary Woodland, who has quietly gone about rounds of 68-65. That included a shot into 3 feet for eagle on the par-5 15th.

Dustin Johnson, who opened with a 64, never caught the morning leaders. He had a pair of bogeys on the back nine that slowed him, and he took a double bogey on the par-4 sixth hole. It led to a 71, though he was only three shots behind.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., shot a 6-under 66 to climb into a three-way tie for 9th. Brantford, Ont., native David Hearn is tied for 32nd.

Kuchar also got a tip from Mickelson – a tip of the cap, anyway – when he got up-and-down with a flop shot on his final hole at No. 9 for a share of the lead. Dating to his 68 in the final round of The Players Championship, Kuchar has shot in the 60s in 10 of his last 11 rounds.

“I feel like I’ve put it all together,” Kuchar said. “The tough thing and the great thing about golf is there’s so many facets of the game, so many pieces, that need to come together for you to play well. It seems like some weeks the putter is hot but the driver’s not. If you get them all clicking, it’s great. And it feels like everything’s coming along on good form now.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – Ian Poulter will be out of golf for the next four months with a foot injury, a big setback for the fiery Englishman in a Ryder Cup year.

Poulter has been dealing with an arthritic join in his right foot for more than two years, and it has reached the point where it is painful to walk and practice. He missed the last two cuts on the PGA Tour in Texas and has fallen to No. 85 in the world, his lowest ranking since 2003.

The 40-year-old hasn’t won since the HSBC Champions in 2012.

“I am obviously disappointed to be in this situation, especially during a Ryder Cup year,” Poulter said. “Right now, rest and rehab take priority in me returning to full strength later this season. I look forward to resuming a full schedule as soon as I am able.”

Poulter was far down the Ryder Cup standings, in European Tour money and world ranking points, though his record in the Ryder Cup would have been difficult to ignore if he had found some form in the coming months.

He has been a catalyst for Europe, notably when he sparked the greatest comeback by a visiting team at Medinah in 2012. Poulter birdied his last five holes in the final fourballs match to turn a loss into a point, and he closed an undefeated week with a singles victory as Europe rallied from a 10-6 deficit to win.

Poulter has a 12-4-2 record in five appearances. He would be an ideal candidate as a vice captain. Darren Clarke last week selected Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington and Paul Lawrie as three of his five assistants.

Poulter’s doctor, Ara Suppiah, said the arthritic joint has worsened over the last year, and Poulter was able to keep playing after several cortisone shots. Suppiah said further shots would risk thinning the bones and leading to stress fractures, which might require significant time away from golf.

“We feel that the best option at this stage is to take some time off to allow complete recovery and rehabilitation of his foot,” Suppiah said. “This will give him the best chance of returning to the game sooner and preventing further deterioration of the affected joint.”

Poulter would receive a major medical extension on the PGA Tour for the 2015-16 season if he doesn’t play the rest of the year. He remains exempt on the European Tour based on his No. 7 standing on the career money list.

DUBLIN, Ohio – Dustin Johnson set the pace early with 10 birdies on his way to an 8-under 64 at the Memorial.

Jason Day avoided his aggressive nature to try to catch him Thursday.

One day after Jordan Spieth referred to Johnson as the most talented player on the PGA Tour, Johnson opened with three straight birdies, made three straight birdies to close out the back nine, added four in a row on the back and wound up with his best score in his nine years at Muirfield Village. He had a one-shot lead over Brendan Steele, who holed out for eagle on the 18th for a 65.

For a short time, the big hitter took some of the attention away from the Big Three.

But not all of them.

Day, the No. 1 player in the world and a member at Muirfield Village, played in the afternoon as the clouds began to gather. He rallied on the back nine with three birdies and an eagle, and he wound up two shots behind. That was fine with him. His 66 was his best score in competition on the course Jack Nicklaus built.

“Mr. Nicklaus told me early, ‘Just play within yourself.’ Being patient is key out here,” Day said. “When you see an 8 under, it’s hard to be patient. But pleased.”

Spieth’s putter saved him in a scrappy round of 70.

Rory McIlroy, playing with Spieth, changed back to a conventional putting grip. That helped only so much in his round of 71.

So much attention was on the top three players in the world because of their ranking, having won five of the last seven majors, and because all three arrived at the Memorial coming off victories.

Johnson, with his power and on Thursday his putting, showed why Nicklaus and others think this “Big Three” will only get larger.

“I just played well right out of the gates,” Johnson said. “This year, I’ve felt like I’m playing well. I just haven’t quite played up to my potential. With me, it has everything to do with the putter. I rolled it well today. I’ve been working pretty hard on the putter, and I felt like it’s finally starting to pay off.”

Brantford, Ont., native David Hearn is in a four-way tie for third place after a 6-under 66 day. Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C. is tied for 44th.

Matt Kuchar holed a 15-foot par putt on the 18th hole to join the group at 66 that included Hudson Swafford, who did all his damage on the front nine when he tied the course record with a 29.

Luke Donald was among those at 67, while Phil Mickelson survived a few wild shots for a 68. Mickelson caught a flier out of the rough on the 14th, and it hit off the grandstand and went so far over the green that his best option was to take a penalty and return back to the original spot. He made a 20-foot putt for bogey. Then, he beaned a marshal in the head on the 15th, and it kicked back across the fairway and led to birdie on the par-5 15th.

“I’ve hit a lot of people – a lot of people,” Mickelson said. “Nobody’s taken it as well as that marshal did on 15.”

Day, a 28-year-old Aussie who lives in Columbus after meeting his wife in Ohio, has never finished better than a tie for 27th. He took a big step toward changing that with a patient approach and converting enough opportunities to get his name prominently on the leaderboard.

Johnson’s round was similar to Spieth’s in terms of putting. The difference is Johnson had more putts for birdie. Four of his 10 birdies were from at least 10 feet, including a 30-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole. He also failed to birdie two of the par 5s in his round of 64.

He hasn’t won since Doral in 2015, though he has had 14 top-10 finishes since and only one missed cut.

“Every week, I feel like I’m up there and I’ve got a chance to win,” Johnson said. “With this game, you’ve got to make putts. I mean, it’s just what you’ve got to do.”

Spieth hit only two fairways and three greens on the back nine, but he didn’t pay for it. He holed a 12-foot par putt to start his round on No. 10, and his short game was superb as ever. Dating to his victory at Colonial on Sunday, he had 16 consecutive one-putt greens. The streak ended when he missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the 17th.

“Just didn’t get off to a good start on the first few holes striking, and from there it got me thinking about stuff,” he said. “But my putter made up for it for the most part. To shoot 1 under on my front nine was by far the best that I could have possibly shot.”

The biggest change for McIlroy was going back to a conventional putting grip, even though he won two weeks ago at the Irish Open. He said he took 127 putts at The K Club – his ball-striking was superb – and felt he needed a better pace that the convention grip allows.

Graham DeLaet announced Wednesday he has withdrawn from this week’s PGA Tour event citing a case of anxiety that has affected his play around the greens.

DeLaet, who was just topped by David Hearn as Canada’s highest-ranked Canadian, admitted last week while on a media tour promoting his new beer, Prairie Baard, that he loved Memorial and had good memories from the golf course – thanks to his tremendous performance at the Presidents Cup in 2013.

Although the Weyburn, Sask. product has battled a myriad of injuries in his career in his back, neck, and last year, his hand, he told the Canadian Press earlier this year that physically he’s been feeling good through 2016.

“Probably the best I have been on the PGA Tour, probably since I was on the Canadian Tour, which is promising,” he stated.

DeLaet’s best finish this year was a tie for fifth at the Valspar Championship in March. He had a good chance for his first PGA Tour victory going into Sunday, but was derailed by a 75, a product of a poor putting performance.

“I played great and putted horribly, especially on Sunday. You can’t win golf tournaments like that,” he said.

Although DeLaet has never employed a swing coach, he has worked with a short-game coach in the past, Gabe Hjertstedt. He also took a putting lesson from noted instructor and CBS commentator Peter Kostis at DeLaet’s home club in Arizona earlier this year.

DeLaet was coming off a stretch of two straight missed cuts – at The Players Championship and the AT&T Byron Nelson, respectively – before passing on the Dean & Deluca Invitational at Colonial last week to attend the wedding of a good friend of his in Edmonton, Alta.

He was originally going to play in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Classic next week, but this recent withdraw puts that into question. There’s no word yet how extensive this struggle is, or for how long he’s been battling it.

But looking at the numbers, it’s easy to see where DeLaet’s struggles have been.

He ranks 186th on Tour in Scrambling, 141st in Strokes Gained: Putting, and perhaps most indicative of where his anxiety is stemming from, 188th on Tour in Strokes Gained: Around-The-Green.

Meanwhile, DeLaet is 36th in Driving Distance on Tour, and 20th in Strokes Gained: Approach-The-Green, showing that his iron play and driving remain at an elite level.

And while DeLaet could have easily said this was a physical injury, for him to admit it was on the mental side is admirable, as made evident by the copious well-wishers replying to his tweet from Wednesday.

I’m dealing with incredible anxiety while chipping/pitching right now. It’s not fun. I needed to WD to get it sorted out and get back ASAP.

— Graham DeLaet (@GrahamDeLaet) June 1, 2016

DUBLIN, Ohio – Phil Mickelson said he was disappointed to get caught up in a federal investigation that linked him to an insider trader scheme and that he needed to be more responsible for the company he keeps off the golf course.

“I feel excited to start playing golf again,” he said Wednesday. “I feel excited to have that part behind me and move forward.”

It was his first public appearance since Mickelson was named in a federal complaint that accused Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters and Thomas Davis, a former corporate board member of Dean Foods Co., of making tens of millions of dollars in illicit stock trades.

Mickelson was spared criminal charges. The Securities and Exchange Commissioner alleges he benefited only from the misdeeds of others. Mickelson agreed to repay the $931,000 (plus interest) he made in a single trade of Dean Foods in the summer of 2012.

It was the second time in two years that Mickelson met the media at the Memorial to talk about stock deals instead of his short game. FBI agents met him after his first round of the 2014 Memorial to ask him about Walters during an insider trading investigation. Mickelson said that week he had done nothing wrong.

Walking into the same room after his pro-am round, he smiled and said, “This looks familiar.”

But he didn’t have much to say except that he felt a burden lifted that his part was over, and he thanked his family and corporate sponsors for their support.

“I’m disappointed to have been a part of that whole thing,” he said. “But after a thorough investigation, I’m pleased that it’s behind me. … I’m glad it’s over and it’s in the past. Ready to move on.”

Still to be determined was any action by the PGA Tour.

The tour in its player handbook has a section under “Conduct of Players” that says a player shall not “associate with or have dealings with persons whose activities, including gambling, might reflect adversely upon the integrity of the game of golf.”

Spokesman Ty Votaw had said May 19 when the indictment was announced that the tour was in the process of looking into it.

Mickelson said he had yet to meet with the tour and wasn’t sure if he faced any punishment.

“I’m not really able to talk about … I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know anything to even comment on that.”

According to the SEC complaint, Walters called Mickelson on July 27, 2012, and they exchanged texts over the next two days. Mickelson bought $2.4 million of Dean Foods shares July 30 and July 31 from three brokerage accounts. The SEC said he had less than $250,000 in those accounts, had not been a frequent trader and had never bought Dean Foods stock.

The day after Dean Foods announced its quarterly earnings and that it was spinning off subsidiary White Wave Foods, the stock price went up 40 percent and Mickelson sold all his shares for a $931,000 profit.

The SEC also alleged that Mickelson had placed bets with Walters before the stock tip, Mickelson owed him money at the time of the trading and that he repaid Walters a month later “in part with the proceeds of his trading.”

As Mickelson was playing his pro-am, a New York judge set bail at $25 million for Walters, who pleaded not guilty to the insider trading charges.

“I have to be responsible for the people I associated with,” Mickelson said when asked about the PGA Tour policy on dealing with people who might reflect badly on the game. “Going forward, I’ll make my best effort I can to make sure I represent myself, as well as my family, as well as my companies, in the way that I want to and they deserve.”

FORT WORTH, Texas – Jordan Spieth birdied his final three holes, chipping in from behind the 17th green and closing with a 34-foot putt, and shot a 5-under 65 on Sunday to win at Colonial for his first home state victory.

It was the eighth career win for Spieth, the world’s No. 2-ranked player, and came in his third tournament since blowing a five-stroke lead on the back nine last month when trying to win the Masters for the second year in a row. He will try to defend his U.S. Open title in three weeks.

At 17-under 263, Spieth finished three strokes ahead of Harris English at the Dean & Deluca Invitational. Colonial member Ryan Palmer and Webb Simpson tied for third.

Spieth had a pair of curling 20-foot birdie putts on the back nine. He also had a 14-foot par save at No. 14 right after his only bogey.

David Hearn was the top-finishing Canadian. The Brantford, Ont., native carded a final-round 68 to tie for 17th at 5-under. Abbotsford, B.C. natives Adam Hadwin (-4) and Nick Taylor (+1) tied for 22nd and 47th respectively.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Jordan Spieth shot a 5-under 65, even while missing a lot of fairways and a few greens, to take the third-round lead Saturday at Colonial.

The second-ranked Spieth was alone in the lead at the Dean & Deluca Invitational after three birdies and a huge par save in a four-hole stretch in the middle of his round. At 12-under 198, he was one stroke ahead of Colonial member Ryan Palmer and Webb Simpson.

Palmer overcame consecutive early bogeys to shoot 66. Simpson shot 67 after 3-foot par putt at the 18th hole for a share of the lead lipped out of the cup.

Adam Hadwin (70) of Abbotsford, B.C., David Hearn (73) of Brantford, Ont., and Nick Taylor (73), also of Abbotsford, are the Canadians in the field.

None of Spieth’s seven PGA Tour victories have come in his home state of Texas. The 22-year-old Dallas native tied for second at Hogan’s Alley last year, one of his three runner-up finishes in the Lone Star State.

Spieth drove into only three of 14 fairways, and hit only 11 of 18 greens in regulation. He drove into the rough and was short of the green on his approach at No. 18, but held his hand over his mouth in some disbelief after his 9-foot par chance slid by the hole for his only bogey.

After a 12-foot birdie at No. 9 to make the turn at 10 under, Spieth’s approach at No. 10 went over the green before pitching to about 9 feet and making that putt to save par. He then chipped in from off the front of the green at the 615-yard 11th and hit his approach within a foot at the 12th for another birdie and stayed along at top of the leaderboard after that.

Spieth went into the final round last weekend at the Byron Nelson alone in second place before a closing 74 that left him tied for 18th in the Irving event where six years ago he played his first PGA Tour as a 16-year-old amateur and tied for 16th.

Simpson pumped his fist from the bunker at No. 14 after blasting in for a birdie to get back the stroke he lost on the par-3 13th when he missed the green with his tee shot. He followed both of his bogeys at par 3s immediately with birdies, including a 12-footer at No. 9 after also missing the green at the 194-yard eighth.

Martin Piller, in the final group with Spieth and Simpson for the third round, had to play 12 holes earlier in the day to complete the second round that had been suspended by darkness Friday after a 5 1/2-hour weather delay.

Spieth and Simpson both finished their second rounds Friday, so only had to play 18 holes Saturday.

Piller shot a 68 and was tied for fourth at 10 under with Harris English (64) and Kyle Reifers (67).

Like Spieth, Piller was born in Dallas. But Piller lives in north Fort Worth and his wife, LPGA Tour player Gerina Piller, is at Colonial with him while taking a week off her tour before an extended stretch apart for the couple.

Matt Kuchar, ranked 20th in the world, had a bogey-free 63 for his best score in 33 career rounds at Colonial, where he was the runner-up three years ago and had finished his second round Friday with a triple-bogey.

Kuchar moved up 35 places, from a tie for 44th to a tie for ninth, after a 13-foot birdie chance at No. 18 slid by the hole.

Abbotsford, B.C., native Adam Hadwin led the Canadian contingent with an even-par 70 and sits T15. David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., carded a 73 and holds a share of 24th. Nick Taylor, also of Abbotsford, collected a trio of birdies and moved to T31.