Former Masters champion Patrick Reed makes charge up Colonial leaderboard
Patrick Reed has seemingly found his rhythm after a slow start at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Reed, the 2018 Masters champion and Houston area resident, fired a 7-under 63 early on the day Saturday to surge up the leaderboard. He sits at 10-under for the tournament.
“It’s what I needed to do today,” Reed said. “I think that was the biggest thing. Coming into today, I just felt like I did a lot of things solid the first two days, but I just made too many careless mistakes. I was trying to clean that up today. I felt like I did a good job on that and just gave myself a chance with my putter.”
Reed flirted with missing the cut during the first two rounds. He teed off No. 10 on Thursday and made a triple-bogey on No. 18, hitting his approach shot into the water. But he rallied back with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 1-3 to post a 2-under 68.
Then, on Friday, Reed opened with an eagle on the par-5 first but made a bogey on No. 3 and then three straight bogeys on Nos. 7-9 to be sitting at even par going into the back nine. He made four birdies and one bogey on the back, though, to secure his spot on the weekend.
“I kind of dug myself a hole yesterday morning, got myself outside that cut line, and it’s just never a good taste missing a cut, especially after having three months off to kind of come into this week,” Reed said. “I knew I had put in the work. I just needed to get something going. Something kind of clicked yesterday in the swing that allowed me to hit it a little closer and make some putts. I just kind of ran with it today.
“I felt like I had a good warmup and because of that I was able to get off to a hot start.”
Reed will look to close with another strong round on Sunday. He’s playing Colonial for the first time since 2016 with his best finish being a T-15 that year. Saturday’s round was his best at Colonial.
“I did what I had to do today to give myself a chance to win tomorrow,” Reed said. “It’s just going to take another low one.”
Early riser
Speaking of career rounds at Colonial, Chesson Hadley had his as the first player off Saturday. Hadley got off to a red-hot start with four straight birdies and had five on the front nine and shot a 30. He made one more on the back nine, posting a bogey-free round of 6-under 64 and moving into position to post his best finish at Colonial. Hadley’s finished T-20 in 2018.
Sticking around
With the PGA Tour taking chartered flights from tournament to tournament amid the coronavirus pandemic, several notable golfers who missed the cut were getting in work Saturday.
Jason Day, the former Fort Worth resident, and Rickie Fowler, one of the most popular players, were hitting balls as the final pairing of Jordan Spieth and Harold Varner III played No. 5.
Also seen was defending Colonial champion Kevin Na on the practice putting green. Na missed the cut as the legendary Ben Hogan will remain as Colonial’s only repeat champion (1946-47 and 1952-53) for at least another year.
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Former Masters champion Patrick Reed makes charge up Colonial leaderboard."
