Reed plummets from leading to 11th-place tie
Patrick Reed loves the grind.
His back nine Saturday — too much of a good thing.
All the patience, scrambling and short game that put Reed in the lead at the U.S. Open disappeared over the back nine of the third round at Winged Foot. It was replaced by a two-hour barrage of missed fairways and terrible lies, all exacerbated by a putter that seemed to deteriorate by the minute.
Reed made six bogeys and a double over the back nine and shot 8-over-par 43 to finish his day at 7-over 77.
He fell from first place to a tie for 11th, and will head into Sunday with a score of 3-over 213, eight shots behind leader Matthew Wolff, who shot 65 to catapult to first after trailing Reed by four coming into the round.
“Well, I got all my bad shots out of the way,” Reed said. “It was just one of those days. I couldn’t find a fairway, and from there, trying to guess out of the rough all day, it was just hard. It was brutal.”
Nine bad holes certainly won’t alter the narrative on Reed, the 2018 Masters champion. He believes he’s built to succeed when courses are set up the way Winged Foot is this week — with narrow fairways, high rough and difficult greens demanding the best from the best players.
And when the course toughened up Friday — more than 2 1⁄ shots harder
2 than it played in the first round Thursday — Reed wasn’t all that surprised that he was at the top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend. “I love the grind,” he said before leaving the course with the sun setting Friday, on the heels of a 4-under 66.
A much different story come sunset Saturday. While Wolff (two fairways) and Bryson DeChambeau (three fairways en route to a 70 that left him two shots behind) both thrived out of the rough, the unpredictable lies wore down Reed.
MICKELSON STRUGGLES
Phil Mickelson walked down the first fairway of the East course at Winged Foot, the path to the parking lot. Mickelson never considered his return to Winged Foot to be about redemption, which was a good thing.
He wasn’t around for the weekend to even contemplate another crack at the only major he has never won.
Lefty opened with a 79, his highest opening round in the 29 times he has played the U.S. Open. He threeputted from 8 feet for bogey on his final hole, the par-5 ninth, for a 74.
Mickelson said the struggle is playing well at home, but on a U.S. Open course that punishes the slightest miss, he has been getting tight with his swing and “playing some of my worst golf.”
“And that’s something I’ve got to work on and fix,” he said. “When I go back home, I don’t have the stress and I seem to play just fine, but I’ve got to be able to bring it out here under these conditions.”