Reed surges into lead; Rahm, Noren lurking
Patrick Reed birdied his final two holes for a 5-under-par 67 to surge into the lead Saturday at the Wells Fargo Championship, but not by much.
With one round remaining at Eagle Point at Wilmington, N.C., the tournament remains wide open, even for Dustin Johnson.
Reed stuffed a short iron into 4 feet on No. 17 and reached the 580-yard 18th hole in two for a two-putt birdie, giving him a one-shot lead over Jon Rahm and Alex Noren.
Noren, a four-time winner on the European Tour last year who is No. 12 in the world, missed a 5-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would have tied him for the lead. He had a 69. Rahm closed with a birdie for a 69.
Reed, going for his sixth PGA Tour victory, was at 8-under 208. “Normally, a couple guys separate themselves from the pack, but it’s just going to mean it’s going to be more fun on Sunday,” Reed said.
The scores have been so tight that when the cut was made Saturday morning because of a three-hour rain delay, only seven shots separated the 36hole leader (Francesco Molinari) from the players who made the cut on the number.
One of those who narrowly made the cut was Johnson, playing for the first time since a slip down the stairs bruised his back and knocked the world’s No. 1 player out of the Masters. Johnson, clearly not sharp at times having not competed in six weeks, made a pair of bogeys late in the second round for a 75 that ended his streak of 13 consecutive rounds at par or better.
LPGA Tour: Michelle Wie rallied to beat Angel Yin in the Lorena Ochoa Match Play to join Ariya Jutanugarn, Sei Young Kim and Mi Jung Hur in the semifinals in Mexico City.
Four down after 11 holes at Club de Golf Mexico, Wie twice
rallied to tie the long-hitting Yin and won with a birdie on the par-5 20th hole.
Wie set up a match against Kim, a 5-and-4 winner over Karine Icher. Wie is winless since the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open. Daly leads Champions: John Daly shot a bogey-free 7-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead over Kenny Perry at 11-under 133 in the PGA Tour Champions’ Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands, Texas.
Daly, 51, is trying to win for the first time on the senior tour — and for the first time since the PGA Tour’s 2004 Buick Invitational. “It’s not a familiar place I’m in. It’s going to be great,” Daly said. European Tour: At the inaugural GolfSixes event, a six-hole match play tournament featuring two-man teams from 16 countries, England, Denmark, Scotland, Thailand, Portugal, Australia, Italy and France progressed from the group stage to the quarterfinals at St. Albans, England.