Weather watchers
A rare forecast of rain could have an impact at the PGA Tour’s CareerBuilder Challenge,
Patrick Reed has played the Stadium Course at PGA West under the pressure of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament and in the spotlight of the 2016 PGA Tour’s CareerBuilder Challenge. But he has never played the Stadium Course in the rain.
“It’s always sunny and beautiful and perfect,” Reed said with a smile as he prepared for this week’s CareerBuilder Challenge. “So it’s going to change a little bit, I’m sure.”
The prospect of a rainy week in La Quinta, Calif., was on the minds of players preparing for the 58th annual CareerBuilder Challenge. How that weather will affect scoring won’t be known until the players see just what kind of weather hits the courses, likely Thursday and Friday.
“It depends on does the rain bring wind, how much rain is actually going to come, what’s it going to do to the temperature,” said Reed, the 2014 CareerBuilder Challenge winner. “There’s a lot of different factors you have to take into consideration to figure out what is actually going to happen to the golf course. Because the golf courses aren’t that long, by the numbers, but if it starts getting cold, now the ball’s not traveling. If it gets wet, the ball’s not going to travel either.”
Rain likely would limit the traditional low scoring of the tournament that was epitomized by Reed’s victory in 2014. He fired a 9-under-par 63 in each of the first three rounds that year to reach 27-under par, and a final-round 71 gave Reed a winning total of 28 under.
That was the second of five career victories for Reed, who at No. 9 is the highest-ranked player in the CareerBuilder field and is coming off a strong year that produced only one win but plenty of contending golf.
“I felt like I did everything really well last year. There were a couple things I’m going to work on this year to kind of improve on,” said Reed, who had 11 top-10 finishes in the 2015-16 season, played a key role in the U.S. Ryder Cup team’s victory and played in the Olympics.
“But it is tough winning out here. You have a lot of great golfers, and fields now are really, really deep. I put myself in a lot of good positions. I just wasn’t able to close any of them out, until the Playoffs (in The Barclays tournament).”
Reed’s 2016 was highlighted by the Barclays win and his Ryder Cup performance, including a dramatic singles match against Rory McIlroy in which both played great golf on the front nine.
Reed is off to a solid start for 2017, earning a tie for sixth in the SBS Tournament of Champions in Hawaii two weeks ago in a tournament he considers the start of his season.