Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Reed surges ahead with 67 at Wells Fargo
Patrick Reed was befuddled by the wind when his golf ball was in the air, and by the book when his ball was on the green. He went back to playing aggressively, and it gave him the lead Saturday in the Wells Fargo Championship. But not by much. Reed hammered a wedge into 4 feet for birdie on the 17th, and finished with a two-putt birdie for a 5-under 67 to match the low score of a blustery third round. It was good enough for a oneshot lead over Alex Noren of Sweden and Jon Rahm of Spain going into the final round at Eagle Point.
But with one round remaining, the tournament was wide open, even for Dustin Johnson.
The world’s No. 1 player, competing for the first time since his slip down the stairs bruised his back and knocked him out of the Masters, rallied for a 67 and was four shots out of the lead as Johnson goes for his fourth straight PGA Tour victory.
In a scramble for the top — 18 players were separated by four shots after 54 holes — Reed finished strong.
His lone bogey came at the 14th when he tried to finesse a 51-degree wedge in the wind and hit 40 feet by the hole, leading to a threeputt. He had the same yardage (134) on the 17th hole and learned from his mistake. He asked for the 57-degree wedge with the idea of smashing it.
“I’ll hit it hard and hopefully be able to get it up there, and it ended up working out perfectly,” Reed said.
He also quit relying so much on his book that shows every tiny movement on the green — the one the USGA and R&A might ban — to avoid information overload. He only asked his caddie to help read a putt on two occasions (and made them both).
“I used to just read putts myself and kind of step up, go first-instinct and knock it in,” Reed said. “I’ve done that pretty well all week. I have my green-reading book with me just to kind of confirm, not really to go off of it, just to make sure I’m seeing what the book is saying and just kind of going from there.”
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 was at 8-under 208. the Lorena Ochoa Match Play to join Ariya Jutanugarn, Sei Young Kim and Mi Jung Hur in the semifinals.
Four down after 11 holes at Club de Golf Mexico, Wie twice rallied to tie the longhitting Yin and won with a birdie on the par-5 20th hole.
“I think it was the definition of survival out there,” Wie said. “She played so good. She eagled two and six. I think she was 5 under in seven holes. She played great. I’m really proud of my caddie (Matt Galloway) for motivating me and keeping me in my head. And we fought so hard out there.”
Wie set up a match against Kim, a 5-and-4 winner over Karine Icher in the event that switched from stroke to match play and moved from November.
Wie is winless since the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open. She won the then-Lorena Ochoa Invitational in stroke play in 2009 in Guadalajara for her first tour title.
The third-ranked Jutanugarn lost a 3-up lead to Cristie Kerr before finishing off the 39-year-old American with a par on the 19th hole. Kerr won three weeks ago in Hawaii and lost to Haru Nomura last week on the sixth hole of a playoff in Texas.