THE MAN IN BLACK

Reed continues to best Barclays field at Bethpage

Patrick Reed began the week breaking the gavel while ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Now he’s trying to l ay the hammer down on the rest of the field in the Barclays at Bethpage Black, where he takes a two-shot lead into the weekend.

“Hammer time,’’ Reed joked Friday when asked about inadvertently smashing the gavel.

“When the gentleman looked at me and goes: ‘ All right, give it three good whacks,’ I was like, ‘All right,’ ’’ Reed said. “He’s like, ‘Don’t just go over there and tap it. They need to be able to hear it.’ I didn’t even feel like I hit it that hard and next thing you know, the head kind of popped up, and it was like, ‘Uh-oh.’ It was awesome.’’

Reed, who not long ago proclaimed himself as a top-f ive player in the world, has not won this year.

Now, if he can navigate the final 36 holes on brutal Bethpage Black the way he did the first 36, he can put an end to that and put himself in the driver’s seat to win the $10 million FedEx Cup playoffs end-game cash grab next month at the Tour Championship.

Reed followed his openinground 66 with a 3-under 68 on Friday to stand at 8-under for the tournament, two shots clear of Rickie Fowler and Emiliano Grillo, who are both at 6-under.

Ryan Moore, who shot 68 on Friday, is 5-under and Jordan Spieth (67 on Friday) and Jason Day (70) head a list of five players at 4-under.

But this tournament is Reed’s to win at the halfway point. He has been the best player and the most consistent. Even so, he walked off the course somewhat frustrated Friday after giving a shot back on the 18th with a bunker-to-bunker situation that led to bogey. He also bogeyed No. 16.

“Anytime you’re at the top of the leaderboard, you feel good,’’ Reed said. “I left some shots out there, especially late in the round.’’

Asked about not having won yet this year, Reed shrugged it off, saying, “It’s golf.’’

“You have guys that are going to win in years and you’re going to have guys that aren’t going to win in years,’’ he said. “I think this year has been a lot better than last year and the previous years on consistency. That’s a big part that I’ve been working on is to make sure I keep myself in golf tournaments — not go out and win an event here, and then miss two or three cuts and finish 50th, 40th.

“It’s about consistency. Consistently getting in contention, consistently having chances to win. If I keep doing that, I will at some point break through and win hopefully a couple in a row, not just one.’’

Spieth, for one, concurred with what Reed spoke about regarding his consistency.

“I was actually kind of thinking about that briefly yesterday when I saw him at the top of the leaderboard,’’ Spieth said. “I am a bit surprised that he hasn’t [won more tournaments], but it’s not easy to win. At the same time, you can play really well and someone plays just a little bit better. As long as he’s building momentum and he’s bringing what we had at the last Ryder Cup, I’ ll be certainly pleased with that.’’

Regarding his spot on the Ryder Cup team, Reed, who’s eighth in points, would probably have to double bogey his next 36 holes to fall out of position to be an automatic selection by tournament’s end on Sunday. The Barclays is the final tournament at which players can gather Ryder Cup points.

“At the end of the day, if I go and I take care of me and do what I need to do this week, then Ryder Cup will take care of itself,’’ Reed said. “So I’m not going into this week looking at it as, ‘ Oh, I need to do this for The Ryder Cup.’ I’m going in this to think, ‘ All right, I need to go win a golf tournament, and everything else will take care of itself.’ ’’