American Patrick Reed holds a two-stroke lead at the halfway stage of The Barclays tournament after shooting a three-under-par round of 68 on Friday.
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Now he’s trying to lay 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. But his tee shots got wild, he finished some swings with only one hand on the club, and he dropped four shots around the turn.
“I feel like I’m rolling the ball pretty well, I’ve just got to give myself the opportunities”.
“I was actually kind of thinking about that briefly yesterday when I saw him at the top of the leaderboard, ” Spieth said. The former Alabama player had a seven-hole stretch without a par, making three straight birdies, three straight bogeys and a par.
Spieth had no shot at the pin after bunkering his approach to the 10th – his first – and splashed out sideways into rough before taking three more to get down, but he steadied himself with seven pars and rolled in a morale-boosting 15-foot putt for birdie at 18.
That left Reed at eight-under 134, two ahead of Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo (69) and American world number eight Rickie Fowler (69) midway through the first of the PGA Tour’s four lucrative FedExCup playoff events. She bogeyed the par-5 18th for a 68 in the completion of the delayed first round, then made eight birdies in her bogey-free second round.
One back was Ryan Moore, who shot a three-under-par 68 comprised of five birdies and two bogeys following his opening 69.
Day made four consecutive birdies in the front nine but came undone at the par-four ninth, where he took a double bogey six after an errant drive.
Among the other big names, four-times major victor Rory McIlroy (69) trailed by six shots, while American world number two Dustin Johnson (72) was eight back. A double bogey on 10 limited his advance, however.
“It was a little hard out there but I felt like I ground it out pretty good”.
“The driving hasn’t been spot on but I know the reps that I’ve done prior to this hopefully will catch up to my game and I’ll start driving it a little bit better. Just got to try to get it under par and slowly chip away at it”.
Another shot went at the 10th, and he continued to miss fairways as he stumbled to a disappointing 70 which left him on four under alongside Spieth and overnight joint-leader Martin Laird, who bogeyed three of his last five holes in an erratic 72.
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“It’s such a tough golf course, it’s rare when we play tournaments on courses this challenging”, said Spieth.
