Augusta, Ga. • Now that he has discovered how to break 70 in the golf tournament played in his college town, Patrick Reed figures he could win the Masters if he just keeps doing so.
Reed stormed into the lead Friday with a 6-under-par 66 at Augusta National Golf Club. The trend made him endorse a weekend strategy to “continue to shoot in the 60s and see if it gets the job done,” he said.
Storylines<br>• Playing in the last threesome of the day, Patrick Reed shoots a 6-under-par 66 to take the 36-hole lead in the Masters.<br>• The cut comes at 5 over par, with Phil Mickelson among the players advancing on the number.<br>• Sandy resident Mike Weir, the 2003 champion, posts 76-79 for the second straight year.
Mathematically, that plan almost has to succeed. Reed is 9 under par; two more 69s or better would make him at least 15 under, and he would remain awfully tough to catch.
He’s already turned in a memorable pair of rounds, after his first four Masters appearances resulted in nothing better than a tie for 22nd place, with two missed cuts. Reed has birdied all eight par-5 holes in two rounds, while producing a cool-looking scorecard Friday with three sets of three consecutive birdies — Nos. 1-3, Nos. 7-9 and Nos. 13-15. He stood 10 under for the tournament before bogeying the par-3 No. 16. Some good chipping then took the stress out of the last two holes as he finished in the twilight after a round that lasted nearly six hours.
Reed will take a two-stroke lead over Marc Leishman into Saturday’s third round, with Henrik Stenson another two shots back. Rainy weather is expected to add another element to the weekend competition.
Mix in the back story of Reed’s transferring to Augusta State and helping the Jaguars win two NCAA championships after his issues at the University of Georgia, and this tournament is getting good. Even aside from the juicy local angle, this statistic should be sufficient: Eight major champions are within seven shots of Reed’s lead.
Tiger Woods is missing from the leaderboard, after shooting 73-75 and barely making the 36-hole cut, but the list of young stars is impressive. Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are tied for fourth place at 4 under, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas are tied for sixth at 3 under and a big group at 2 under includes the likes of Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Justin Rose and Lehi resident Tony Finau.
Tony Finau hits his second shot out of the fairway bunker on the first hole during the second round of the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Friday, April 6, 2018. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Friday’s biggest surprise was that the scoring improved as the day went along. Spieth (74) and McIlroy (71) teed off early and needed recoveries just to shoot the scores they did and stay in the picture.
Spieth battled back after a double bogey/bogey start. Asked whether that required more physical or mental ability, Spieth said, “Probably half and half, I would say. I’m not going to downgrade my skill level, but I’m also not going to downgrade my ability to take punches and fight back on this course.”
McIlroy has learned that “I don’t have to go out there and and make a birdie on every hole,” he said, “especially not on this golf course, and in these conditions, pars are OK.”
Several players cited difficult pin positions and some challenges presented by mild, swirling winds, but those conditions didn’t seem to bother late starters such as Reed, Thomas (67), Leishman (67) and Johnson (68).
Watching the telecast in the morning, Reed said, “It did look tough.”
But when he birdied No. 1 after his wife and former caddie, Justine, persuaded him to hit a 3-wood instead of a driver off the tee, he became comfortable and aggressive. Reed kept playing “more on the offensive side,” he said, and that approach worked.
Moving day<br>Tony Finau will tee off at noon MDT Saturday for the third round of the Masters. He is paired with Justin Thomas.