Washington, Mexico City: American Patrick Reed closed with back-to-back birdies to seize a one-stroke lead over Spain’s Jon Rahm and Sweden’s Alex Noren after Saturday’s third round of the PGA Wells Fargo Championship.
Reed, seeking his sixth career PGA Tour crown, sank a four-foot birdie putt at the par-4 17th and tapped-in for birdie at the par-5 18th after just missing a 30-foot eagle putt to fire a five-under par 67.
That left 15th-ranked Reed on eight-under par 208 after 72 holes at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, North Carolina — a one-year host for the event while its usual course, Quail Hollow in Charlotte, readies for the PGA Championship in August.
“(I’ve got to) just keep playing the way I’ve been playing, keep things rolling on the greens pretty good and make some putts,” said Reed, who has only one top-10 effort this year.
Rahm and Noren each fired 69s to stand on 209, one stroke in front of Americans Brian Harman and Vaughn Taylor and South Korean Noh Seung-Yul, whose 67 matched the day’s low round with Reed and top-ranked Dustin Johnson.
Reigning US Open champion Johnson, playing his first event since withdrawing from the Masters with a lower back injury, was in a pack sharing 14th on 212 that also included five-time major winner Phil Mickelson.
“It has been very tough conditions the past two days,” Noren said. “If it’s the same tomorrow it’s going to be a very open field.”
The day began with 68 players finishing their second rounds after a three-hour delay Friday due to heavy overnight rains left matters unsettled when darkness fell.
First-day leader Francesco Molinari of Italy completed a second-round 72 to carry a one-stroke lead into the afternoon, but fired another 72 in less windy conditions that allowed 18 players to come within four shots of the lead.
“Benign around here is 15-18 mph,” Reed said. “It was the calmest of the three days out here and you can see it in the scores from a lot of the guys. It was almost easy out there.”
In Mexico City, Thailand’s third-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn edged Christie Kerr in 19 holes Saturday to reach the LPGA Lorena Ochoa Match Play semi-finals against US star Michelle Wie, who rallied for a 20-hole win.
Ariya, the only quarter-bracket top seed to reach the last four, ousted 14th-ranked Kerr by making par on the first extra hole when her US foe made bogey.
Leading scores (USA unless noted)
208 — Patrick Reed 70-71-67
209 — Alex Noren (SWE) 67-73-69, Jon Rahm (ESP) 69-71-69
210 — Noh Seung-Yul (KOR) 69-74-67, Brian Harman 71-69-70, Vaughn Taylor 71-69-70, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 66-72-72
211 — An Byeong-Hun (KOR) 72-70-69, Zac Blair 72-70-69, Kevin Tway 72-70-69, Pat Perez 72-69-70, Nick Taylor (CAN) 71-69-71, Billy Hurley 70-69-72
212 — Phil Mickelson 71-72-69, David Lingmerth (SWE) 72-70-70, Graeme McDowell (NIR) 71-71-70, Morgan Hoffman 70-71-71, Dustin Johnson 70-75-67
213 — Chez Reavie 72-71-70, Brian Gay 70-72-71, Zach Johnson 71-73-69, Mark Anderson 70-72-71, Mackenzie Hughes (CAN) 70-72-71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (ESP) 75-70-68, Smylie Kaufman 70-71-72, Shane Lowry (IRL) 75-70-68, Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP) 69-71-73, John Peterson 70-69-74.