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Patrick Reed’s second-round scorecard at Winged Foot was colorful, to say the least. No one ever said the top spot on the U.S. Open leaderboard would come easily – or traditionally.
Reed made birdies in all the right places on Friday – including the difficult opening hole – but ultimately matched five birdies with five bogeys for an even-par 70. On the heels of his opening 66, it parked Reed, at 4 under, atop Bryson DeChambeau. The two will go off in the final group on Saturday afternoon.
“Any time you play in the U.S. Open you know that you’re going to have one of those days that things just aren’t quite going your way, whether it’s hitting quality golf shots or anything like that, and I felt like today was that day,” Reed said.
Despite feeling loose off the tee, and with a few iron shots here and there, Reed expressed a satisfaction with his second-round salvage job.
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Asked where his confidence was, Reed said he felt good.
“I feel ready to go out and put myself in position hopefully tomorrow to have a chance late on Sunday. But I think that’s the biggest thing is I feel like the game is where it needs to be.”
On the topic of his upcoming pairing with DeChambeau, who has put together rounds of 69-68, Reed said he was looking forward to it. Winged Foot should be plenty distracting, and he’ll focus on attacking it on Saturday. Let up or get distracted with chitchat, he said, and “you’re going to make a mess of the golf course.”
“You don’t really hang out with the guys you’re playing with as much because you’re too busy trying to figure out where you’re trying to play this golf course and kind of put it together like a puzzle,” Reed said.
The two men are head-turning in different ways. DeChambeau sends it to the moon, as Reed says, while Reed plays it low. When the two played a practice round at Winged Foot together, Reed noted how differently they tackled the par-4 eighth. Reed was trying to cut it around a tree on the right. DeChambeau didn’t even have that tree in his sights.
“It just shows there’s so many different ways to play a golf course, there’s so many different ways to play the game of golf. He’s kind of showing one way, and I show another, and everyone is different.”
