Patrick Reed salvages 70 after losing 3-wood

Patrick Reed played nearly all of Sunday’s round without a 3-wood, but he managed to match his lowest round of the tournament.

On the par-5 second, Reed broke the club’s face, saying, “That’s the first time it’s ever happened to me.”

“When I hit my drive, it felt like there was no golf ball,” he said. “Then I looked down and the entire face of my 3-wood was caved in. I literally have a hole in my golf club.”

The Augusta State product still salvaged 70. Reed played the first nine in 34, making birdie on Nos. 2 and 7, before shooting 36 on his final nine.

Reed finished the week at 2-under.

“I had a solid day and an OK week,” he said. “I know what I need to work on, and that’s consistency with the putter and off the tee. My drives got me in so much trouble this week, especially my driver. You can miss fairways out here, you can miss every fairway, but you have to miss it in the right spots.”

Asked about the biggest difference between Satur­day’s 74 and his final round, Reed needed only one word.

“Putting,” he said Sunday. “I didn’t make many putts yesterday. With that being said, I left myself above the hole so much (Saturday) and that really made me putt defensively. I couldn’t get aggressive at anything.”

After Sunday’s round, Reed’s focus remained on the 3-wood incident.

“Any iron would have been fine to break,” he said. “But trying to play this place without a 3-wood is so tough. Just think about No. 8 – it’s driver, 3-wood easy on the green, but I had no chance without it. On five, I usually hit 3-wood off the tee, same on Nos. 3, 10 and 13. There were so many holes today where I just had to wing it.”

His typical Sunday red shirt stayed in the closet. Instead, he wore white with blue and black stripes on the sleeves.
“(On Saturday) I wore black on black and was dying,” he said. “So I decided to wear the blue, black and white today for Augusta State.”