Masters champ Patrick Reed battled the ‘sticky’ conditions with what he described as a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ putter, moving into third place heading to the weekend rounds of the BNI Indonesian Masters in Jakarta.
Reed picked-up four birdies, dropping just one shot in a three-under 68 to be trailing five shots adrift of India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar, who added a 67 and moved three shots clear of his rivals at 12-under on the Royale Jakarta host course.
Canadian Richard T. Lee lies second at nine-under, also signing for a 67.
While Reed is no stranger to playing in Asia, it’s a first visit to the Indonesian capital and he’s clearly taking a liking to the course despite his comments about the conditions and likening his putter to the famed Robert Louis Stevenson dual-natured characters.
“It was a frustrating day at three under. It’s just kind of one of those days were energy levels a little low, couldn’t really get around on a lot of iron shots a lot of tee shots were blocked a little bit,” said Reed.
“Yeah, I hit a lot of balls inside 20ft just didn’t make anything and finally made that one on the last which will obviously make it feel a little better for the day.
“It was just kind of one of those days it could have been really low but at the same time because of some of the tee shots I hit it could have gone the other way.
“I feel like you are always going to have one of those rounds throughout a tournament, good thing is I got that out of the way today and was able to ride the ship today and get in the house but I feel like the game is where it needs to be, the game feels good, energy levels were a little low this morning but besides that I gave myself a lot of looks but my putter was a little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde today.”
And for a second day, Reed was grouped with fellow LIV Golf colleagues Anirban Lahiri and Graeme McDowell.
“It’s been awesome!” said Reed.
“I’ve played a lot with them recently especially with being at LIV. It’s always good to play with those boys, they will always fight no matter what and no matter how bad the days going and that’s what you want to do you want to play with guys who are always fighting. It was awesome to watch Lahiri birdie the last two to probably make it on the number and Gmac was just kind of cruising, so it’s always nice playing with those guys and hopefully we can continue to play some solid golf and keep getting in groups like that with those guys.”
McDowell added a 67 to be among the top-40 at three under while Lahiri is a stroke further back at -2.
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