WGC Cadillac Championship 2014: Dufner, Tiger chase Patrick Reed on loaded Doral leaderboard

Patrick Reed will head to Sunday at the WGC-Cadillac Championship sitting on a two-shot lead, trying to cement his status as Ryder Cup member and one of America’s best young players with his third win in the last nine months. Reed, who won the Wyndham Championship at end of last year and then lit up the Humana Challenge with three straight rounds of 63, will face his biggest test on Sunday as a loaded field chases him at the top of the leaderboard.

The conditions were more benign Saturday at Doral, and Reed got back into the 60’s with a 3-under round of 69. Reed was one of just four players left in the red on Friday night, and he separated himself Saturday afternoon with more precision play from tee-to-green. The former Augusta State ace gets less pub than some of the other next gen stars on Tour, but he’s getting better results than almost all of them. The big moment that boosted Reed came early in his round, when he jammed a lengthy eagle putt in the center of the cup at No. 8 (via PGATour.com):

Reed poured in three more birdies on the back nine for an inward 33, pulling ahead of the big names that started the day around him -- Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, and Dustin Johnson.

If Reed can hold on, it will be the signature win of his young successful career and likely lock up a spot on that Ryder Cup team. But he’s got some decorated superstars in pursuit, most notably Jason Dufner and Tiger Woods. Tiger posted the lowest round of the week on Saturday and made a huge move into the top five. The world No. 1 got hot with his putter and drained eight birdies, more than he had in his first two days combined, to shoot 66 and rocket up the leaderboard. He made the same move last Saturday at Honda, but this time he’s within striking distance as opposed to the seven-shot deficit to Rory McIlroy last week (read more on Tiger’s streaky Saturday here).

Dufner played just as well as Tiger, but he did more of his work on approach shots as opposed to the hot putter of Woods. Duf remains one of the best ball-strikers in the world, it’s how he won the PGA Championship last year and he fired more of those darts into the pins on Saturday. He got screwed at the par-3 4th hole when he put his tee shot right at the pin on the right half of the green, but watched his ball bounce off the newly planted Doral greens and roll down through some shaved rough into the water. Dufner should have had a birdie putt, the shot was that good, but instead he had to settle for a double bogey on a hole and green that will probably get another look from architect Gil Hanse. Despite that bump, Dufner’s 4-under 68 puts him in the final group with Reed on Sunday afternoon.

Here’s the leaderboard heading to Sunday: