Quicken Loans National 2014: Patrick Reed tops leaderboard at punishing Congressional

Much of the momentum built up over the past week at the Quicken Loans National was stunted Friday night when Tiger Woods headed home early with a missed cut in his first event since early March. In the third round, the crowds were thinner, the media horde was diminished, and no one player emerged to take control and as the headliner for the weekend.

On Saturday, the biggest star was probably the venue, Congressional, which is likely playing tougher than it did for the 2011 U.S. Open, beat up the field and almost no one could run away or make a charge on moving day. Seung-Yol Noh made the biggest move on a day where there were almost no low numbers available, shooting a 5-under 66 to rocket almost 40 spots up the leaderboard and into a tie for second place. There’s been no rain since a downpour on Wednesday night, and even then the greens were rolling at 12 on the stimpmeter. Noh said conditions were getting firm and fast up on the greens, and that was apparent as approach shots from different tee elevations resulted in balls continually bouncing through or rolling off many of these putting surfaces. Congressional is already one of the longest courses on Tour, and while the firmness shortens it a little, the players would rather have it soft and long than try and play into dry greens. It was hard to find anyone else approaching that 65 number, especially in the final pairings, and thus Noh was able to rise right up into contention with 18 more holes to go.

Patrick Reed was the one player in the final groups to hold on while everyone around him gave shots back to the course. Reed rolled in a birdie on the par-5 16th to get back to even-par for the day, and that was good enough to go to sleep on sole possession of the 54-hole lead at 6-under. Reed has been horrible since winning at Doral and making those infamous “top 5 in the world” comments. He missed five cuts and his best result was a T35 finish at the U.S. Open two weeks ago, when no one was a factor aside from Martin Kaymer. He had broken par in just four of 27 rounds since winning at Doral. In fairness, Reed also took several weeks off while his wife was in the last throes of pregnancy and then gave birth to their child. With that intervening stretch (which coincided with Tiger’s absence) in the wilderness now passed, Reed appears to be back to his early-season form that earned him titles at Humana and Doral.

With no one making moves around him, Reed had the lead early on the front nine, carding back-to-back birdies at Nos. 4 and 5 to get to 8-under at one point. His approach from the rough at No. 4 magnetically ran back down to the cup for about as good a result as he could have dreamt for from his lie.

He’d give those back before he made the turn, and then drop back into the group at 5-under with a tough bogey at the par-3 13th. The pin was tucked at that green, and the players had little room to land it from a tee that was well below the putting surface. Reed’s tee shot went a little long and got held up in the thick three-inch rough behind the green, and he’d have to ask Ricky Barnes to mark his ball in the first cut as he chipped out sideways just to get on the putting surface. Reed could not get up and down from that spot but that would be the only shot he’d drop on Congressional’s tough back nine.

Just three holes later, Reed would pull back to even on the day on the gettable par-5 16th. This was where we saw Tiger at his most frustrated in his return on Thursday, dropping an f-bomb as he walked off the green without a birdie. So posting a red number is almost expected on what can set up as a two-shot par-5. Reed took three shots, but his wedge into the green left him with a tap-in to get back into the lead and even for the day.

It was a nice bounce back for Reed, who burned the edge on a birdie attempt on the previous hole and heard it from one member of the DC crowd.

Reed will play with Noh on Sunday afternoon, while Marc Leishman and Freddie Jacobson will be the penultimate group out in the final round. All three players are two shots back of Reed.

We will have a man in red and black sitting on the lead and in the final group on Sunday, it just won’t be the guy most people are used to. Here’s where things stand at Congressional after 54 holes: