Harris English and Patrick Reed had an unsuccessful push on Saturday to get into contention at the Tour Championship. English and Reed both have ties to Georgia. English was born in Valdosta, Georgia, and is a University of Georgia graduate. Reed attended Augusta University. They both turned pro in 2011.
English finished Saturday with a five over par round with only one birdie. He currently is at four under par for the tournament and sits 16 shots back from the leader, Patrick Cantlay. Reed, who is still recovering from battling double pneumonia only a week ago, shot four under par in round three. He was at three under par for the tournament.
After the second round on Friday, English was asked in a post round interview, “What will be your mentality heading into the weekend knowing you’ll be maybe six or seven back?”
“Yeah, it’s still saying aggressive. I still feel like there’s a 6-, 7-, 8-under par out here if you have your A game off the tee. So hopefully I can get on that, hit it a little better off the tee tomorrow and start playing really aggressive.”
In the third round that English was referencing, he set a goal to play better off the tee. In Saturday’s third round he averaged 289 yards off the tee, which was his lowest of the week. His driving accuracy for the round was 57.14%. He also struggled in approach with an average 38.89% of greens in regulation. Those stats are contributing reasons to why he struggled in the third round and was unable to take advantage of “moving day” on Saturday.
Reed had a better performance and shot a solid four under par with five birdies and only one bogey. He missed the first two of three FedEx Cup playoff events due to being hospitalized for a serious case of pneumonia. After the first round on Thursday, Reed answered a few questions on the state of his health:
“How did it feel having not played for 25 days? How was your energy?”
“My energy was okay. My speed is not there yet, obviously. Where I really notice it is kind of on iron shots and on setting up and having to hit an exact number, it just seemed to be a hair off.” Reed said, “But the good thing is my short game didn’t leave me. My short game was pretty good today. The one that I didn’t get up-and-down was kind of a basic chip, which obviously to my old ways, a basic chip got me.”
“Can you give us a timeline of your health?”
“… I had bilateral pneumonia in both lungs, and that’s what they were treating me in the hospital. And it was scary because it was in my lower lobes, which is where, a lot of deaths and people pass away from. So they were really monitoring that, and really the biggest thing is just continuing doing my breathing exercises and try to clear out my, really my left lung as much as possible, which it’s improving, but we still, they gave me the go-ahead to fly and be at cabin pressure starting Monday.”
After missing such a long period of time due to being hospitalized, Reed was asked when the first time since then that he got to practice and hit some golf balls.
“So Monday morning I went out and practiced for the first time with a full swing, first time actually touching a golf club Monday, then Tuesday we drove all day here and then yesterday was nine holes.”
Both English and Reed tried to make a final push in Sunday’s final round, but didn’t succeed. With the chance 0f winning the Fedex Cup out of their sights, they will try and play well to earn a spot in this year’s international competition, the Ryder Cup.
When the tournament concluded on Sunday night, English tied for 18th place alongside Sam Burns at six under par. They both earned $527,500. Reed finished in 25th place at two under par, which earned him $445,000.
