98th PGA Championship: Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed in contention after second round
Last Updated: 29/07/16 9:02pm
Jordan Spieth was left frustrated by his putting, despite getting himself back into contention with a second-round 67 in the PGA Championship at Baltusrol.
The American, 23, is three under heading into the weekend after making five gains on his first nine holes.
It was tougher for Spieth after the turn though, as he failed to make another birdie and made only his second bogey of the round at the seventh - something he put down to his putting.
"I'm hitting the ball fantastic," he said. "I just can't get a putt to go in outside 10 feet.
"From 10 to 20 feet, the amount of opportunities I've had that aren't that difficult, up to my putting standards, I would be five, six, seven strokes better right now.
"It feels like it's a bit of a struggle adapting line and speed control on the greens. Inside of 10, I made quite a few good birdie putts today to get me in contention.
"I'm striking the ball beautifully. Driver went a little astray, but overall I feel like I'm in a good position to make a run, I just need a couple of good rounds."
Spieth's round was held up for a while on the seventh after his ball landed in a puddle on a path, ultimately leading to him taking a free drop, but the two-time major winner was quick to play down the lengthy delay that proceeded that.
"I just tried to find out exactly all the options I had and, ultimately, taking relief from casual water gave me the best opportunity to still drop it on the cart path, play it on the cart path," he explained.
"It took a while because of different drops. It was really weird. It was as complicated as I've ever really had it and took about as much time as I've ever taken on a free drop."
Patrick Reed, meanwhile, is right in the mix at the top of the leaderboard. His second-round 65 puts him just a shot behind early clubhouse leader Henrik Stenson.
The 25-year-old Texan holed an impressive seven birdies, including five on the back nine, but he believes that he should have made a few more.
"I made a decent putt on 15, from like 30 feet," said Reed. "So that was really the only putt I made of length or really - I didn't really have any good breaks, but I really didn't have any bad breaks. It was kind of just a normal round.
"I thought for sure, there was probably three or four out there that I left out today that were either really short putts I missed, or pretty basic, not-much-break putts. But any time you shoot five-under, you can't be disappointed."
Reed has been in good form this year but has been unable to convert those performances into victories, something he is keen to change.
"I think it's just kind of mixture of not putting all aspects of your game together," he added. "It just seems like every week and every day, there's always one kind of aspect that's missing. Yesterday, I was hitting my irons great, was putting pretty well, but I couldn't keep a driver on the planet.
"So I switched my driver to my old driver, and went in today, hit the driver better. I missed a couple short putts I felt like I should have made.
"The difference between a top-10 and a win out on tour is, you hit fairways, you hit greens, and those 50/50 putts, you're always on the right side of them. I think yesterday, I was definitely on the right side of the 50/50 putts and today I probably broke even on the 50/50s. So far, we're moving in the right direction. We just need to keep on grinding."
Watch the PGA Championship throughout the week live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf. Live coverage of the third round begins from 4pm on Saturday. Or watch from £6.99 without a contract, on NOW TV.