Tiger Woods remained at the bottom as Jordan Spieth continued to lead after the rain-hit second round of the $3,500,000 Hero World Challenge at the Isleworth Golf and Country Club here Friday.
The 21-year-old Texan Spieth made good use of the ideal post-rain conditions to get to five-under and then chose to to finish the 18th Saturday morning as darkness engulfed the stage, while Woods improved his scoring with a tw-under 70 to add to his poorly first round score of five-over 77.
Spieth, who last week won the Australian Open, had moved to a total of 11-under with one hole to play and was two clear of Henrik Stenson (67-68), while Patrick Reed set the course alight with a nine-under 63, after a first round 73.
Reed was seven-under for the front nine with five birdies and an eagle, and admitted to thoughts of a sub-60 at one stage. But he finished at nine-under with a two-under back nine.
More From This Section
Starting from second last overnight at one-over 73 after 18 holes, he zoomed to tied third at eight-under after 36 holes. Another low round came from Justin Rose, who was one-over after five, but then birdied nine of his next 13 holes for a round of 64 to move to tied third with Reed. Rose had an even par on Thursday.
Tiger Woods, who was four-under dropped a double bogey on the last to finish at 70 and at three-over, he was still 18th and last.
Late in the evening, when the hooter went off, the last two pairings were both on the 18th. Steve Stricker and Rickie Fowler were ahead and of them Fowler chose to finish, while Spieth's playing partner Zach Johnson chose likewise. So in an interesting situation, one player each from the last two pairings - Stricker and Spieth - will come back at 10.15 am Saturday morning to finish the final hole. Spieth had an up-and-down to complete, while Stricker has to putt out.
The sharp afternoon downpour halted play for a little over 90 minutes which meant the late starters were reduced to playing in near darkness towards the end.
Stenson carded 68 and he may well have been alongside Spieth were it not for bogeys on 15 and 16 which dropped him into second after six birdies in his first 13 holes.
The star of the day was Reed, who followed a first round 73 with a 63. He admitted that after turning in seven-under 29, he did think of sub-60.
Playing for the first time with Woods in a competitive round, Reed outscored the legend by seven shots.
Rose was also on eight under courtesy of a 64 which saw him birdie nine of his last 13 holes after dropping over par for the day with a double bogey on five.
Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker were a further shot back with Jason Day, Keegan Bradley, Chris Kirk and Zach Johnson all on six under.
The 38-year-old Woods opened with a birdie but gave that shot back on eight before an eagle on the par-five 13th brought his round to life. A birdie followed on 14th and another on 16th had Woods four under for the day but a rain delay of around 90 minutes after he came off 17 halted his momentum and a double bogey on the last meant he was three-over for the total.