Can anyone catch Justin Thomas at the Tour Championship?
By Bill Felber
Patrick Reed
Fourth-ranked on the FedEx Cup list, Reed begins the Tour Championship at 6-under par.
Despite his reputation as a relatively long hitter, driving is not the strength of Reed’s game. For the season he averaged just 0.183 Strokes Gained Off the Tee, the sixth weakest performance in the field.
His iron game is also a relative weakness. During the 2019 season, Reed averaged 0.186 Strokes Gained Approaching The Green, the fifth-worst performance in the field.
Reed is competent – and occasionally brilliant – around the greens. For the 2019 season, he averaged 0.329 Strokes Gained Around The Green, the seventh-best performance by a Tour Championship player.
By tour standards, Reed’s skills with the putter are decent but not overpowering. His chances of winning require sinking an inordinate number of longer putts, At .264 Strokes Gained Putting, he ranks just above the .216 field average, 12th in the 30-player field.
Reed’s modest -5.88 seasonal four-round average probably reflects the fact that he has been the most active player among the contenders, taking part in two dozen stroke-play events. That’s eight more than Thomas. It also lends itself to a two standard deviation range of 12.06, second-most stable behind only Johnson. For Reed it adds up to a four-round forecast between -19 and +7 strokes, not counting his six-stroke head start.