Rickie Fowler was squarely on the bubble for the Ryder Cup and the Tour Championship at the start of the week.
Fowler has not secured anything yet, but he shot 3-under-par 68 in the third round to take a one-stroke lead over Patrick Reed in the Barclays, the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y.
A five-foot birdie putt on the last hole gave Fowler the lead and a 54-hole total of 9-under 204.
“Yeah, a win tomorrow would go a long ways,” said Fowler, who need to climb four spots to No. 8 in the U.S. Ryder Cup team, with the eight automatic team members to be determined tomorrow night. “It would take care of a lot of things.
“We’ve just got to go take care of business tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve been in this position, but we have a pretty good track record in the past year or so since that (2015) Players win. Looking forward to it.”
Fowler was 28th in the FedEx Cup standings to start the week, with the top 30 making it to the fourth and final event, the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.
Reed, who held at least a tie of the lead after each of the first two rounds, had three birdie and three bogeys on the front nine before finishing with nine straight pars for a 70.
“I just didn’t hit the ball very well today,” said Reed, who has won four times on the PGA Tour since 2013 but is winless this season. “My tee shots were off, hanging right. Felt like I got absolutely nothing out of my round.
“I just need to put one good round together tomorrow and chase Rickie down.”
Adam Scott of Australia carded a 65 that was the low score of the tournament and is two shots back in solo third, while Martin Laird of Scotland, the 18-hole co-leader alongside Reed, had a 69 and is another stroke back on a tie for fourth with Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, who totaled 71.
Defending champion and top-ranked Jason Day (70) of Australia, Justin Thomas (66), Kevin Streelman (67) and Gary Woodland (68) are four shots behind in a tie for sixth.
World No. 2 Dustin Johnson, the U.S. Open champion, carded a 67 and is in a tie for 10th, five shots down.
World No. 3 Jordan Spieth (72) is six strokes back and tied for 16th, world No. 5 Rory McIlroy (71) of Northern Ireland is a shot back of Spieth and tied for 22nd. Phil Mickelson (70) and Olympic champion Justin Rose (70) of England are tied for 34th, nine behind.
