Reeds leads at Congressional

Patrick Reed held it together Saturday at Congressional in Bethesda, Md., to build a two-shot lead in the Quicken Loans National and put himself in an ideal position.

He has never lost a PGA Tour event when he had at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

Reed made three bogeys in a seven-hole stretch in the middle of his round and salvaged an even-par 71, giving him a two-shot lead over Seung-yul Noh, Freddie Jacobson and Marc Leishman going into the final round.

He was at 6-under 207.

Reed will try to become the only player with four PGA Tour victories in the last year, and history is on his side. He won the Wyndham Championship when tied for the lead going into today, and he converted a seven-shot lead at the Humana Challenge and a two-shot lead at Doral into victories.

Even without Tiger Woods boosting the energy at Congressional, and a leaderboard in which only four players from the top 10 have won on the PGA Tour, it might not be that easy. Congressional has been tough all week, and with another day of broiling sunshine, the fairways were running faster and the greens were turning slightly yellow.

Reed matched the highest score to par for a 54-hole leader in a tour event at Congressional. The other time was in 1983 at the old Kemper Open.

"That was one of those days that we were able to grind it out," Reed said. "It played tough. It seemed to get firmer and faster as the day went on, and it was just a lot of adjusting you had to do during the round. We handled it pretty well, and luckily we have the lead going into tomorrow."

Noh finished off his 5-under 66 - the best score of the third round - about the time the leaders went off. He was at 4-under 209, which looked better by the hour.

Jacobson made four birdies in his opening eight holes to reach 8 under, only to take double bogey on the 11th hole and a sloppy bogey on the par-5 16th hole. He wound up with a 71. Leishman was still only one shot behind until he failed to get up-and-down for par on the 17th and fell to a 73.

Langer still in charge at Senior

Bernhard Langer moved closer to his first Senior Players Championship victory, shooting a 4-under 66 in the third round at Pittsburgh to stay in front of hard-charging Kenny Perry.

Langer was at 15-under 195 through 54 holes in the third Champions Tour major the season, where he has five top-10 finishes but no victories. The two-time Masters champion shook off a slow start with a 4-under 31 on the back nine.

Perry, trying to join Arnold Palmer as the only player to win the Senior Players in consecutive years, briefly took the lead midway through the round before settling for a 65 that left him three strokes behind Langer.

Russ Cochran, Joe Durant and Bill Glasson were four back. Cochran had a 63, the low round of the day at Fox Chapel. Durant shot 67, and Glasson had a 68.

Jeff Sluman was at 10 under following a 64 as the field began to spread out behind Langer.

The 56-year-old Langer, a two-time winner this year, began the day with the lead but also concerns about his driver after a broken screw in the clubhead was repaired.

After some extra time on the range making sure everything was OK, the driver turned out to be fine. Early on in his round, it was everything else in Langer's game that was shaky. The German three-putted the first hole for bogey and couldn't get up and down for par from a greenside bunker on the fifth

Wie leads the rain-delayed NW Arkansas Championship

Michelle Wie shot her second straight 5-under 66 to take a two-shot lead in the suspended second round of the NW Arkansas Championship at Rogers.

Coming off a victory Sunday in the U.S. Women's Open at Pinehurst, Wie had six birdies and a bogey in her morning round at Pinnacle Country Club.

So Yeon Ryu, paired with Wie, was second after her second straight 67.

All 72 players in the afternoon session were unable to finish because of thunderstorms.

Suzann Pettersen, Chella Choi and Line Vedel were three strokes back, and top-ranked and local favorite Stacy Lewis was four shots behind at 6 under. Pettersen had a 67, Choi shot 65, and Vedel had five holes left.

Lewis birdied four of her first eight holes and finished with a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 9 for a 67. First-round leader Alena Sharp was 4 under overall after 15 holes.

Lewis made the early charge Saturday to close within a shot of Sharp, much to the delight of the pro-Arkansas crowd - where Lewis played collegiately.