The Barclays marks the last week of automatic qualifying for the United States Ryder Cup team and a pair of hopefuls are doing their best to make Davis Love III’s squad on merit. Patrick Reed, who currently sits in the eighth and final automatic qualifying spot heading into the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, showed that he won’t be giving up that spot easily by taking hold of the first round lead.
Reed and Scotsman Martin Laird fired a pair of opening-round 66’s to stand at 5-under par on the difficult Bethpage Black Course. Just behind them, Rickie Fowler — 12th in the Ryder Cup standings — is hoping to make a move into that top-8.
Other big names hovering around the lead include Jason Day and Adam Scott. Ryder Cup implications are also in the mix for the likes of J.B. Holmes (9th in the current standings), Billy Horschel (28th) and Ryan Moore (23rd).
The complete leaderboard can be found here.
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