Scheffler leads Masters by 1 shot entering Sun.

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SCOTTSDALE. Ariz. — Tony Finau and Webb Simpson crashed golf’s biggest party with some back-nine fireworks. Finau shot a 9-under 62 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead over Simpson in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, making an eagle on the par-5 13th and then, switching to a Kobe Bryant jersey for one hole, a birdie on TPC Scottsdale’s stadium par-3 16th. Related: Leaderboard | Amy paying it forward | Spieth misses cut, continues search for his best “I had a perfect number for a sand wedge and go ahead and fire right at the pin,” Finau said. “Damn near made it. That would have been pretty sweet with the Kobe jersey on. But I like that shot. That was pretty nice.” Simpson had a hole-in-one on the par-3 12th in a 64. Second-round leader J.B. Holmes and Hudson Swafford were two strokes back. Holmes shot 70 and Swafford had a 66. Holmes won at TPC Scottsdale in 2006 and 2008 for the first of his five PGA TOUR titles. Xander Schauffele (66), Adam Long (66) and Scott Piercy (68) were another shot back. Finau began his back-nine charge with a birdie on 12, ran in a 20-footer for the eagle on 13, then settled for birdie on the par-5 15th after missing a 6 1/2-foot eagle try. After the birdie on the rowdy 16th, he three-putted for par from the fringe on the short par-4 17th — missing a 4-foot birdie attempt — and saved par on the par-4 18th after driving left into the first section of the church pew bunkers. “I missed the one on 15 where I stuffed it in there and another one on 17,” Finau said. “It would be nice to have those back, I would have had the low round of my career. But it was a beautiful round of golf.” The 30-year-old from Utah won the 2016 Puerto Rico Open for his lone PGA TOUR title. “I look forward to tomorrow, my game’s in a good place and I always tell myself, `Whatever happens, you’re going to learn from it and get better and stronger as long as it doesn’t kill you,'” Finau said. “I’m still standing here punching and I’m going to do that for the rest of my career. So, I got 18 holes to try and win this golf tournament and my expectation is exactly that.” Simpson used a 7-iron on the 196-yard 12th. The ball bounced and rolled, turning slightly to right as it lost speed. “We figured with all the adjustments and everything, playing 180 yards, which is a perfect 7-iron for me and as soon as I hit it I knew I hit a good shot,” Simpson said. “I quit watching it because I can’t see the green. I can’t really see that well, to gauge how far it was from the hole. I was looking at the crowd and they got more excited and then their hands went up. And at first my first thought was, `That couldn’t have gone in.’ And then it dawned on me they were really excited, so it was fun.” He birdied 14 and 15, then saved bogey on 17 with a 20-foot putt after driving short and right into a bunker and taking three more shots to get on the green. He also scrambled on 18, making a 10-footer for par after driving into the right rough. The 2012 U.S. Open champion has five PGA TOUR victories, the last in 2018 at THE PLAYERS Championship. He lost a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama at TPC Scottsdale in 2017. “The golf course has gotten more firm every day, so it’s going to be challenging tomorrow,” Simpson said. “But guys, I think, are still looking at it as plenty of birdie opportunities. This course is playing shorter, so we’re having shorter clubs in, even though the greens are more firm.” Jon Rahm was tied for 11th at 10 under after a 68, playing alongside Finau. “Can’t make a putt. If I could make a putt, I would be happier,” Rahm said. “But six back, hitting it good, I just can’t seem to roll it in and at this point it just seems like it’s a little bit too far to be able to make it up. This course, it isn’t as easy to make up distance.” Billy Horschel, a shot behind Holmes entering the round, had a 73 to drop seven strokes back. Wyndham Clark, the first-round leader after a 61, also was 9 under after a 74 in the final group with Holmes and Horschel. FedExCup points leader Justin Thomas shot 69 to get to 8 under. Defending champion Rickie Fowler was 5 under after a 69.

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OVERVIEW Normally it might be hard to summon an encore performance in the season after winning a major, but reigning Masters champion Patrick Reed has never had a problem with motivation and will likely have no trouble pinpointing where he can improve in 2019. Reed’s tee-to-green play, so good as he copped his first major at Augusta National Golf Club, is still a work in progress. That’s a strange thing to say for a guy who has won in every season but one since he joined the PGA TOUR in 2013, but Reed, 28, is a player whose otherworldly short game, much more than his long game, has made him a star. Just check his Strokes Gained stats from last season: 107th in Off-the-Tee, 84th in Approach-the-Green, and 2nd in Around-the-Green. Far from an aberration, those numbers are emblematic of his whole career, and explain why he is occasionally prone to wild fluctuations from one round to the next. In late October, Reed finished T7 at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, with a 64-72-70-77 scoring line. It was his only start so far in the 2018-19 season, so don’t read too much into it, but it wasn’t the first time he’s gone so cold, so fast. He struggled on a tight Ryder Cup course, and the week before that finished near the bottom at the TOUR Championship. Should Reed find a way to eliminate those stretches of bad golf in 2019, look out. — By Cameron Morfit Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 82nd Playoff appearances: 6 TOUR Championship appearances: 5 Best result: 3rd in the 2015-16 season SHOTLINK FUN FACT Patrick Reed ranked second on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green last season and ranked 11th in Scrambling — career-best performances in both categories. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Patrick Reed in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: From the Presidents Cup (one appearance, 2017) to the Ryder Cup (three appearances), Reed is one of the most exciting, and excitable, players in the game. Other than perhaps the most recent Ryder Cup, when he returned to form only for his singles win over Tyrrell Hatton (3 and 2), he’s the catalyst U.S. teams had been missing for years. How ironic, then, that the thing that would help him most is playing more boring golf. Fairways. Greens. — By Cameron Morfit FANTASY INSIDER: It doesn’t seem like it’s been already seven seasons since he was identified only as a prodigious open qualifier. Yet, the 2018 Master champ already is 54th in all-time earnings on the PGA TOUR. If there’s a rub, it’s that he should be even higher as he’s been even odds either to record a top 25 or to finish outside that bubble since 2016-17. The thing is, he loves to travel and compete, so that resonates in our world. While we do share some of him with the European Tour (where he finished No. 2 in the 2018 Race to Dubai), it’s a formula that works for him and us. Won’t turn 29 until the 2019 FedExCup Playoffs, during which he’ll be chasing his sixth consecutive trip to the TOUR Championship. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Reed started the sweeping trend of 2018 major championship winners to play without equipment contracts. The former Nike staffer actually still has a remnant of his former sponsor by way of a Nike VR Pro Limited Edition 3 wood. In the beginning of 2018, Reed was testing a number of different drivers, eventually settling in with a Ping G400 LST driver that he used to win the Masters, and he’s still currently gaming it. In the equipment world, Reed is also known for his USA-flag-inspired Odyssey White Hot Pro 3 putter, but he’s since switched into a custom Scotty Cameron… with red-white-and-blue dots, obviously, because he’s “Captain America.â€� — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: Reed’s move to Nike has resulted in better fits and more adventurous looks. Case in point, he ditched the traditional Sunday red at the Masters in favor of an energetic azalea pink as he slipped on the Green Jacket. Recently, he has been sporting trendy tonal camos in a variety of colors. Hopefully, he will continue to push his style comfort and continue to sharpen the fit of his clothing in 2019. — By Greg Monteforte

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