Trouble comes in pairs for Patrick Reed on Masters Saturday

Former champion Patrick Reed made it out of the third round of the Masters Tournament on Saturday, but sits seven shots behind heading into the final round.

A birdie on No. 2 looked like good fortune for the former Augusta State Jaguar, but that quickly changed with a double-bogey on No. 5 and a bogey on No. 6.

He settled down and gained five strokes over the next six holes, but trouble once again came in bunches with bogeys on Nos. 17 and 18 to end the day, dropping him to 9 under for the tournament.

Reed made 15 birdies through the first two rounds of the 2020 event.

He finished his second round Saturday morning, matching his Thursday performance with a 68 and stood at 8 under -- one shot behind the leaders entering the third round. He managed seven birdies in the round, including two on par 3s.

Round 3 Photos | Leaderboard

The issue with beginning a round one day and ending on another is the course can play completely different than it did the day before. Reed said the difference between Friday and Saturday was large.

“The difference from yesterday afternoon to this morning was insane. The greens were a lot faster. They're a lot smoother, obviously, since we're the first ones on them,” he said. “But you started to see that kind of roll out when the ball just caught the edges. If it was just off the green, where it kept on going down the hill, and then the putts started to have that look of just that really, really slow, just continuous movement that the ball just keeps on going. Next thing you know, you think it's a foot by, and you have a three footer coming back.”

Like he did two years ago, Reed said it’s about picking his spots and knowing when to be aggressive and go for it.

“I think around this place you always have to be patient, but at the same time, with how soft it is the greens are still soft. So you're still going to have to attack the golf course,” he said. “I feel like, even in the past, even in '18 when I won, even though I was being patient on my on some of the holes that I was just going to go and green light at, I was being very aggressive towards my lines, and I feel like that's what you have to do around this place.”