Two-and-a-half years into his LIV Golf League career, Patrick Reed still wants to play. Anywhere and everywhere that is. A member of the DP World Tour and the Asian Tour, as well as the Saudi-backed circuit, the former Masters champion is currently unable to compete on the PGA Tour, hamstrung by his 2022 decision to accept LIV’s no doubt lucrative offer.
And that exclusion continues to irritate the 34-year-old nine-time PGA Tour winner. Reed’s position is that, if he or anyone else fulfils the minimum requirement for membership on any of the world’s circuits, the freedom to tee-up elsewhere should be unaffected.
“The minimum on the PGA Tour is 15 events,” he says. “Then there is 14 more on LIV. Then there’s the majors. That’s a lot of events. But if a guy is willing to do all that—and plays well enough to keep his cards—he should have the right to play. The same is true of the DP World Tour. If you play your four events and play well enough to keep your card you should be able to tee-up the following season.”
It is on the other side of that particular coin where Reed gets tough. In his mind at least, failure to fulfil the requirements on any tour should bring with it severe penalties. And he really means severe.
“If someone doesn’t meet his minimums, that’s the time to hit him hard with fines and suspensions,” he says. “Because you are taking a spot away from someone else. I think of the BMW PGA at Wentworth. I remember guys in the top 60 on the World Rankings coming to play for that one week a situation many on the DP World Tour didn’t like. I understood that. They were losing spots in the tour’s flagship event.
“But if a guy wants to play more than 30 events in a year in order to stay a member of multiple tours, more power to him,” Reed continues. “In a perfect world, if you are qualified you should be able to play wherever you want. But you have to play the minimums. And if you don’t, you get hit with a $1 million fine, or a $2 million fine. Or a huge suspension. I don’t really care. But hit him hard, where it’s going to hurt.”
At first glance, such a stance doesn’t gel with Reed’s recent decision to re-join the DP World Tour, where he is an honorary lifetime member. Given the contract that obliges him to play in every LIV event next year, his ability to fulfil the criteria for playing membership in Europe—currently four events—is clearly limited. Throw in the fact that he is liable for fines and suspensions from the DP World Tour each time he tees-up in a competing tournament elsewhere, as he has done the last three weeks in Hong Kong, Qatar and the past few days at the PIF Saudi Arabia Invitational, and trouble is likely ahead.
Still, none of the above is bothering Reed unduly. He claims to be repaying the kindness and warm welcome he has always felt on the Old World circuit.
“I’ve paid my fines as they came in,” he says. “And I’ve served all my suspensions until Hong Kong, Qatar and this week. It depends on what the tour does. But right now, I’m free and clear to do as I want. Plus, I’ve always shown the DP World Tour a lot of support. I take pride in being one of the few Americans who are lifetime honorary members. I cherish that. It created a loyalty. I even flew over a few times during COVID, when it would have been easy to stay in the States. I have shown support through thick and thin. I plan on doing that going forward.”
It was an easy decision, then, he says to re-join. “I want to show support for them,” he says. “And I’ll keep doing that until they stop giving me the love and support I think I deserve. There are always hassles though. I applied to the DP World Tour for a release this week and did not get one. But that sort of thing was not part of my decision to re-join. My desire to support the tour overrode all of that. At some point, everyone is going to have to come to some sort of conclusion with all that is going on. We have to unify, or at least play nice with each other. Everyone bashing each other doesn’t help anything.”
As for his own position going forward, Reed does admit to missing certain aspects of his former life. Not surprisingly, the majors (he has missed the last two) and the Ryder Cup, the event with which he is somewhat synonymous, are high on that list.
“Missing majors has been tough,” he admits. “Especially as I was inside the top 30 on the 2023 Race to Dubai. But because of the suspensions I only played three events. So I wasn’t on the final standings and exempt into the majors this year. It’s weird. I played well enough to finish that high in only three events, so to not get into two of the majors did hurt.
“Missing Ryder Cups has been really tough, too,” he continues. “Representing your country is a big deal. I loved it. Every time I was in the team a different beast came out for sure. Hopefully, they can figure it out soon. I’d love to be at Bethpage next year. I’ve won there [the 2016 Barclays, a FedEx Cup playoff event], so I have a history on the course. I feel like I could do well. I’m playing well right now and if that continues I hope [American Ryder Cup captain] Keegan [Bradley] takes note.”
For that to happen, Reed will have to make at least one important adjustment. By his own admission, he misjudged the effect of the long gap between the end of one LIV season and the start of the next. His play on LIV this year reflects that fact. In 13 starts, Reed’s best effort was a T-3 finish in Houston. Seven times he finished outside the top-20. Things are looking up though. Just two weeks ago won the Hong Kong Open, a feat that included a round of 59. Through 36 holes this week at Riyadh Golf Club, he’s tied for 26th, five strokes back of a foursome of players in the lead.
“I’ve always wanted to play a little less,” says the father of two. “And I’ve done that. The tough thing is figuring out exactly how much I do need to play in order to stay tournament sharp. I have always wanted an offs-eason, I just didn’t expect it to be three months long. Last year I didn’t handle that too well. I came out thinking I was ready to play but I wasn’t. I’ve had trouble scoring this year. I was flat, even when I was doing a lot of things well.”
Main Image: Chris Trotman LIV Golf
