Patrick Reed hasn’t had much success at the Open Championship over the last two years. After missing the cut in 2021 at Royal St. George’s, Reed tied for 47th at St. Andrews in 2022.
However, he’s off to a great start this time around, posting an opening-round 1-under 70 at Royal Liverpool on Thursday morning.
“Oh, it was frustrating,” Reed said of his round. “Felt like I hit the ball pretty well for the most part. Left myself a lot of good looks, a lot of good spots. Just didn’t really make anything.
“The game feels good. The number is just not producing. That very easily should have been a 4-, 5-, 6-under par round, and I shoot 1-under par. I guess I could say it’s kind of one of my better first rounds I’ve had in a while. I’m having to play huge catch-up.”
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Despite this week being the final men’s major championship until the Masters in April, it’s easy to look forward to September’s Ryder Cup. Reed has been a part of three United States vs. Europe battles, but missed out on the Whistling Straits blowout two years ago.
His move to the LIV Golf League has made his journey to earning a spot on Zach Johnson’s team much more difficult, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just look at LIV’s Brooks Koepka, who currently owns an automatic qualifying spot thanks to his performances in majors this year, including a win at the PGA Championship.
Reed understands what he has to do to earn a trip to Rome, and he’s trying to keep it as simple as possible.
“I mean, the only thing I can do on that is go out and play well this week, go out and have a chance hopefully to win the tournament on Sunday and put myself in that position where they have to think about it,” Reed said.
“That’s the thing; playing good golf takes care of everything. Takes care of these events, the majors, takes care of the Ryder Cups and all that. Just going and playing your way on, but playing well. Yeah, the guys that are part of LIV of course we’re on the 8-ball with that because of course we only have four tournaments that count. All we can do is continue playing solid golf and give yourself chances because winning trophies takes care of that.”
Reed mentioned that he has talked to Johnson this week, but the conversation wasn’t about golf.
The 2018 Masters champ was later asked about potentially playing on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf League as the landscape of the sport is being transformed by the Tour-PIF framework agreement.
“I’ve always wanted to play and keep my European Tour status. I’m an honorary lifetime member. I take pride in that,” he said. “PGA Tour, yeah of course I’d love to play. The first year of LIV I would have played the minimum — I already played the minimum on the PGA Tour.
“I have played every event on LIV and I would have played the minimum on the European Tour. I was that one guy when they said no one can play all three. Well, I did it. Shocker.
“But that’s the thing. Where I play, who knows. If I play PGA Tour, LIV, or if I played European Tour. The biggest thing is there should be no reason why if we’ve qualified well we shouldn’t be able to. People say you can’t make your cake and eat it, as well, but how many PGA Tour players go over and play a European Tour for money? They’re getting appearance fees. They’re not showing up to play for competition. They’re getting paid to do that. It shouldn’t matter as long as you play the minimum and do what you’re supposed to, you play, and that’s fine.
“If you play the minimum on the European Tour and you earn enough points to keep your card, you should be able to play. If you play the minimum on the PGA Tour and you have enough FedExCup points to keep your card, more power to you.”
Reed will tee off at 7:31 a.m. ET Friday for his second round.
