Patrick Reed is one of three major winners teeing it up at the Hong Kong Open this week as part of the Asian Tour’s International Series, and the 2018 Masters champion says that the increased opportunities to take his game global is one of the main reasons why he chose to join LIV last year.
“It’s crucial,” he said when asked about the worldwide aspect of both LIV and the International Series. “I’ve always wanted to be a worldwide player and as a part of the PGA Tour, mainly in the United States, it was hard to become the worldwide player that I wanted to be. So when I had the opportunity to be a part of the European Tour (DP World Tour), that allowed me to touch some of these areas and regions.
“But really the biggest thing, it is why I joined LIV, was that it allowed me to venture out and not only to play around the world, but also to have a schedule to come play events like this on The International Series.
“I’m excited to come to new places and new venues, especially to a place over here that I’ve played before here in Hong Kong. It is a beautiful area, I feel like a lot of people want to play golf, but they also they want to see the top players in the world. Rather than just see them on TV, they want to see that drive and see them in person, and being there is something special for them.”
The recent PGA Tour announcement that they would not be prohibiting players from playing in the LIV Promotions event – effectively LIV Golf’s version of Q-School – in Abu Dhabi next month was an interesting development, though Reed, like many others, feels that the true test of any potential thawing of the frosty relations would come in the aftermath.
“Allowing guys to come over and play the Promotions event, you would think that’s a step in the right direction,” he said. “But it really all depends on what happens after that. So if one of the guys come over and they get onto LIV because they finished inside of the top three, do they get suspended right away, immediately, or do they want to play on both? So we’ll just wait and see because we don’t know how it’s all going to turn out. We will have to wait and see what they decide to do at that point.
“I’m going to be optimistic and hope that it means that everyone’s going to be getting along, and we’re going to be able to figure this all out. But I don’t really know much about it; it’s all hypothetical and a guessing game.”
Whilst the Promotions Event’s field has yet to be announced, which of the up-and-coming players and established DP World and PGA Tour names decide to try their hand is going to be one of the most interesting storylines as the golfing season winds down, and Reed, like many of the golfing afficionados worldwide, will be watching with a keen eye, even if he tends to stay away from the game on weeks off.
“I normally don’t watch golf on my off weeks,” he admitted, “it’s my time to get away from the game. When I start watching golf on TV, I turn back into the competitor side – especially if I played the golf course before! I’m like, ‘why is this guy doing this, or ‘he should be doing that’. When I’m not playing I want to shut it down and get mentally rested and prepared.
“But I have tried to keep my eye on that one because it is going to determine who’s in the league (LIV Golf League), and what team are they going to. So because of that I was always going to keep a little eye on it. But I’m not going sit there and fret over it and grind over it. I will probably spend time hanging out with family and the kids.”
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