By Fatiha Betscher at Le National.
Former Masters champ Patrick Reed has slammed the DP World Tour for the way the Texan has been treated ahead of this week’s Cazoo French Open, labelling it a ‘slap in the face’.
The 32-year-old Reed has been a long-time supporter of the DP World Tour long before men’s professional golf started digging the hole that it is currently in, and the nine-time winner of events around the globe has shown his support this week, teeing-up on the Le National course where four years ago he was a member of Jim Furyk’s losing USA Ryder Cup team.
Reed also is the only major champion competing this week on the outskirts of Versailles, and you would think event organisers would extend an ‘olive branch’ to Reed.
Alas no!
Reed was excluded from Wednesday’s pro-am and has been vanquished to tee-up in group four for the opening days of the event, far away from any glow of the feature groups found around groups 17 to 20.
“It’s a slap in the face not to invite me to the press conference, or not to have me play the pro-am and all those things,” Reed told Journal Du Golf.
“At the end of the day, it’s just my golf that I have control over. I’m here to support the Tour, France and all the people who are here. But I don’t see why we can’t move from the LIV to the European Tour like we usually move from the PGA Tour to the European Tour. A lot of players understand and support my choice and have nothing against me. I didn’t feel any animosity against me from them.”
Reed could very well be back home in Texas and spending quality time with his young family but no, he’s chosen to return to France.
Sadly, this is another example of this ugly side of men’s professional golf that we now see week-in and week-out
For those who wish to follow Reed this week, he teed-up Thursday at 8.20am local time in the company of fellow American Jonanese Veerman and South African Daniel Van Tonder.
- Full scoring HERE
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