PAT RYDES INTO TOWN WITH BANG
Reed puts Paris row behind him
PATRICK REED put an infamous Ryder Cup rant in his rear-view mirror after resurfacing in Shanghai with a round that did all the talking.
Less than four weeks have passed since the man dubbed Captain America took a swipe at Jim Furyk’s captaincy and launched a rocket at Jordan Spieth for not wanting to resume their successful foursome partnership.
But the dark cloud that hung over his first appearance since Paris soon cleared with a blemish-free eight-under first-round 64 at the WGC-HSBC Champions.
The Masters champion putted for birdie at every hole to take a two-shot lead over fellow Americans Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele into this morning’s second round.
Reed has been working away on his game at home in Texas since a Ryder Cup that, unlike Hazeltine, will be remembered for the pelters he dished out rather than points added.
He said: “From that point, my coach and I have been out there finetuning everything. Just trying to set goals to finish the year off right.”
A 25-foot birdie putt at the last suggested the fine-tuning had done the trick as Reed beat the wind battering Sheshan International. He said: “It felt really good because if you can go out and shoot rounds like that in these kind of conditions you know you’re going to have confidence when the wind dies down and there are perfect conditions out there.”
Matthew Fitzpatrick finished day one as the best performing European thanks to a 67 that included five straight birdies. Although Tyrrell Hatton almost topped his fellow Englishman at the par-three fourth when his tee shot hit the pin and tracked back instead of dropping into the cup for an ace. Hatton went on to double bogey the par-five eighth and after his 72 shared an image on Twitter of a cat setting off an explosion captioned: “What I would love to do to the bunkers and 8th hole here.” Rory McIlroy even attempted a left-handed shot en route to the same level-par 72 after finding himself among the trees on 16. A bogey at his last hole marred a 68 that left reigning Race to Dubai winner Tommy Fleetwood in a group of five on four under while defending WGCHSBC champ Justin Rose carded a 69.