USA TODAY International Edition
Reed’s attack game perks up in time for Minnesota
You have to hand it to the inaugural 3M Open.
Making its PGA Tour debut this week in the slot home to the Fourth of July, the tournament in the Land of 10,000 Lakes lured Captain America.
Patrick Reed, the red, white and blue wrecking ball during the 2016 Ryder Cup at nearby Hazeltine National Golf Club, is one of the headliners in a strong field that includes No. 1 Brooks Koepka.
It’s Reed’s first trip back to Minnesota since he produced numerous explosions of fireworks over three days as the U.S. won the Ryder Cup 17-11. The memories from his 3-1-1 week flooded back as soon as he got off the plane, and Reed was so excited to be back in the state that he played the front nine of the tournament’s host course, the TPC Twin Cities outside of Minneapolis, in the rain Monday.
“Coming back was awesome,” Reed said. “Of course, I thought of the Ryder Cup. That was special week. Honestly, after Hazeltine, when I heard there was going to be an event up here, I was going to come to see the awesome fans again. I think it’s great that the PGA Tour players can showcase their talents here.”
If Reed produces like he did last weekend in the Motor City, he should be in contention. He finally broke out of a lengthy battle with his game by tying for fifth with rounds of 68-68-65-70. It was his first top-10 finish in 20 worldwide starts as he fell to No. 25 in the world, not the production he anticipated after winning the Masters and finishing fourth in the U.S. Open in 2018.
“My coach and my team kept saying, ‘Hey, you’re really close, you’re really close,’ but as a competitor, when you’re not contending and playing late on Sundays, you’re wondering what’s going on,” Reed said.
“I just needed a few things to click here and there, a couple more putts to fall, a few tee shots go my way. I got back into that mind-set where I was in attack mode trying to win.”
The same mind-set he had in the 2016 Ryder Cup and the 2018 Masters.