Reed leads, Tiger struggles
Ryder Cup partners on opposite ends of leaderboard at Hero
Patrick Reed and Tiger Woods are about as far apart as can be on the leaderboard after one round of the Hero World Challenge.
Only they know how close they are after the Ryder Cup fallout.
Reed showed no sign of fatigue in his travels from Dubai to Hong Kong to the Bahamas in successive weeks, making birdie on three of his last five holes Thursday for a 7-under 65 and a share of the lead with late entry Patrick Cantlay.
Woods was never under par at any point and opened with a 73, eight shots behind, tied for 16th in an 18-man field.
Reed’s comments after Europe won the Ryder Cup still follow him. In a phone interview with The New York Times hours after the loss, Reed blamed Jordan Spieth for them not playing together, U.S. captain Jim Furyk for twice leaving him on the bench and he made it sound as though he was stuck with Woods as a partner in Paris.
“We spoke after the Ryder Cup for a long period of time,” Woods said. “We talked among us and it will stay between us.”
This is one time Reed held his tongue.
After his eighth and final birdie in balmy weather at Albany Golf Club, he acknowledged nothing more than they had talked.
He also said he hasn’t spoken to Furyk, and Reed told the New York Post on Tuesday that he hasn’t spoken to Spieth, but that Spieth has his number.
“It’s been I don’t know how many weeks (since the Ryder Cup), but in the golf world, it’s been a long time,” Reed said. “All of us on our side have moved past that. Basically, when the tournament was over, all of us moved past it and we’re just kind of getting ready for hopefully two years.” Australian PGA: Marc Leishman’s quest for a first professional victory on home soil got off to a strong start with a 4-under 68 to sit two strokes behind the first-round leaders. Leaders Jake Mcleod and fellow Australian Matt Jager shot 66s and had a one-stroke lead over South Korean Jae-woong Eom and Dimitrios Papadatos. European PGA: Victor Perez continued his fabulous start to life on the tour by sharing the first-round lead with an 8-under 64 at the Mauritius Open. Perez and Chikkarangappa S. are the co-leaders on the second weekend of the tour’s 2019 season. Perez finished in a tie for third at the season-opening Hong Kong Open last weekend after graduating from the Challenge Tour.