Good omens
Patrick Reed likes recent trends as he seeks first win as FedExCup Playoffs begin
It’s been an odd year for Patrick Reed.
It took longer than he thought to recover after his emotionally draining heroics in the USA’s victory in the Ryder Cup last fall.
Then he dealt with kidney stones that bothered him for four months.
He also battled equipment issues, especially with the lies of his irons.
And the man who has at least one victory each year since earning his first PGA Tour title in 2013 hasn’t won, notching one top-10 finish in a 22-tournament stretch that knocked his world ranking down 20 spots.
All has not been lost, however. At the Masters, he and his wife, Justine, learned they will become parents for a second time, with a boy due in December. In his last start, Reed earned his first top-10 in 16 starts in a major championship, when he finished in a tie for second in the PGA Championship. The finish also moved him to ninth in the Presidents Cup standings, with the top 10 earning spots on the U.S. team that faces the Internationals on Sept. 28Oct. 1.
“I had up-and-down years before, but this year has been a little bit more up and down than ever before,” Reed said.
It’s looking up at the moment. Reed said he’s trending in the right direction heading into Thursday’s start of the FedExCup Playoffs. He’s the defending champion this week, but adding to the oddity of the season, he is defending on a different course with a different tournament name.
But he’s not bothered by not going back to Bethpage Black, where he won The Barclays last year to ignite a profitable run in the Playoffs and get him primed for the Ryder Cup. He took quite nicely to the new course, Glen Oaks Club, during a practice round ahead of the start of the Northern Trust, the first of four Playoff events that culminate at The Tour Championship in four weeks.
His short game has returned, the one that helped him immensely in the PGA. He’s also looking back on last year, when he headed into The Barclays without a victory but felt he was trending in the right direction.
“It’s always on your mind if you go through an amount of time without winning a golf tournament. I knew it was that way last year, but I thought I was playing some really good golf and having a lot of good finishes but I just wasn’t finishing it off,” Reed said. “This year has kind of been the same way.
“The first half, there were a lot of other things going on, and I just couldn’t quite get it going. And since then, it’s usually been one round, or a stretch of holes, that have kept me from winning a tournament.”
He had one bad round in the PGA — a second-round, 2-overpar 73. But to him, that was the turning point of late. He turned a 78 into a 73 and kept himself within striking distance of the leaders with his short game. Reed’s closing 69-67 left him two shots short of champion Justin Thomas.
The PGA was also his ninth consecutive week playing, a stretch that took him overseas and back and included two majors and a World Golf Championships event. To finish second was a boost of energy.
“My finish showed me I can still handle long stretches and compete. I can mentally and physically handle it,” Reed said. “It spoke volumes to myself. If I need to go on a long run like that again, I can still do it.
“And instead of having two good rounds and two bad rounds like I was doing earlier in the season, I had three good rounds and one bad round. And my bad round was 2 over. I hit it poor, but I salvaged the round with my short game. You need your short game on point, and that’s been trending great.
“I’m close again, just like last year when I won and made a run in the Playoffs, and hopefully I can make another run this year.”