All you need to know about Patrick Reed’s devotion to his profession is revealed by a glance at his playing schedule through the end of the year.
It might be easier to list the weeks he’s not playing than the ones he intends to play. Two more FedEx Cup playoff events, three PGA Tour events in Asia, and up to four European Tour events.
“I’ll probably add six or seven more just to make sure I’m playing every week coming in,” Reed joked Sunday night after winning the Northern Trust at Liberty National.
That doesn’t include a potential role in the Presidents Cup in Australia in December. He’s 12th in points with the top eight after the BMW Championship this week earning the automatic spots. If Reed doesn’t play himself into the top eight (a victory at the BMW Championship is the only way he can earn an automatic spot) it would be a shock if captain Tiger Woods doesn’t select him despite Reed’s awkward post-Ryder Cup complaints last fall.
Despite a schedule between now and the end of the year that would make a travel agent dizzy, it was a 10-day break from the game earlier this year that set in motion Reed’s slow but steady resurgence.
After the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in May, Reed did not swing a club for 10 days, choosing instead to spend time with his wife and two young children at a sprawling house in the Hamptons. Reed said the people closest to him sensed he needed to get away and he listened.
“Those 10 days were hard,” Reed said.
“If Tiger ever calls me and wants to talk or anything like that, he knows I’ll always call him back.” – Patrick Reed
He busied himself playing with the kids on a manicured lawn that measured 310 yards long and 50 yards wide, big enough for a proper practice area.
“We would wake up in the morning, go out there, run around, play tag, Frisbee, kickball, whatever, just kind of hang out and do whatever they wanted to do,” Reed said.
The last four days of his two-week vacation Reed teed it up in the Hamptons, his first stop coming at National Golf Links. He arrived 45 minutes early, hit a few balls and stepped to the tee at the driveable par-4 first hole wondering what awaited.
“Hit driver, 6 feet, tapped in for eagle, go to the next, OK, this is a good start,” Reed said.
If Reed needs a pick to make the Presidents Cup team, will the way he handled himself after the Ryder Cup keep him off?
Probably not. It wasn’t Reed’s finest moment, complaining about his pairings at the end of an American loss in Paris, but Woods will care the most about winning.
“If Tiger ever calls me and wants to talk or anything like that, he knows I’ll always call him back,” Reed said.
“I’m not going to bug him. I’m not going to call him and bug him. His job’s hard enough. If I continue to go out there and play good golf, I know he’s going to make the right decision on picking four guys that he feels are best for the team at the end of the day.”
Chip Shots
• How likely is it that the PGA Tour will change its pace-of-play policy now that it has stated publicly it is reviewing the controversial issue?
Given all the conversation surrounding slow play this summer and particularly last week, there would be an outcry if nothing changes.
Sweeping changes seem unlikely. The tour isn’t going to institute shot clocks on every hole and officials aren’t going to be putting a stopwatch to every swing every player makes.
The popular idea that laser rangefinders will cut playing time is undercut by the reality that players and caddies would use the lasers to confirm their own calculations. They still want to know various distances to front and back edges, what it takes to cover a bunker and where various slopes are. Rangefinders could add another layer of information rather than simplify things.
If the tour can dig down with its detailed ShotLink technology and can accurately determine who is and isn’t playing at a proper pace, it should adjust accordingly.
After a player is warned, the next step should be a penalty stroke. Enforce it. Once it happens a few times, players will fit their routines to comply.
Not every shot is the same and there needs to be some wiggle room in difficult conditions or at critical moments. But it’s in the tour’s best interest to be proactive.
“I agree with penalizing,” Bryson DeChambeau said. “That should be what happens out on tour. I am not opposed to it one bit, because if it is my issue and I’m taking too long a time, absolutely penalize me. I’ve got no issue with that.
“That may come as a shock to a lot of people, but I’m OK with that because it’s my fault, if it’s warranted, and that’s where we’ve got to talk about that and see what happened and when we are timing and how things are going along.”
• Brooks Koepka appears to be totally comfortable in his role as the No. 1 player in the game. He sounds like a leader talking about the slow-play issue and he doesn’t hide from questions. Koepka’s presence now reaches well beyond what he does on the course.
• The report that Jason Day and caddie Steve Williams have split after only six tournaments together came as no surprise, though the timing was unexpected considering they’re at the end of the season. Williams’ direct, aggressive style never seemed like a good fit for Day, who is seemingly always dealing with one thing or another. Day keeps talking about returning to No. 1 but that looks increasingly unlikely these days.