In a strange and twisted way, the LIV golfer I miss the most has not been one of their main stars.
Sure, I would love to see Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau back on the PGA Tour battling it out with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. It would be cool to have Tyrrell Hatton’s comedic relief and Joaquin Niemann charging up leaderboards. It will be fun to welcome back Brooks Koepka this week at Torrey Pines.
But the golfer I have missed the most is Patrick Reed.
Now he is coming back. In a statement released today, Reed said he is returning to the Tour as a past champion member and is eligible to begin competing in certain Tour events later this year.
It’s not exactly the immediate reinstatement like Koepka received—Reed can’t play on Tour until the fall and has to earn future full-time status through his play—but you can expect to see a lot more of golf’s biggest villain moving forward.
“After careful thought and consideration, my family and I have decided that I will no longer compete on the LIV Golf Tour,” Reed said in his statement. “I’m a traditionalist at heart, and I was born to play on the PGA Tour, which is where my story began with my wife, Justine.”
To be honest, I am elated about this.
We all need someone to hate
Great marketing for any sport is all about giving fans someone to root for.
And, just as importantly, someone to root against.
The NFL and college football draw hate-watchers on a consistent basis as people line up to see the Kansas City Chiefs suffer (they got their wish this season) or see their archrival crumble in a championship game. Most baseball fans get their blood boiling over the Houston Astros being garbage can-banging cheaters or the L.A. Dodgers spending themselves into their own one-team division of the MLB. My Florida Panthers went from irrelevancy to full-on villains in the NHL because hockey fans are disenchanted with a team that plays right on the edge of hard-nosed/dirty.
Just wait until Indiana football has won a couple more titles. No consistent winner stays a Cinderella forever.
Sports hatred. It makes the world go round.
Golf might be a gentlemen’s game but it has its fair share of players to hate. I made this list a couple months ago detailing 10 players that weren’t exactly beloved.
One of the worst aspects of LIV is that it put some of golf’s thornier or more controversial characters on the back burner.
Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Phil Mickelson … and, sitting above all of them, Patrick Reed.
Reed is the kind of villain we need
This is a guy who inspires universal disdain. You don’t need me to go through the reasons why (and I don’t want to get sued given how trigger-happy the Reeds are with lawsuits).
For better or worse, Reed getting into contention is pure cinema.
Remember the 2018 Masters? Jordan Spieth, the golden boy, charging up the leaderboard as Reed protected his lead.
When Spieth couldn’t pull off the miraculous comeback, Reed put on a green jacket to tepid applause.
The Masters posts the final round of each tournament on YouTube. When those broadcasts were first published, the thumbnail for every year was a picture of the winner. The only one that didn’t have a picture of the winner? Reed in 2018 (that has since been amended).
The ending to that event was anti-climactic and disappointing but the ride there was captivating. Rooting interests. Passionate rooting interests. Real consequences.
For the rest of eternity, Reed has a green jacket.
Fast-forward to the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open when Reed won easily but did so while being mired in a cheating controversy.
Did his alleged cheating matter to the ultimate outcome? Not really. He won by five shots.
But there was real juice to that tournament despite the field (and golf course) being merely adequate.
That is how you build a product—fans being emotionally invested for one reason or another.
The same tournament, the Farmers Insurance Open, is being played this week. It does have some buzz with Koepka returning and ESPN broadcasting a regular Tour event for the first time in two decades.
Would it be even better with Reed in the field? Hell yeah! We needed him competing beyond the four majors, which he might not have always had access to if he stayed on LIV (although that could be changing soon as the Official World Golf Ranking board might decide to give the league points this week).
I am all for adding any players who make fans feel something. The Tour has way too many milquetoast guys who might as well be the most boring build-a-player in Tiger Woods 2005.
Make us feel something—and that something doesn’t have to be love.
Reed is on his way back soon
After winning last week’s Dubai Desert Classic, Reed surprised many by saying he was technically a free agent and didn’t have a LIV contract for this upcoming season, although he anticipated signing one.
“We’re still finalizing the contract,” Reed said. “We’re not complete on that yet … I haven’t talked to the team back home or anything like that. But at the moment, I plan on teeing it up there in Riyadh (for the first LIV event) and I’d be surprised if we’re not.”
Well, that didn’t happen.
Reed recently called the PGA Tour the “best tour in the world,” showing his cards that he desperately wanted to be back in real competition.
On the PGA Tour side, I am thrilled to see them allow LIV guys a pathway back. As I wrote before, let LIV players who want to come back sink or swim.
Kevin Na, Pat Perez and Hudson Swafford are other players who will have similar opportunities starting in 2027.
Those players will have limited status in the short-term and have to earn their full-time status back the hard way.
Reed could improve his 2027 status through the Race to Dubai (Reed currently ranks second) or Q-School (he would be exempt to final stage provided he remains in the OWGR’s top 50). He will not, however, be eligible for the Tour’s equity program until 2031.
I am betting Reed spends a lot of time on the DP World Tour this year and earns his full-time Tour privileges that way.
I do believe a guy like Reed makes the Tour a more compelling product, even if his name only pops up on leaderboards a few times per year.
I have to say it’s true—I am looking forward to hate-watching P. Reed once again.
Top Photo Caption: Patrick Reed recently won the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour. (GETTY IMAGES/Andrew Redington)
Allan K
4 months ago
He was the most fervent PGA Tour hater of the group! Sued the tour how many times? dont let him back.