Patrick Reed returns to Jeddah for LIV Golf duties

Midway through last year’s finals at LIV Golf Jeddah, Patrick Reed was going through a tough time. A series of 3 consecutive bogeys pushed him up the rankings. He responded with three birdies over the next four holes, but the damage was done.

Expense? Bonus 8 million USD. Reed entered that week at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in third place in the season-long individual championship race. His 4 Aces captain, Dustin Johnson, won the title, but Reed, with 76 points, was just three behind Stinger’s Branden Grace, who was playing through a rib injury suffered last week in Bangkok.

Grace would eventually finish outside the top 24 in points in Jeddah, giving Reed and the other suitors a big chance of moving into the top three with prize money.

If Reed makes just one of those three errors in the final round, he will finish the tournament at minus-8 and tie three-way for 10th place with Abraham Ancer and Anirban Lahiri in the tournament standings. Additionally, since Reed had the highest score in the final round, he would win the tiebreak against these two players for 10th place, worth 10 points. This would have given Reed 86 points in the final standings and an $8 million bonus for second place.

Instead, Reed finished at 7 under and tied for 12th. Reed lost tiebreaks to five of those players, finishing at 17th by 3 points. This gave Reed a total of 79 points, equaling Grace’s total.

Since tiebreakers score season points based on best tournament result, Reed lost the tiebreaker to Grace, who won her second tournament of the year in Portland while Reed’s best result was a 2nd place finish. two in Bangkok. Thus, Grace won the second place bonus.

However, that still left Reed in third place, who was paid $4 million in prize money. But wait…

Peter Uihlein birdied the final hole in Jeddah, the par-5 18th, to force a playoff with then-teammate Brooks Koepka, the Smash captain. It took three holes in the playoff, but Koepka eventually won. If Uihlein wins, he will finish second in the season-long race. Instead, second place behind Koepka was worth 30 points, giving him 79 points.

Similar to Grace Similar to Reed.

Grace thanks to this win in Portland and still managed to take second place. Third place now belongs to Uihlein and Reed – and the lead goes to Uihlein, who finished second in the 2022 season (one in Chicago with Jeddah’s) ahead of Reed’s. So Uihlein won the third-place prize money, leaving Reed as the odd man out.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not a memory he enjoys revisiting.

“I definitely try not to think about last year, that’s for sure,” Reed said.

Now he has a chance to redeem himself.

Reed returns to LIV Golf Jeddah next week finishing fourth in the season points standings. He has 121 points, 25 behind third-place Bryson DeChambeau, who has won two of the last three LIV Golf tournaments. Three-time winner Talor Gooch is second with 162 points while two-time 2023 winner Cameron Smith tops the standings with 170 points.

Mathematically, Reed is eliminated from first or second place, but he has a chance to win the third place bonus if one of the following permutations occurs:

Reed won from Jeddah and DeChambeau finished no better than sixth.

Reed finished second in Jeddah, and neither Johnson, Grace nor Koepka won while DeChambeau finished 15th.

Unlike last year, this time Reed did not need to defend his position. Unfortunately, he knows that fourth place doesn’t earn him a prize money, so Reed will get the nod whenever he feels like it. Play aggressively but always play smart.

“Really for me, playing good golf solves everything,” Reed said. “I think the most important thing to do is take it day by day.”

Since joining LIV Golf in the second tournament of its inaugural season, Reed has consistently put himself in a winning position. In 18 regular season starts, he finished on the podium four times and had four other top-10 finishes. His last five starts include a fifth place in Andalusia, a second place in London (one stroke behind winner Smith) and a fourth place at Bedminster.

Equally important is that he is a key player for the 4 Aces, last year’s tag team champions, who will head into Jeddah to take the top spot in Miami for the second year in a row. The 4 Aces have won seven times and finished on the podium among the top 12 teams in the tournament since Reed was added to the team. The Aces’ success is commendable, but Reed will not hesitate to enjoy the spoils of his individual game. Returning to Jeddah next week may bring up old wounds but will also provide an opportunity to rediscover positive memories. He deserves a win – and the Royal Greens may owe him one.