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Reed Finally Breaks Through in Hong Kong

Originally posted on The Morning Read | By Alex Miceli | Last updated Nov 24, 2024 7:21 PM ET

Patrick Reed became another of a long line of Liv players that has broken through of the world stage.

Sitting on nine professional wins, Patrick Reed’s career was in a stalling pattern since leaving the PGA Tour and joining LIV Golf in 2022.

With his last win at the Farmers Insurance Open in 2021, Reed 34, has struggled to get over the finish line on top until Sunday in Hong Kong, until Reed’s stellar win over Australian and defending champion Ben Campbell.

“Nothing like coming to a place that I know pretty well and love the golf course,” said the Reed about Hong Kong Golf Club. “I love how it makes me think about golf shots and you have to be creative around this place. So, to be able to come out and play the way like I did on the weekend. I mean, it always helps shooting 59 yesterday, but the biggest thing, the hardest part, was today.”

Reed owned a three-shot lead going into the final round over Nitithorn Thippong of Thailand and India’s Rashid Khan due to his third round 59 that included a start of five consecutive birdies and six in the first seven holes.

Reed would close out the third round with five birdies over the last six holes, to record only the second 59 in Asian Tour history, but due to preferred lies, the score would be unofficial, but gave Reed a nice cushion going into the final round.

“It was kind of one (of) those days,” said Reed, “I got up, I felt a little tight but felt ready to go and got out here and had probably one of the worst warm-ups ever. I looked at my caddy, and he goes, hey, a warm-up is a warm-up, let’s go out and just play golf. He goes, some of your best rounds have come from a poor warm-up.”

The poor warm-up did little to curb Reeds ability to score, over the last 36 holes Reed recorded 17 birdies and two bogeys when the tournament was decided.

“When I was able to birdie 13 there, then it just kind of got into really boring golf which led to two mistakes. But, you know, the last one, I was not ever going to take that on.”

The win moved Reed from 164^th to 128^th in the world rankings.

“Kind of going out there and forgetting about the 59 and going out, even though I had a three-shot lead, to try to expand on that, and the goal was to go out there and make a couple of birdies early, get up on top, so then on the back nine I could just hit fairways and middle of the greens,” Reed said. “When I was able to birdie 13 there, then it just kind of got into really boring golf which led to two mistakes. But, you know, the last one, I was not ever going to take that on.”

This article first appeared on The Morning Read and was syndicated with permission.

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