HUMBLE, Texas – After playing in this week’s LIV Golf Houston as the unofficial local ambassador for the league’s first foray into Texas, Patrick Reed will spend next week at his home in the nearby suburb of The Woodlands. He’ll work on his game in the mornings, then hang out with his family, including his two children who are on summer break from school.
What the 4Aces GC star won’t be doing is competing in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. It’ll be the first time in nearly 11 calendar years that he isn’t playing in a major championship.
Reed’s streak of 41 consecutive starts in a major – the longest active streak among LIV Golf’s 54 players – will end next week. The last major he did not play was the 2013 Open Championship, held a month before Reed won the first of his nine PGA Tour events.
In winning the 2018 Masters, Reed is set for Augusta National each April. But his five-year exemption for the other three majors ran out last year. He received a special invite to play the PGA Championship earlier this month, but when he made the cut at Valhalla, that inadvertently ended his U.S. Open chances.
Reed was scheduled to compete in the U.S. Open qualifier in Dallas on May 20, the day after the final round of the PGA Championship. He had selected that date because it fell on a LIV Golf off-week, and it was the closest to his home. At that time, he had not received the special invite for the PGA, so there were no travel hurdles.
“It was my best option,” he said.
Then he got the PGA invite. And then he made the cut, ultimately shooting 5 under to tie for 53rd. He finished mid-afternoon that Sunday in Kentucky and faced a pre-8 a.m. tee time the next day in Dallas for the first of two rounds.
That’s when he decided to withdraw from the qualifier.
“Playing at a major championship, grinding for four days, then trying to get a flight out and get there … it wasn’t feasible,” Reed explained Thursday. “Too much that I had to do to try to get there and line everything up. It wasn’t meant to be.”
Ten more qualifiers – nine in the U.S., one in Canada – were still on the schedule for June 3. But the transfer deadline had already passed before Reed knew he was going to pull out of Dallas. So, he had no other options.
“It has it right there saying here’s the transfer date,” Reed said. “Because of that, it was too late to switch. And you don’t expect to get special treatment, because then they’d have to do it for everyone.”
With majors still utilizing world rankings for a large percentage of their fields, Reed and his fellow LIV golfers are at a disadvantage with no ranking points for events. But in Reed’s case, his performances in recent ranking tournaments certainly validate his worthiness as a top-ranked player.
Starting with his tie for second in the 2023 Dubai Desert Classic in late January last year, Reed has played 11 ranking tournaments. He has four top 10s and eight top 25s, and has made the cut in every start, including his five six major starts in that stretch. He tied for fourth in the 2023 Masters and has two other top-20 major finishes.
“If those events would carry over into a normal season throughout, there’d be no doubt I’d be in the majors,” Reed said. “I’ll be well inside the top 20, probably top 15 in the world with those kinds of finishes consistently throughout the year.
“I feel like the world ranking is not a reflection of where I should be and what events I should be in. But at the end of the day, I don’t make those decisions. It’s their call on special exemptions. They’re the ones that make those decisions and I just have to live with it, just continue doing what I do and play golf.”
He’ll practice golf next week as he gears up for LIV Golf’s tournament later this month in Nashville. But Reed doesn’t anticipate watching any golf on television. That’s not specific to the U.S. Open. He said he never watches golf when he’s at home.
“My rule of thumb has been if I’m not playing that week, it’s my time to get away from the game and spend time with my family and be a dad,” Reed said. “Because I play golf for a living, when I watch golf, then I start dissecting everything and get my mind too much into that rather than having an off-week. I want to spend that time with the family, the kids and just get away from the game.”