Patrick Reed had not won a professional event since the Farmers Insurance at the beginning of 2021, but almost four years on, the American LIV golfer is once again a winner.
Reed marked his trip to the Asian Tour’s International Series with victory after being crowned champion at the Link Hong Kong Open on Sunday.
Reed was one of a number of LIV members in the field this week, with the breakaway league currently in its off-season. And the American made his trip to Hong Kong worthwhile after securing his first victory in almost four years, with a relatively stress-free four-under-par 66 in the final round.
He also made Asian Tour history in Saturday’s third round after becoming only the second player in the circuit’s history to break 60.
Reed kicked off his weekend by carding an incredible 11-under 59, which saw him fly up the leaderboard and into a three-shot lead. The former Masters champion was then in no mood to give up this lead on day four, once again impressing the crowd at Hong Kong Golf Club, to eventually win the event by three shots at 22-under. This matched the best total score in the tournament’s history.
“Nothing like coming to a place that I know pretty well, and love the golf course and crowds,” Reed said in the aftermath. “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 as I did yesterday, but the biggest thing, the hardest part, was always going to be holding on to the lead today.”.
Admitting his first course of action was to set Saturday’s record-breaking round aside, he said he was “kind of going out there and forgetting about the 59 and just going out and play”.
“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, quickly get up on top, so then on the back nine, I could just kind of hit fairways and middle of the greens.” On the back of his success on Sunday, Reed plans to continue his trip on the Asian Tour [events].
It is expected that Reed will tee it up in the final two International Series events of the year in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The man on top of the series standings by the end of those two events will be promoted to join Reed on the LIV setup in 2025.
LIV reserve, American John Catlin, has led the way for the majority of the season, but with the end of the campaign drawing closer, Catlin’s lead is getting smaller. Having missed the cut this week, Catlin missed out on earning valuable points in the Order of Merit, while his closest competitor, Kiwi Ben Campbell, finished in second place behind Reed.
“It’s still a good result, but just frustrating, it was not to be,” reigning champion Campbell said after failing to chase down Reed. “I feel like I should have been right up there and pushing Patrick. So, yeah, it is what it is, but it was close.”
