The arrival of eight of the world’s top 10 golfers in East Lothian for next week’s Scottish Open can only provide comfort in fraught times for the DP World Tour.
Court documents emerged recently that painted a grim picture of the state of the European Tour Group in the eyes of the PGA Tour. A group of leading European golfers who were coaxed to the rebel LIV circuit clearly remain angry at the way they were treated by their home tour over the past 12 months.
The planned combining of golf’s key bodies – DP World Tour, PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – has only emboldened those who believe they were unfairly disenfranchised in Europe. There may be peace in golf eventually but red tape and red mist will hold that up for some time yet.
Patrick Reed is curious in the sense he regularly appeared more at home on European golf soil than in his native United States. The feeling was once mutual: Reed was granted honorary life membership of the DP World Tour in 2019. Subsequent events and loss of a sporting arbitration case have restricted Reed to appearances on LIV and in majors – he last played on the DP World Tour during an epic joust with Rory McIlroy in Dubai at the start of this year – but the former Masters champion holds out hope that can change. Reed wants European salvation.
“Who knows how things are going to work out with the merger and all that, we will just have to wait and see,” Reed said. “I have always loved coming over, playing on the European Tour and showing my support. I took pride in being the one American who always came over consistently. Hopefully everything will work out and I can get back to doing that.
“I have been everywhere: the big events, smaller events. It wasn’t like I only came over and played in the big events, I showed support consistently. Once I got my card I kept coming over, kept showing support and tried to play at least the minimum number of tournaments every year. Getting honorary life membership as only the fourth American and the only American still out playing meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to me to come over and play, to show support to the entire tour.”
Collin Morikawa was granted the same status as Reed in 2021. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson had been the only honorary life members from the United States until 2019. The good news for the DP World Tour is that Reed is keen to continue his connection.
Reed’s Open buildup will therefore conclude at Hertfordshire’s Centurion Club, where grounds passes sold out on Saturday. The difference in tournament feel and status to last June, when LIV made its debut, has been stark. That Cameron Smith, the reigning Open champion, is at the forefront of proceedings does no harm.
LIV is known to be considering playing a tournament in the week before the Open in the future, but that would place them on a collision course with the DP World Tour and therefore feels unlikely. Reed acknowledged that not “running on fumes” before majors is to his benefit. He has not played in the Scottish Open since 2018.
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Brooks Koepka’s win at the US PGA Championship in May contradicted cynical comment about LIV’s supposed lack of competitive merit. Reed tied fourth at the Masters. “Lets’s be honest, people will say whatever they want to say anyway,” said Reed. “That’s what they seem to do. We all know these guys are good, still the same players. Look at the way BK has been playing. BK is still the same BK. I am still the same me.”
Reed’s Open exemption from his 2018 Masters win will end after this year. He made his Open debut, also at Hoylake, in 2014. With LIV players still omitted from the world rankings system – which is also used as a criterion for major entry – Reed has slipped to 49th. “If I go win, that takes care of that,” added Reed of keeping an Open position. “I don’t want to lose that. I want to go and try and turn some heads out there.”
Smith will carry a three-stroke lead into the final day at Centurion. The Australian, who is 12 under par, has Thomas Pieters, Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen as nearest challengers. Reed is minus eight, one clear of Henrik Stenson.
