Patrick Reed’s victory last month at LIV Golf Dallas put the American, in some eyes, on the Ryder Cup radar.
Reed currently sits No. 36 in U.S. Ryder Cup points despite his results on his main tour, LIV, not counting toward qualification. Reed’s solo third at the Masters and T-23 at the U.S. Open have helped put him ahead of players such as Max Homa, Sahith Theegala and Rickie Fowler. He’s also No. 57 in the Official World Golf Ranking but is fresh off a missed cut at the DP World Tour’s BMW International Open.
This week’s LIV event in Spain leads into next week’s Open Championship, the final major of the year and Reed’s last chance to move into the top six in points and qualify automatically.
“I think it all comes down to next week at The Open,” Reed said Thursday. “Obviously play well here, but go ahead and win the Open Championship, and I believe I’d be inside the top six on points, so I think that would lock it in and allow me to be on the team.”
Otherwise, Reed would require a captain’s pick, which some believe would be quite the ask considering Reed’s past.
In three Ryder Cup appearances, Reed has gone a standout 7-3-2, though after his most recent showing, in 2018 in Paris, Reed heavily criticized members of the U.S. team, including captain Jim Furyk and teammate Jordan Spieth. Also, heckling of Reed at the 2019 Presidents Cup – much of it referencing Reed’s rules situation at that month’s Hero World Challenge – created a distraction and incited Reed’s caddie, Kessler Karain, to get involved in an altercation with a fan, which earned Karain a suspension for Sunday singles. Reed went 0-3 in team play at Royal Melbourne, but he rebounded to win his singles match to help the U.S. to victory.
U.S. teams are 4-2 in Cups with Reed on the squad.
“It’s a hard one to answer,” Reed said when asked about the chances of him being at Bethpage Black later this year.
He later added: “Really the next couple weeks I have to play some solid golf, go out and contend on Sundays, have a chance to win golf tournaments, and if I do that, then hopefully Keegan [Bradley, the U.S. captain] picks me. But at the end of the day, because we only get the majors that have points for the Ryder Cup, it’s an uphill battle.
“The good thing is I feel like I’m in a good spot right now as long as I go out and play well in the final major.”
