AUGUSTA, Ga. – For Patrick Reed, the moment came earlier this year in Dubai. It was Saturday, the day before he’d eventually lift the trophy at the DP World Tour’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic, and he’d stepped onto a range lined with contenders. Then, one by one, players disappeared to the first tee, until he was one of only two left. By the time he teed off, Reed had lost his lead and needed to switch into chase mode.
That’s when Reed realized he missed the PGA Tour.
“I wanted that back,” Reed explained Monday ahead of the Masters. “I wanted that adrenaline back, and those feelings.”
Three days after that win, the Tour announced that it had established a pathway back for Reed, who has since won again and all but locked up one of the 10 cards available via the Race to Dubai, which Reed still leads.
Reed confirmed Monday that LIV had officially offered him a contract renewal, but after consulting with his family and team members, he decided against returning for a fifth year.
“It was one of those decisions that I felt like was the best, not just for the golf game, but also for my family to spend more time with them,” Reed said, “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it obviously being at home and spending time with the kiddos and my wife. It’s one of those that was a family decision, and really at the end of the day, I really enjoyed all my time over there at LIV. It was a blast… For me, I felt like this was the best place for me.”
Sure, Reed offered a similar explanation for leaving for LIV in the first place, but he also never played fewer than 23 worldwide events in his three full seasons on the Saudi-backed circuit, which he supplemented with starts on the DPWT and other international tours. Last year, he logged 36 starts, and as one veteran scribe pointed out on Monday, Reed had played at least one event in 27 different countries since 2022.
“You just made me feel really tired,” said Reed, who also attributed some perceived weight loss – did you lose some weight? – to his globetrotting ways.
Reed wants to be known as a global star, and he’ll keep racking up the sky miles for at least the rest of this year as he waits to rejoin the PGA Tour in 2027. But he’s already dialed back his competitive schedule with this week’s Masters marking just his eighth start of the year. He hasn’t teed it up since the Joburg Open, which concluded on March 8.
The last time that Reed had taken more than one week off before the Masters was when he didn’t play the two events leading into his Masters debut in 2014.
While Reed has kept his game sharp during this extended layoff, he’s also broke for his 11-year-old daughter Windsor-Wells’ volleyball tournaments and 8-year-old son Barrett’s golf lessons.
“It’s awesome to just be a dad,” Reed said. “Go out and do my work early in the morning and come back and pick my kids up from school and have a great time. That’s something that I definitely missed, I felt like, through not just last year, but also early in my career because I was always go, go, go, and focusing on golf 24/7… It seems like time has flown. I definitely want to watch them grow up and be home a little bit more, yet still at the same time to play against the best guys.”
Monday marked the first time Reed had been called into Augusta National’s elaborate interview room since 2019, the year of his green-jacket defense.
He’d missed that, too.
“Obviously, love being in this room,” Reed said. “It means you’re doing something well.”