Is ‘boring’ best? For Patrick Reed’s odds of winning Quail Hollow, it might be.
There was no big hoopla as Patrick Reed walked off No. 9 on Thursday afternoon, no overwhelming ovation from the crowd or emotion from the player.
Good. Sometimes, it’s better that way.
“It was a boring day, really,” Reed said. “It was kind of one of those days where I put it from Point A to Point B really solidly, and the holes I missed the fairways ... I missed them in the correct spots. I missed the greens in the right spots.
“And when you do that, it just makes golf a little easier.”
Boring, huh? Reed had simply studied the sloping green like a science textbook, readied his putter and sank the par putt that capped his 4-under 67 in the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship. That score was good enough to tie for third at Quail Hollow Club, after Rory McIlroy and Joel Dahmen made late-afternoon runs that landed them in a share for the lead at 5-under.
But back to being boring.
Reed isn’t.
At all, actually.
This is the guy who famously outlasted Jordan Speith and Rickie Fowler to win the 2018 Masters, his first major championship. And then perhaps more famously, the man whose estranged family situation dominated his post-Masters press cycle. He hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since that triumph in April 2018, and yet, is still relevant due to a complicated Ryder Cup falling-out with... well, a lot of different people.
Reed’s prickly personality has often been the question surrounding him, but not typically his play. Except, he’s struggled more this season than you — or he — would expect from a 28-year-old ascending pro. Reed has missed the cut in two of his past four tournaments, sandwiched around his 36th-place finish at the Masters last month.
Specifically, Reed mentioned Thursday how getting long and disconnected at the top of his swing has given him issues lately.
“I hit it, and I’m like, ‘OK, that’s going to be good,’” Reed said, “and I look up and the ball’s nowhere near where I’m trying to hit it.”
His solution, in addition to correcting that aspect of his game, was a new-again approach.
“Instead of always trying to play golf swing, play golf shots and be an athlete,” he said. “I think that’s what I did really well today ... Just tried to hit golf shots rather than play technique.”
That line of thinking, combined with weeks of work on technical minutia of his game, yielded results Thursday. He didn’t record a single bogey, plodding his way around the course with smart shots in smart locations. A prime example: on No. 9, his final hole, Reed was happy to lay up short of the green and chip on, rather than chase the pin with a more-dangerous deep shot.
From there, it was about sticking to “boring”: chip, putt, par.
And given the countless perils at Quail Hollow — none more infamous than the Green Mile of holes No. 16, 17, and 18 — that strategy may very well be Reed’s best bet at his first post-Masters victory. Many a potential Quail Hollow champion have been ruined by ambitiously pin-hunting across the water at No. 17, or not respecting the meandering creek that rides down the left side of No. 18.
Reed knows those dangers, having finished eighth at this same tournament in 2018. When the risk-reward on a certain hole leans too far toward the former, why chance it?
That tactical strategy may not seem sexy. Whatever. At least on Thursday, it worked — and that’s the most attractive thing any golfer can do:
Win.
Without Tiger Woods in attendance, this tournament begs for a name to separate itself from the rest of the pack. Phil Mickelson may have received the Tiger treatment on Thursday, and McIlroy deservedly so later on, but Reed was right in that same discussion.
“On the early day, you have to go out and shoot a (low) number,” Reed said. “I just know from the past. You just have to.”
Now he has. The next three days will determine who leaves Quail Hollow with a fuller trophy case and wallet, but the first day can be a great indicator. Jason Day, last year’s winner, parlayed his opening round 2-under 69 into a tournament victory.
Reed has an opportunity to follow that same trajectory...
As long as he keeps it “boring,” that is.
This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 6:57 PM.
