Getty Image / Cliff Hawkins
LIV Golf’s 4Aces team member Patrick Reed is on a quick tour of Asia right now that starts with the Hong Kong Open this week. Prior to teeing it up on Hong Kong, Patrick spoke with LIV Golf staff about his desire to grow the game of golf worldwide and become an international player.
On the topic of being a worldwide player, Patrick Reed said “I’ve always wanted to be a worldwide player and as a part of the PGA Tour, mainly in the United States, it was hard to become the worldwide player that I wanted to be. So when I had the opportunity to be a part of the European Tour (DP World Tour), that allowed me to touch some of these areas and regions.”
He went on to add “But really the biggest thing, it is why I joined LIV, was that it allowed me to venture out and not only to play around the world, but also to have a schedule to come play events like this on The International Series.”
Nothing but respect to Patrick Reed for wanting to grow the game of golf in underserved regions. That’s exactly what the top golfers in the world should be doing in order to grow the game.
Speaking about what it means to him to play in Hong Kong, Patrick Reed discussed morality. He said:
“So, to come over and play always means a lot to me. I’ve always felt like this is an area that we all can help to grow not just the game of golf, but also to teach the kids about the morals and things that go along with golf. It is all you out there. We can teach them the drive and motivation needed to get up in the morning, get started, get working and taking ownership and hard work to do things. And then because of that, I feel like there’s a lot of things that people can learn about it. Why not come to an area that really supports or really loves golf?”
Patrick Reed has vehemently denied any ‘cheating’ throughout his career. Nevertheless, there is an entire ‘Controversies’ section of his Wikipedia profile that lists the times he’s been accused of wrongdoing on the PGA Tour. That section doesn’t even include the incident in 2009 when Reed was reportedly dismissed from his college team after accusations of stealing, accusations he vehemently denied.
All of those are, as stated, just accusations. Sure there was TV evidence of sand being moved but Patrick stuck to his explanation. That’s all to say that hey, maybe the guy who has been falsely accused of cheating at the game of golf (as he maintains) is the perfect person to teach the next generation about morals when it comes to the game of golf…