Golfers normally try to avoid the dreaded snowman on the scorecard (an 8, get it?).
Coming off a win at the Farmers Insurance Open and ahead of his title defense – if you can call it that, more on that later – this week at the WGC-Workday Championship, Patrick Reed was embracing them.
“We built a snowman in the two inches of snow that we had and just kind of hung out with the kids,” said Reed of his time sheltering at home in Texas as a winter storm blanketed the region in snow.
“Just was a dad.”
One of Reed’s houses was without power, as were both of his brothers‑in‑law. Luckily for them, Reed’s house runs on a generator and they were able to find safe shelter there.
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“It was devastating what happened to the City of Houston as well as what happened throughout all of Texas,” said Reed, who enjoyed the family time during the winter storm. “You see just the devastation of people’s houses and of businesses and just of everything that kind of ran on. It’s definitely something that I’m grateful to be okay, family’s doing well and really just thinking about everyone else and hopefully everyone is able to have speedy recovery and get back on track and start moving forward and getting better.”
Reed came to South Florida early to get some extra work in, leaving behind a snowy Texas to find his game again after a brief break.
“I think the biggest positive really was for me personally was when I got back after taking four or five days off because of weather, coming down and normally it takes me a couple days to really figure out what a golf club is,” said Reed. “With the new swing changes I’ve been working on with (coach David Leadbetter) and everything, it seemed that I was able to kind of get right back on track.
“It took me maybe 30 minutes to maybe start getting the feel again. It just shows that we’re doing the right things, working on the right things. Definitely gave me confidence moving forward and so far this week, been pretty solid so we feel good.”
The Spring, Texas, resident should feel good these days. Other than a missed cut at the American Express, which he followed with a win at the Farmers, Reed hasn’t finished worse than T-21 in his previous six starts on Tour.
Reed enters this week as the defending champion of sorts following his one-stroke victory last February at the WGC-Mexico Championship. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was moved from Mexico to Florida, and even got a new presenting sponsor with Workday.
Believe it or not, it’s not the first time, nor the second time Reed has been tasked with defending one of his nine Tour titles at a different venue.
Reed won The Barclays at Bethpage Black in 2016. In 2017, the event was renamed The Northern Trust, held at Glen Oaks Club and won by Dustin Johnson. Reed then won The Northern Trust in 2019 at Liberty National. Last year’s Northern Trust was held at TPC Boston, and guess who won? Dustin Johnson.
“You have confidence obviously because you won that event, but at the same time it gets you right back on track to focusing on playing the golf course and not getting too relaxed out there,” said Reed, looking at the benefit of defending elsewhere. “Being at a different site and a different event, it’s very easy to kind of get locked in and go out and play well.”