Top 20 Players to Watch in 2019: No. 15 Patrick Reed

Patrick Reed reached the pinnacle of his career in 2018, winning the Masters for his first major championship victory. Of course, he also ended the season amid tons of Ryder Cup drama. Can he put the negatives behind him and bring his game to another level in 2019?

Patrick Reed is a complicated guy to figure out. He’s filled so many roles in his short career that fans can almost get confused about just who they’re watching. It literally all happened in one week in 2018, as he was Captain America one moment, then loudly calling out team captain Jim Furyk for his perceived favoritism toward Reed’s former Cup partner, Jordan Spieth, in the pairings in Paris.

Of course, the important thing to remember is that ultimately, very little of that carries over into what Reed accomplishes between the ropes. I’ll never minimize the Ryder Cup as merely an exhibition, but when you look at Reed’s body of work from the 2018 season, it’s impossible to deny that he’s one of the game’s top players heading into the new year.

In 2018 alone, Reed won his first major championship at The Masters, part of a run of five straight top-tens in the early part of the PGA TOUR season. He finished tied for fourth at the U.S. Open, just three shots behind the repeat champion, Brooks Koepka. And between the majors, World Golf Championships, and a pair of strong European Tour starts – T23 at the Scottish Open and T9 at the Porsche European Open – Reed finished second in the Race to Dubai season standings, behind only Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari.

So no, I didn’t particularly love the optics of the abysmal week for Patrick Reed at the Ryder Cup, but I’m more than ready to turn the page into 2019, as I imagine he is, too. He’s already got the benefit of an early start in the crossover schedule, finishing tied for seventh at the WGC-HSBC Champions, despite an ugly Sunday round of 77 that brought him out of contention quickly.

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If you look at last year’s stats, you might be surprised, as well. Reed had quite a strong season, without many of his usual skills being at their best. He finished just 160th on TOUR in greens in regulation, 72nd in strokes gained putting, and 63rd in birdie average. What he did best, though, was improving his short game around the green. Reed finished the year ranked 23rd in sand-save percentage, and 18th in total scrambing. In other words, most of the time, he avoided putting up the big numbers that often mean the difference between a strong weekend and an early flight home.

What I want to see more of from Reed in 2019 is growth. I don’t expect him to change who he is at his core; his brashness is often mistaken for cockiness, and if he’s backing it up on the course, more power to him. But if he spends more time focusing on what’s in his control than what isn’t, we could see something truly special from Reed in the months to come. He’s come a long way, but I believe there’s another level to him that we still haven’t seen yet.

Reed has gotten glimpses of what that can look like over the years, and the pieces are all there, if he can just help them fall into place.