As a member of LIV Golf, Patrick Reed is completely aware that his chances of making the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team are between slim and none. And slim may have already left town.
Nevertheless, the man once known as "Captain America" still dreams of representing his country for a fourth time against Europe and believes he has a path to Bethpage Black, as he explained ahead of this week's LIV event in Dallas.
"It's always on your mind," Reed said. "Anytime I get to represent our country, it means a lot to me. For me personally, I'm always thinking about trying to make every team. Obviously, being a part of LIV where we don't get points, it's an uphill battle, but really, for me, it's focused on playing some great golf and having a chance. It's really going to come down to The Open Championship, having a chance to win there.
"You have a really good showing and play well there, then you just never know. It is looking like no matter what, it's going to rely on a pick unless I go ahead and win The Open. Really, the only way I can focus on the Ryder Cup is that one week, go out and give all I have, and have a chance to win."
Reed is absolutely correct in that he'll need to rely on being one of Keegan Bradley's six captain's selections. Because even if he were to go out and win The Open next month at Royal Portrush, the math simply doesn't add up for him to be one of the six automatic qualifiers.
Even a win at The Open Championship won't be enough for Patrick Reed to qualify for the 2025 Ryder Cup
At present, the only way for American players in LIV Golf to earn Ryder Cup points is through the four major championships, earning one point per $1000 made at each in 2024 and 1.5 points per $1000 made at each in 2025.
As such, Reed has accumulated 2821.82 points, which currently puts him in 33rd place in the U.S. standings.
So, let's say the 2018 Masters champ goes out and wins at Royal Portrush, where he took solo 10th in 2019. Now, we don't yet know what the total purse or the winner's share at The Open will be just yet.
But if we use the $3.1 million first prize that Xander Schauffele took home last year, a win for Reed would earn him 4650.00 Ryder Cup points, vaulting his total to 7471.82.
Even as things stand now, and that's obviously not including all the points PGA Tour players will continue to accrue until mid-August, that number would only put him in 11th place. And there's no way for him to catch the current sixth-place player, Justin Thomas, who owns 9997.69 points. So, again, automatically qualifying simply isn't an option.
That said, if Reed were to win The Open, it'd be difficult for Bradley to ignore a reigning major champion, especially one who owns a strong 7-3-2 overall Ryder Cup record and a 3-0 mark in singles, which includes a 1-up victory over Rory McIlroy in 2016 at Hazeltine, which many consider one of greatest matches this competition has ever seen.
It also can't be ignored that he owns a victory on this year's Ryder Cup course, winning The Barclays at Bethpage Black back in 2016.
So, Reed could conceivably have an argument, but winning The Open undoubtedly has to happen, especially given all the options Bradley will have to consider, one of which, of course, is himself following his dramatic win at the Travelers Championship.
So, barring a victory at Royal Portrush, Reed will likely have to settle for watching a third straight Ryder Cup from the confines of his couch.