Patrick Reed will be the Masters champion in our broken times
AUGUSTA, Ga. — For years the Masters has marked a moment of reunion on the calendar — PGA Tour players next to LIV golfers for the first time in eight months. And here, in 2026? There is no exception. Except that one key player falls awkwardly out of camp: Patrick Nathaniel Reed.
Reed is the only player currently in transition — “doing my time,” as he called it Thursday — playing few international tournaments outside of the majors, as he moves from life at LIV to a renewed life on the PGA Tour. That alone would make him a Masters champion in these strange, fractured times, if he could turn his first-round 69 into a second green jacket.
But it can be more than that, right?
A Reed win will be an important reminder that it is the players and their history that makes the golf trip, not the other way around. Witches with wands – beloved again the heels – have been in control the whole time. Confident and confident players like Reed are the reason LIV was able to exist in the first place. (McKinsey and Co. advised LIV owners to pursue top talent exclusively.) Talent is a finite business. Reed is as talented as they come, and 2026 showed it.
The golf world began to consider the Reed Masters run in January, when he went through several events in the Middle East, winning two and losing one. He went down to South Africa for another couple in March, just before LIV held its own South African event, and managed a few strong results. About three or four weeks ago is when he really started to dial in his focus at Augusta National, just as everyone started looking elsewhere: on Collin Morikawa’s back, on Rory McIlroy’s back, on Scottie Scheffler’s second paternity leave tree, on Cameron Young and Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.
Reed fell behind, until he holed an eagle on the 2nd hole Thursday morning, then holed a long eagle putt on the 8th nearly 90 minutes later. Just two shots back after 18 holes, he is in the spotlight again.
A win for Reed would guarantee him all the access to the Tour he desires — not to mention a step up the ranks of the Masters pantheon — but it would be an added endorsement. vibes he wanted. On Monday, Reed said he wanted to “go back to the traditional way of golf,” by which he meant 72 holes of individual play with a cut and the leaders going last after everyone else is out of the driving range. He saw that in Dubai when he won in January. It felt like “adrenaline,” he said, something he’ll have no problem getting this weekend at Augusta National.
On Thursday, he finished two times that would have tested anyone. He pulled his shot from the hole on the 17th hole, almost into the 7th fairway. He played an 8 iron over the trees and the length of the green – which, with the back pin, was only a small prison. He then holed out to 7 feet for a putt as fast as you can get in a prison cell. He escaped with a measure. His ups and downs at 18 were equally impressive, from a layup close to the green, hoisting another squeamish 10-footer for par.
Reed thought he played better than he hit and better be comfortable with that. It will be the main theme in the course that everyone calls “crusty.” Which means it can be fast. Reed broke the tee on one of the greens Thursday trying to correct the ball mark.
Through 18 holes, he should see this as a big step towards his future, staring down a leaderboard that includes Rory McIlroy, a player he has been on for a long time, and Sam Burns, a player he played against once five years ago. He finds names like Day and Rose and Scheffler and Schauffele, frankly, that he has longed to compete with.
So… here he goes.
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