Patrick Reed won the DP World Tour\u2019s Hero Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday by four strokes, but afterward, much of the focus wasn\u2019t about him returning to the winner\u2019s circle.<\/p>\n
Instead, more questions about his LIV Golf future emerged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier in the week, the 35-year-old said he\u2019s \u201csupposed to be\u201d playing in Riyadh for the first LIV event of 2026. So after his victory, a reporter asked why Reed didn\u2019t use definitive terminology regarding next month\u2019s season opener\u2014and Reed revealed a surprising fact about his current standing with the Saudi-backed circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re still finalizing the contract,\u201d Reed said. \u201cWe\u2019re not complete on that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reed then confirmed that he does not have a deal for this season, which begins in two weeks, and is indeed a free agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, yes, sir,\u201d the 2018 Masters champion said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that I don\u2019t like to talk business and stuff while I\u2019m playing, and so it’s like Monday through Wednesday is the only time to really talk about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, it’s just kind of one of those things that, you know, getting here this week, I knew that once Thursday got here, just focus on golf and golf only. You know, starting tonight and tomorrow, we’ll get back to talking and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This fuels speculation of LIV losing another marquee name this year after Brooks Koepka, who left LIV and is returning to the PGA Tour<\/a>, with sanctions. Earlier this week, Reed turned heads when he called the PGA Tour \u201cthe best tour\u201d in the world and admitted he would consider coming back<\/a>. Reed left the Tour for LIV in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following Koepka\u2019s departure, the PGA Tour created a \u201cReturning Member Program,\u201d which granted a one-time opportunity for LIV players who have won a major since 2022 (Koepka, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith) to return under certain conditions with a Feb. 2 deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reed wasn\u2019t extended the offer and said he hasn\u2019t had discussions with the PGA Tour amid negotiations with LIV.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reed will pay fines and continue to play on the DP World Tour<\/p>\n Reed, though, has played the last two DPWT events and will compete in next week\u2019s Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n After Round 1 in Dubai, Reed disclosed that he intends to pay his $1 million in fines from the DPWT to ensure he can continue playing on the European circuit. He, along with other LIV golfers, such as Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, have incurred financial penalties for playing LIV tournaments conflicting with the DP World Tour, in which they are all members. Rahm and Hatton are appealing their fines, which could impact their Ryder Cup future.\u00a0<\/p>\n But despite all the uproar about Reed\u2019s LIV contract (or non-contract, rather) he still intends to compete in Riyadh.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNot that I know of. Not right now,\u201d Reed said when asked if he has possibly played his last LIV event. \u201cReally just all kind of depends on everything. I mean, I haven\u2019t talked to the team back home or anything like that. But at the moment, I plan on teeing it up there in Riyadh, and I\u2019d be surprised if we’re not.\u201d<\/p>\n More Golf from Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Reed won the DP World Tour\u2019s Hero Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday by four strokes, but afterward,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-435993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}