Reed reacts to the final birdie on the 18th hole.
International Series
If a Masters champion shoots 59 in the middle of the night, does it make a sound?
Of course! Patrick Reed did just that while American golf fans were sleeping, taking a three-shot lead Saturday at the Hong Kong Open, an International Series event. And while it will go a long way to helping him win at the majors, the feeder tournament for LIV Golf makes that round really count? Like, officially?
Unfortunately for Reed, the answer is a bit more complicated, as the third round was contested under a preferred lie-in provision given the recent weather in the area.
When it comes to posting a score for a specific tournament, obviously every round countsbut in terms of setting a scoring record on a given day, the record books of different tournaments use different definitions. For decades, the PGA Tour has allowed false favorite rounds to count as official rounds in the record books. But on the DP world tour, mostly based in Europe, contested rounds under lift, clear and place will NO are counted in the official record books.
Okay, fair enough. But how about the international series in the Asian tour? The series itself is only a few years old, launched in 2022 as part of a massive investment by LIV Golf. The record round at the Asian Tour was a shot of 59 John Catlin just six months ago. Catlin, who replaced Charles Howell III on Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers team this summer, ironically made that play in front of Reed, his playing partner that day.
Importantly, however, Catlin’s 59 was shot under normal conditions. And the Asian Tour doesn’t allow lie-favorite rounds to remain in its record books, negating the historic nature of Reed’s round. That said, you can only shoot the best round in the conditions and situation in front of you. Reed’s 59 is still 59 — though it came on a par-70 of 6,710 yards — and the 59 was more than nine strokes better than the field average in that third round. That makes it pretty great.
In the end, the round may be less historic than iconic. Reed admitted he had a brutal warm-up before hitting the first tee.
“I got up, I felt a little tight, but I felt ready to go and I came out here and had probably one of the worst warmups ever,” Reed said. “I looked at my caddy and he says, ‘Hey, a warmup is a warmup, let’s go out and just play golf.'” He says, “Some of your best rounds have come from a bad warmup.”
Reed followed that pep talk by birdying the opening five holes, then finishing with birdies on the final four, including a 15-footer that curled on the last. He will now start the final round with a three-shot lead over Rashid Khan and Nitihorn Thippong. While it may not be the strength of the field Reed is used to, it would be his first win since Farmers Insurance Opening 2021 on the PGA Tour.
