AUGUSTA, Ga. – For years the Masters has marked a reunion moment on the calendar – PGA Tour players together with LIV players for the first time in eight months. And here, in 2026? Not otherwise. Except that one relevant player falls surprisingly outside of either camp: Patrick Nathaniel Reed.
Reed is the only player in transition at the moment — “doing my time,” as he called it Thursday — playing some lean international tournaments outside of the majors as he transitions from a life at LIV to a renewed life on the PGA Tour. That alone would make him the Masters champion in these strange, broken times if he turned his first 69 into a second green jacket.
But it would be much more than that, wouldn’t it?
A Reed win would serve as an important reminder that it is the players and their history making a golf tournament, not the other way around. Magicians with wands – loved ones AND the heels — have been in control all along. Assertive and confident players like Reed are why LIV was able to exist in the first place. (McKinsey and Co. LIV owners advised to exclusively pursue top talent.) Talent is a limited business. Reed is as talented as they come and 2026 has shown that.
The golf world began to consider a Reed Masters tournament in January, when he went through several events in the Middle Eastwinning twice and losing in a playoff. He flew to South Africa for a few more in March, just before LIV was held her event in South Africaand achieved some solid results. About three or four weeks ago was when he really started dialing 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 period, on Cameron Young and Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.
Reed receded into the background until he made an eagle putt on the second hole Thursday morning, and then made an even longer eagle putt on the 8th about 90 minutes later. Just two shots back after 18 holes, he is back in the spotlight.
A Reed victory would guarantee him every ounce of access to the tournament he wants — not to mention a high level in the Masters pantheon — but it would be more of an endorsement of THE tremors he was looking for. On Monday, Reed said he wanted to “go back to the traditional way of golf,” by which he meant 72 holes of single-stroke individual play and the leaders going last after everyone had gone within driving distance. He saw that in Dubai when he won in January. It felt like “adrenaline,” he said, something he’ll have no problem finding in a weekend at Augusta National.
His Thursday ended with two moments that would test anyone’s mettle. He pulled his t-shirt shot on the 17th in the jail, almost on 7th street. He played an 8-iron over the trees and long to the green – which, with a pin behind, was just a little less prison. Then he rose to 7 feet for a putt as fast as you’d find it on a prison floor. He escaped first. His drive on 18 was equally impressive, from the short greenside bunker, putting another weak 10-footer for the first.
Reed thought he played better than he scored and better be comfortable with that. It will be a central theme in a course so strong that everyone calls it “crust”. Reed broke a tee on one of the greens Thursday just trying to fix a ball mark.
Through 18 holes, he should consider this a massive step towards his future, looking at a leaderboard that features Rory McIlroy, a player he has long felt a rivalry with, and Sam Burns, a player he has played once in the last five years. He finds names like Day and Rose and Scheffler and Schauffele with whom, frankly, he wanted to compete.
So… here he goes.
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