LIV Golf: Patrick Reed lashes out at "FALSE REPORTING" at French Open
LIV Golf Tour pro Patrick Reed has offered his thoughts on the world ranking issue and claimed that what happened at the French Open was falsely reported.
LIV Golf Tour pro Patrick Reed says he fully expects to tee it up at the 2023 Masters as he claimed his memorable "slap in the face" comments at the Open de France were falsely reported.
Speaking ahead of LIV Golf Jeddah, the 32-year-old said that it was "unfortunate how the media tried to spin that week".
Reports surfaced that Reed wasn't impressed with his alleged treatment by the DP World Tour before the BMW PGA Championship in September.
Reed was quoted by Journal du Golf saying: "It's a slap in the face not to invite me to do a press conference here, or as happened in Wentworth, not to have me play the pro-am and all those things."
The American, who is an honorary lifetime member of the European circuit, went on to miss the cut that week.
He was later forced to withdraw from the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship after sustaining or exacerbating a back injury over an issue with the mattress in his hotel room.
"The mattress was just too soft for me," Reed told Irish Golfer's Bernie McGuire. "I played well in the pro-am but the pain in my back was getting worse."
On Thursday at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, Reed said of that story before the Open de France: "That was false reporting. [It] had nothing to do with the French Open.
"When I went over there, the players, the fans, the tournament, they treated me amazingly. It was an unbelievable time over there.
"Obviously I wish I had played better and did something, but no, they treated me really well, and that's just something that is unfortunate about how the media tried to spin that that week, because when I was over there, everyone was excited to see me.
"It was great there, being with the guys, being with the players, and seeing fans I've seen in the past."
Related: Nine players who changed their mind about LIV Golf
One of the issues facing LIV Golf right now is the lack of world ranking points. Reed dropped out of the top 50 after the Open de France for the first time since 2014.
"I'm getting hammered," Reed said of his slide.
He continued: "The only thing I'll say about all of that is the longer that you have competitive golf and competition with such great players and top players, the longer they're playing events that aren't getting world ranking points, it just makes the world ranking system insignificant.
"Let's be honest; it's not a true system if you're not counting all the events and having points for everybody. If you're competing for a golf tournament and they meet every criteria that you're supposed to meet in order to have world ranking points, then they should be getting world ranking points no matter what.
Related: Harold Varner III shoots down G-Mac's OWGR whinge
"It doesn't matter where you're playing, who you're playing, what tour you're on, anything like that. If you're trying to say that we don't deserve world ranking points, this and that, then it's a political battle, it's not an actual true system.
"Last time I checked, every sport you play, it's based off of competition and who you're playing, how strong that field is and who wins, and you're allocated certain things. It doesn't matter what tour you're playing on."
Of course, the single reason why LIV players want world ranking points is so they can have the opportunity to qualify for golf's four major championships.
How the majors will deal with LIV Golf players remains to be seen.
Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley gave, in this writer's opinion, a non-answer before the 86th Masters. Ridley was later alleged to have encouraged players not to join LIV in court documents.
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said LIV Golf "wasn't credible" before the 150th Open Championship after Tiger Woods ripped into the breakaway tour.
PGA of America chief executive Seth Waugh said that he doesn't believe LIV Golf is "good for the game" and described the situation as sad.
And USGA boss Mike Whan provided an ominous, one-word answer when asked if he felt like it would get "harder and harder" for LIV players to qualify for the U.S. Open.
Just this week Cameron Smith, who joined LIV for a reported $140m after winning the Claret Jug at St. Andrews, admitted it would break his heart if he were unable to return to Augusta.
Reed said of this: "You always expect to be there being past champion as well as the categories with what comes for winning at Augusta. It's hard to answer really any questions about all that because everything is either a pending matter or based off the majors, haven't really heard anything from any of them yet. To sit here and speculate would be hard, and it would be the wrong thing to do.
"We just have to wait and see how it all folds out, what they say in order to comment on that and go from there."
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