Reed looking for strong finish to disappointing year that ‘looked nice on paper’

After a season that “looked nice on paper” but didn’t include any trophies, Patrick Reed said he planned to spend the off season getting his consistency back.

The American finished sixth in the LIV Golf League’s individual rankings this year, with five top-five finishes, including a second place at the London event in July.

And although Reed’s 4Aces GC won the team event, he finished the LIV year with two disappointing results in Chicago and Jeddah.

For a golfer who said he should have a chance to win every week or there would be “no reason to play”, there is at least the opportunity to end 2023 on a high, at the Hong Kong Open this week and in Indonesia next week for the final stop of the Asian Tour’s International Series.

“I feel like there’s some things I was working on with my coach that were almost there, when I was a little inconsistent there towards the end, but felt like we’re doing a lot of things well, to just build off of that kind of get the consistency,” Reed said.

“Hopefully we can finish the year off strong and then from there, you know, going into the off season, not only feeling good about the season, but also at the same time having a good foundation to build on it through the off season to be really ready to go in January.”

Back at Fanling for the fourth time, Reed is grouped with Cameron Smith and Taichi Kho for the first round on Thursday, and the 2018 Masters champion said believing he could win was “the most important thing”.

“That’s what separates some of the best players in the world from the guys that are just kind of struggling to keep their cards on every tour they play on,” he said. “They don’t have the belief that every time they tee it up, they have a chance to win.

“And that’s kind of the belief I have, is whenever I’m playing a golf tournament. There’s one goal, that’s going to win a golf tournament.”

Reed though acknowledged that slow starts this season when his first rounds “weren’t very, very great” had hampered him, especially in the 54-hole format LIV plays.

“You can’t ease into a round, you can’t have just nine holes or just a lot of pars because you only have three days,” he said.

“As a year it was solid, steady, but just didn’t get the W. Hopefully this year we’re able to kind of fix things and you know, why not start right here in Hong Kong go and get the win right now and kinda use that momentum going into the next season and next year.”