When LIV Golf players were learning last month in Mexico that the league was about to lose its Saudi Arabian funding from the end of the 2026 season, Reed was back home in Texas working on his game and taking his young children to their own sports practice. The American, who stunned the game when he quit the breakaway league back in January, has taken a timely pause before this week’s PGA Championship in the outskirts of Philadelphia.
“It’s been a good time at home,” he tells TG after a practice round at Aronimink. “I was able to grind a lot and hang out with the kids. I got to see a lot of volleyball and my little man go and do some swimming meets and golf lessons. We’re glad to be back on the road and hopefully go out and play well because we definitely worked hard at home and feel good.”
It’s unusual for Reed not to play between majors, but unique circumstances have dictated a unique schedule for his 2026 season. Unlike Brooks Koepka, who was reinstated immediately to the PGA Tour via the contrived Returning Members’ Program, Reed has to wait until August to make his return on the US circuit. He has instead starred on the DP World Tour, where he built up an early lead over Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai standings with two wins in three starts.
But after his tie for 12th at Augusta National last month, Reed has focused his attention entirely on Aronimink, making a comprehensive recon trip to the venue last week.
“It was definitely a little different,” Reed says of his preparations. “I like to try to go into the majors a week before and play a couple of times. It’s what I normally do. I was able to come up here last week and play for three days, which was nice. We saw every type of weather you could think of.”
In the meantime, LIV Golf has been thrown into chaos without the backing of the trillion dollar Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Reed’s old tour is scrambling for survival as it searches for alternate investment, just a few short months after he chose to exit stage left.
“It was surprising,” he says of PIF withdrawing its funding. “The biggest thing for me is I hope all the guys and all the players well. At the end of the day, I’ve built some great relationships with the guys over there on LIV. I hope they keep playing well. PIF has obviously pulled out. I don’t know where they all stand on the whole situation. “I didn’t see it coming that quick. Hopefully the guys continue playing and when they get the opportunities, they play well and have a chance, whatever their next journey is.”
Reed decided he was not going to be renewing his LIV contract and began exploring a pathway back to the PGA Tour just days after winning the Dubai Desert Classic in January. That move, he insists, had nothing to do with fears over the league’s future.
“Before I made my decision, I never really even thought about that,” he said. “I heard they had a meeting in Saudi [at LIV Golf Riyadh in February], but I was already gone by then.
“I made up my mind. I was really comfortable with my decision right when I made it. I wouldn’t have made a decision if I wasn’t comfortable and if I didn’t think it was the right thing for myself and my family. That was the main reason for me. It had nothing to do with really anything else or if I felt like the league was going to continue or not. For us, we felt like our best decision and best for our family and everything was for me to come back and try to earn my way back to PGA Tour.
“I’m really excited. I’m excited to get back home playing, and spend a little bit of closer time near the house with family. Hopefully I’ll get back out there and contend on Sundays and continue trying to build my legacy.”
TG has learned that some of Reed’s former LIV colleagues have sounded out the DP World Tour as part of contingency plans if the league does not secure the new funding it needs to survive. It’s understood that routes back to the PGA Tour might be more complicated, though.
“I know there’s a lot of different pathways to get back to the PGA Tour,” Reed says. “I know some of those guys will be hungry and want to come back out and continue playing. Hopefully they are able to have an opportunity to come out and play out here.”
After this major, Reed plans on returning to Europe and is weighing up his schedule with events in Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands before next month’s US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
Reed confirmed he will make what will technically be his PGA Tour return at the Scottish Open in July. The Rolex Series event at the Renaissance Club near Edinburgh is co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour. Reed’s flying start to the season has offered up the tantalising prospect of a Race to Dubai showdown with his rival Rory McIlroy at the end of the season.
“It’s always fun going up against Rory and those guys over there,” he says. “You want to go up against some of those best players and guys like that and try to go out and give a couple of fireworks.”
This week, however, the noise is elsewhere and Reed is one of the contenders going under the radar. He’s hardly ring rusty despite his time away and Reed prides himself on an exquisite short game which will stand him in good stead for Aronimink’s biggest defence: the sloping greens.
“The golf course has some challenges to it. But at the same time, if you’re hitting the ball solid, you can really attack this place,” he says. The greens are generous but at the same time there’s a lot of slope on them. It’s all about not just hitting fairways and greens but also putting it in the right spots.”
The consensus here is that we are in for another PGA Championship of low scoring, but Reed says that will be entirely depend on the severity of the wind throughout the week.
“When I was here before it was pumping,” the 2018 Masters champion says. “Downwind, you’re hitting drives 350, 360 comfortably. Into wind, you’re hitting them 250. If it plays like that, I think you get to 14 or 15 under and you have a chance to win this golf tournament.”