DORAL, Fla. — Patrick Reed took advantage of his status as a past Masters champion by heading to Augusta National last week and staying on-site in one of the rooms that adjoins the clubhouse, steps away from the putting green and the first tee.
Reed, like many, was curious about the damage suffered to the iconic course last fall due to Hurricane Helene, which had considerable impact on the community and prompted the club to set up relief efforts while downplaying the impact within the gates.
From the few first-hand accounts available so far with the Masters now a week away, you’d never know anything was amiss if you didn’t know something might be amiss.
Reed concurred.
“I heard obviously that with the awful hurricane that came through that they lost a ton of trees,” Reed said Wednesday at Trump National Doral, where he was preparing for this week’s LIV Golf Miami event. “I was expecting it to look a lot different and play a little different, right? Because with less trees it might play different.
“There’s definitely some trees gone, some areas that were really, really thick and now you can see a little more through them. But the actual playability of the golf course hasn’t changed. All the trees that come into play, all the trees down the edges of the fairways ... all those are still there. All of those that are in the way.”
Reed joked that he wished some trees that were bothersome to him had been eliminated but he raved about the condition of the course.
“The golf course looked amazing,” said Reed, one of 12 players in the LIV Golf field this week who will play in the Masters. “The green at (No. 16) was completely destroyed (due to two large trees falling on it). They had to redo the whole thing. I mean, it’s still the same diabolical fun green. Obviously the people who have been there are going to see a bit of a difference, but the playability to me didn’t really change at all.”
Reed, who won the 2018 Masters, is considered an honorary member and can play the course at any time with advance notice. He played 54 holes over March 26-27, spending considerable time on his short game.
Because he won the Masters, he is allowed to stay on-site, although he said he has no idea how much it costs.
“I’ve stayed in the Butler Cabin before,” he said. “I’ve stayed in some of the other cabins. So they move us around, which is nice, you get to see all the different areas. I take advantage of this and anything it costs we just take care of it. It goes on an Augusta National bill and it’s one of those places where you don’t care. When I went to the Champions Dinner (for the first time in 2019 after winning), when they told me I’d pay for the dinner, I was like I’d pay every year. I don’t care. To me, it’s just such a treat. It’s such an honor and a pleasure to be there.”
Reed, 34, is off to a slow start this year in the LIV Golf League, where he has yet to win in four seasons. His best finish is a tie for 10th.
He did have two top-10 finishes earlier this year in DP World Tour events and finished second recently in Macau, an International Series event that earned him a spot in the British Open this summer.
His visit to Augusta National was all about being prepared for next week.
“I go there and grind,” said Reed, who has three top 10s since his victory. “Play as many times as I can just to reconfirm things I saw in previous years to make sure that it was accurate, not just a fluke or something happening, just still getting more and more comfortable with that place.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Patrick Reed Says Augusta National’s Playability Unchanged After Hurricane Helene.