Patrick Reed had not teed it up in a competitive round since the Masters. Five weeks of practice swings, family time and three days at Aronimink Golf Club later, the 2018 Masters champion walked off Thursday's Round 1 of the 108th PGA Championship with a bogey-free 1-under 69 — his cleanest opening round at a major in years.
Reed had skipped LIV Golf's intervening events and chose to bypass Turkey two weeks earlier, treating Aronimink as his first event since Augusta. The decision was a recalibration rather than a holiday.
"It's definitely weird," Reed said. "This year obviously a unique situation, and with taking that time off since Augusta, it's been just a lot of grinding and preparing. And it really was kind of one of those that you finally felt like you could actually properly prepare. Even though I wasn't playing tournament golf, I was doing a lot of things and studying not only my golf game, but also around the golf course — kind of what is it that we're going to deal with when we come up here."
The break, Reed said, also gave him something tournament rhythm rarely allows: a reset.
"Usually coming into majors, I'm a little tired, even though I'm tournament ready because I've played a lot of tournament golf, but you don't really actually get to prepare," Reed said. "So this trip I was actually able to kind of prepare for this one. When I wasn't playing golf, I was able to kind of get away from the game, spend time with family and the kiddos, and just kind of mentally reset and get myself mentally and physically sharp coming in."
The strategy held up. Reed's bogey-free Thursday at Aronimink was anchored by a back nine that punished anyone losing iron play. He missed one fairway on the inward half — the 10th — and from there found every green up to and including the par-4 fourth.
"It definitely helped out on the back nine, which I would say is the harder of the two," Reed said. "I think my only fairway I missed on that back nine was the first hole of the day, number 10. Landed in the fairway, just kind of barely rolled in that left rough, but I had a good lie, and from there on I proceeded to hit every single green until I got to the fourth hole. I'm playing that back nine and just hitting quality iron shot after quality iron shot and putting yourself on the putting surface. It made it a little easier to kind of go around there bogey-free."
The two close calls he had came on the par-4 fourth, where his drive caught the left fairway bunker and forced a lay-up.
"I had to lay up to 53 yards and hit a great wedge shot in there," Reed said. "I thought it was going to go in, but you almost feel like you steal one, kind of getting yourself out of position and hitting a wedge shot close like that."
Reed's pre-tournament reconnaissance shaped how his Thursday played out. He travelled to Aronimink the previous week for three days and ran into three different weather systems.
"The first day, it was maybe 70 degrees, but it was blowing 25 to 30 miles per hour," Reed said. "The second day it was hot and still blowing, and the last day it was raining all day and it was cold. I hit a great drive on 10, I hit 7-wood, barely got to the front of the green. I felt like I saw three different types of golf courses, and I really felt like it helped going into this week."
Reed also addressed the LIV Golf news that has dominated his world over the past fortnight — the reported Public Investment Fund move to reduce LIV's operating funding ahead of 2027.
"I had no idea that was going to come about," Reed said. "For me really, it's just kind of, you know, hope the guys continue playing some solid golf and get their opportunities, and for whatever the future is — whether it's on DP Tour, trying to get back to PGA Tour, or wherever they're playing — hopefully they continue playing some solid golf and just do what they do."
Reed enters Friday at 1-under, two shots back of the morning co-leaders. His plan, he indicated, is to push the work he did at home in Texas through the rest of the major calendar.
"Hopefully I can continue this solid play and get myself up there and have a chance late Sunday," Reed said. "Yeah, who knows. It might be a new thing."
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*Originally published on [Golf News Global](https://golfnews.global/article/patrick-reed-pga-championship-2026-round-1-69-bogey-free-masters-layoff-aronimink). Visit for full coverage.*
