Despite a double bogey on his final hole, Patrick Reed shot a 5-under-pair 67 and took hold in the first round of Liv Golf Miami on Friday at Trump National Doral.
Reed began his round on the 10th hole and put seven birdies on his card and reached 7 with a Tap-in at Par-5 eighth. But at PAR-3 ninth, he missed the green wide left and worse the mistake by putting his second shot in a bunker.
Reed came back to the packaging a bit, but he still held a lead with two shots over Bryson Duchambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson (3-under 69).
“I mean, the first 17 were fantastic,” Reed said. “No, as a whole I played solid. I hit the ball quite well from tee, hit some high quality iron and did some putts, and I think that’s what you have to do around this place.
“… yes, for the rear tee with this kind of wind direction here at 9, I don’t know what to do. I have no club for what I feel I can hit a straight shot, and it’s hard to start it over the water and make it turn back. It was just an unfortunate finish, but at the end of the day it is still a solid round of golf.”
In Liv Golf’s first American event in 2025, it was true that the four best players all are past great champions, three of them with at least one green jacket to their name with the champions a week away.
Reed won the champions in 2018, Mickelson has captured three green jackets and Dustin Johnson won the 2020 edition that was delayed until November.
“Of course I played really well by the end of 2020,” Johnson said Friday. “But the game I feel it comes pretty close to it. It is obvious that it is a really nice line to be so good or just a bit of, but yes, I have a lot of confidence in my game right now.”
Johnson had a three-Birdie run of No. 14-16 late in his round to get to 3 under, while Dechambeau was stable with four birds and just one bogey.
DECHAMBeaus Team, Crusher’s GC, also has a narrow lead with two shots in the team competition through one round. The four-man team by Duchambeau, Charles Howell III, Englishman Paul Casey and India’s Anirban Lahiri combined to go 2 under par, with Johnson’s 4Ace GC, which sits second on even pairs.
“There is a reason why we won here (at Liv Team Championship) 2023,” said Dechambeau. “They like this golf course. They like a tough, challenging golf course where you can strategically play and let everyone move on your own, and we just plot and do a pair of birdies where we can and move with when it is a really brutal hole.”
-Field level media
