Patrick Reed hits a tee shot earlier this month during a practice round for the Saudi International.
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Patrick Reed says this year’s Masters Champions Dinner will have “nothing to do with where someone’s playing.”
In an interview with Golf Digest — which you can and should read here in full here — Reed doused the thought that there could be tension at the annual event, which is held the Tuesday before the tournament. Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, along with five other previous winners of the event, now play with LIV Golf, and the dinner at Augusta National, at the least, will mark a close encounter with players who have been outspoken against the Saudi-backed series, most notably Tiger Woods.
But one day ahead of LIV’s first event of the year, Reed told Golf Digest on Thursday that the dinner will continue to focus on the most-recent winner, who, in this case, is Scottie Scheffler.
LIV tension at Masters Champions Dinner? Tiger Woods weighs in
“The thing is, the Champions Dinner has nothing to do with myself or any other person in that room except for Scottie Scheffler,” Reed told Golf Digest. “That’s his dinner. My experiences during those dinners have been amazing. We’re always talking about past experiences at Augusta, how the other guys have won the [Masters], what obstacles they had to overcome, the shots they pulled off in their experiences.
“Knowing the guys out here on LIV and also some of the older guys … that night and that dinner is all about Scottie and has nothing to do with where someone’s playing, what happened a week ago, what’s happening going forward. It’s all about that event]. It is literally Scottie’s night and that’s how it’s always going to be.”
Reed’s comments come after both Woods and Scheffler were asked at last week’s Genesis Invitational to weigh in on the subject — and after two previous Masters winners on the LIV series also shared their thoughts.
Woods was asked if he anticipated the dinner being “uncomfortable.” The 15-time major champion has been one of the more outspoken critics of LIV, which has signed multiple PGA Tour players to multiyear contracts over the past year.
“The Champions Dinner is going to be obviously something that’s talked about,” he said. “We as a whole need to honor Scottie, Scottie’s the winner, it’s his dinner. So making sure that Scottie gets honored correctly but also realizing the nature of what has transpired and the people that have left, just where our situations are either legally, emotionally, there’s a lot there.”
And Scheffler? At the Genesis, he had this exchange with a reporter:
“Scottie, you’re going to have to choose a dinner that is going to appease everybody at the Champions Dinner,” the reporter started. “I don’t think everyone is anticipating a very light mood that night. Are you thinking about basically what you will say to those guys when there’s going to be a bunch of LIV guys in attendance?”
Scottie Scheffler ‘clueless’ about Masters Champions Dinner protocol
“Yeah, I haven’t looked that far ahead,” Scheffler said. “I definitely, I don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to say that night. I haven’t really gotten too much info. I’ve got to talk to a few of the guys and figure out what actually goes on that night because I’m still kind of clueless. I’m hoping that it will be a fun night. Gathering all those guys together in a room, I mean, it should be a lot of fun. It’s a historic group of people, Masters champions, and I’m sure that we’ll all put our personal opinions aside and just have a good night and just kind of enjoy what the night really is.”
Three weeks ago, at the Saudi International, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson were also asked about any potential conflict. They. along with Reed, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel, are Masters winners playing for LIV and will, presumably, be at the dinner.
Johnson expected peace, telling Irish Golfer that “if there are any guys saying there may be tension, it has nothing to do with a few of us playing LIV compared to competing on the PGA Tour, as that tension was already there.” Watson, meanwhile, took a lighter tone, after Scheffler earlier this year jokingly said he would put Watson at “a separate table.”
“Hey, as long as I’m in the Champions Dinner, I’m fine,” Watson said. “I’ll sit wherever he tells me. It’s fine. As long as I’m allowed back, I’ll sit wherever he wants me to. I’ll sit outside and just stare in the window.”
Editor’s note: To read Golf Digest’s complete interview with Reed — which includes his thoughts on Rory McIlroy — please click here.
