[Photo: LIV Golf]
Patrick Reed battled the Blue Monster course at Trump Doral Resort and strong winds to top the leaderboard after a hot opening round at LIV Golf Miami while Australia’s Marc Leishman was four shots back.
A former winner at Doral when it was the PGA Tour’s WGC-Cadillac event in 2014, Reed signed for a five-under-par 67 to take a two-shot lead. Reed, a member of Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces team, was lighting up the brutal Doral course with seven birdies before his momentum was stopped by a double-bogey 5 at the par-3 ninth, his last after teeing off No.10.
Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, said Doral offered a similar examination of a pro’s game to Augusta National, where he will arrive in form having finished second recently at the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau.
“With how fast the greens are getting, especially with that wind and having to play big breaks on putts, it’s like Augusta,” Reed said. “Hitting 20-footers where you’re trying to hit it eight feet and just watch the ball roll, that’s what you’re going to get next week. Next week you have a lot of undulations, kind of different types of lies, but you have to hit the ball really solid to put the ball in the right spots and here you have to hit the ball really solid to keep it out of the wind.
“But I can’t really think about next week. This golf course is hard enough to you have to think about this place before you get to next week.”
Trailing Reed at three-under were three of LIV’s biggest names—Johnson, reigning US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau (Crushers GC), and three-time Masters champ Phil Mickelson (HyFlyers GC). The trio posted matching 69s.
A group of players sat at two-under, including Sebastian Muñoz (Torque GC), Charl Schwartzel (Stinger GC), and Sergio Garcia (Fireballs GC), all within striking distance of the lead. Leishman (Ripper GC) was the top Australian a shot further back at one-under, while Harold Varner III (4Aces GC) and Luis Masaveu (Fireballs GC) finished their rounds at even par.
Of the other Australians at LIV Miami, 2022 British Open champion Cameron Smith was one-over, Matt Jones was two-over and Lucas Herbert five-over.
