The 32-year-old’s name is often in the headlines due to his own actions (or those of his lawyer) and this week at the DP World Tour’s 2023 Hero Dubai Desert Classic is the latest example.
After overnight rain delayed tee times for six hours and five minutes on Thursday, just 12 players completed their first rounds before daylight ran out. Currently through 16 holes, Reed finds himself in a six-way tie for second at 4 under, one shot behind Thomas Pieters, who has played 15 holes.
Social media erupted earlier in the week due to an incident that occurred when Reed approached world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and his caddie, Harry Diamond, on the range. Reed and Diamond shook hands, but McIlroy failed to acknowledge Reed, who tossed a LIV Golf tee McIlroy’s way as he turned to leave.
“Since my tees are ‘Team Aces LIV’ tees I flicked him one,” Reed told the Daily Mail on Wednesday. “It was kind of a funny shot back. Funny how a small little flick has turned into basically me stabbing him and throwing a tee at him.”
“But it is one of those things,” Reed continued, ” if you’re going to act like an immature little child then you might as well be treated like one.”
“I was subpoenaed by his lawyer on Christmas Eve. So of course, trying to have a nice time with my family and someone shows up on your doorstep and delivers that, you’re not going to take that well,” explained McIlroy. “So again, I’m living in reality, I don’t know where he’s living. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t expect a hello or a handshake.”
McIlroy is currently T-12 at 2 under through 15 holes. The two were scheduled to tee off at the same time on Thursday, though on different holes. Fingers crossed for a weekend pairing.
“I didn’t feel the need to acknowledge him,” McIlroy said of snubbing Reed.
If you’re a golf fan, or even just a sports fan in general, chances are you’ve heard about the tee that Patrick Reed tossed Rory McIlroy’s way on the range ahead of this week’s DP World Tour event.
If you missed this bit of social media fun, Reed reportedly wasn’t happy when McIlroy refused to acknowledge him Tuesday at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. According to the Independent, Reed then threw at tee at McIlroy “in disgust.”
“I didn’t see it. I was down by my bag and he came up to me, and I was busy working and sort of doing my practice, and I didn’t really feel like — I didn’t feel the need to acknowledge him,” McIlroy explained to reporters Wednesday. “So I didn’t see a tee coming my direction at all, but apparently that’s what happened. And if roles were reversed and I’d have of thrown that tee at him, I’d be expecting a lawsuit.”
Video of the interaction shows Reed laughing off the snub as he walked away.
McIlroy, who claims he was subpoenaed by Reed’s lawyer last month, scoffed at the idea of one day mending bridges with Reed.
“I was subpoenaed by his lawyer on Christmas Eve. So of course, trying to have a nice time with my family and someone shows up on your doorstep and delivers that, you’re not going to take that well,” said McIlroy. “So again, I’m living in reality, I don’t know where he’s living. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t expect a hello or a handshake.”
The world No. 1 makes his 2023 debut this week in Dubai after a strong 2022 season that saw him win both the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup and DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai season-long titles.
The CEO played in the JP McManus Pro-Am and has a membership at the Vaquero Golf Club.
The Dubai Desert Classic has become one of the more high-profile events on the DP World Tour, using a strategy of luring top professional golfers through lucrative guaranteed appearance fees.
The website for the event — which was won in 2022 by Viktor Hovland — lists Slync.io as the current corporate naming sponsor. The San Francisco-based logistics technology company took over after Omega’s 12-year run with the event concluded in 2021.
Slync.io is a firm that, according to its releases, combines industry expertise, software solutions and digital platforms to solve challenges in global logistics.
Over the past 18 months, while his company was running out of money and struggling to raise funding or attract new customers, Kirchner had bought a private jet valued at $15 million, joined an exclusive Texas country club, purchased luxury cars, invested in a European tech startup and attempted to buy the English football team Derby County.
Chris Kirchner plays his tee shot at the 10th hole during Day Two of the JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor on July 05, 2022, in Limerick, Ireland. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
The initiation at the club, which includes a Tom Fazio-designed course, is $175,000 with annual dues over $15,000, according to one report.
Slync also became aligned with pro golfers, and the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League.
From the Forbes piece:
With the Goldman-led cash infusion, Kirchner sought to parlay his love of golf—and sport more broadly—into a business focus of Slync. Even though there seemed to be little correlation between a logistics tech company and the PGA, Slync began sponsoring professional players like Justin Rose and Albane Valenzuela. The company signed a multimillion-dollar sponsorship agreement with the NHL ice hockey team Dallas Stars. Kirchner told employees the sponsorships were part of the company’s new go-to-market strategy. “Execs don’t buy software from websites,” one employee recalled Kirchner telling him. “They buy it based on relationships and experiences.” (Rose, Valanzuela and the Dallas Stars did not respond to a request for comment.)
During the summer of 2021, he hosted a group of employees at the Vaquero, where he bragged about playing golf with Saudi princes and flying to exotic places on his private jet, according to an employee who was there. “The lifestyle that he was living just didn’t seem real,” says one former employee.
According to the piece, Slync is paying $40 million over five years to become the chief sponsor of the Dubai Desert Classic and while Kirchner is allegedly in the process of selling off his jet and other assets, the tournament sponsorship appears to be cemented. As part of the sponsorship, Slync will receive TV commercials and an executive retreat.
“We got into golf recently with our first player endorsements and I enjoy the game personally on an amateur level and wanted to get into the game on a sponsorship level and be part of the community,” Kirchner said in January. “That was step one, and then — through some casual conversations about previous sponsors pulling out and if the Dubai Desert Classic would be something of interest to us or even worth a conversation. It really only became more concrete around the Masters in April last year, when we discovered this would become a Rolex Series event — one of the elite events on the DP World Tour.”
“This is pretty wild. I didn’t really think this was possible going in today,” said Hovland.
Viktor Hovland and Richard Bland went low late on Sunday to set up a thrilling finish to the DP World Tour’s 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic.
The 24-year-old Norwegian took the clubhouse lead at Emirates Golf Club with a birdie-eagle-birdie finish to post the number to beat at 12 under. Bland, who earned his first win on tour last year at the Betfred British Masters, finished his round with consecutive birdies to tie Hovland and force a playoff. Two-time champion Rory McIlroy missed out on the playoff after finding the water on the final hole.
Replaying the 18th hole, Hovland made birdie to claim his second DP World Tour title in addition to the 2021 BMW International Open. The former star at Oklahoma State also has three wins on the PGA Tour: the 2020 Puerto Rico Open, 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic and 2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. Hovland also won December’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
“This is pretty wild. I didn’t really think this was possible going in today,” said Hovland, who started the day six shots off the lead. “I knew I had to shoot a really low number but a lot of things had to go my way and I’m thankful that they did.
Viktor Hovland of Norway tees off on the eighth hole during the final round of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 30, 2022 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
“I was fuming after the three-putt on 15 and thought that was it and I knew I just had to try to finish off well and get a nice position for the week,” he continued. “I rolled a really long one on 16 and then on 17 and, hey, we got a shot.”
McIlroy finished third at 11 under, followed by five players T-4 at 8 under: Justin Harding, Tyrrell Hatton, Sam Horsfield, Adrian Meronk and Erik van Rooyen.
Swedish golfer Sebastian Soderberg finished his final round at the Dubai Desert Classic in record time.
The final round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic was a round to remember for slow-play critics.
Not only did Bryson DeChambeau go 3 over on the back nine and blow his chances to defend his title after being served a slow-play warning on the 10th hole, but Sebastian Soderberg of Sweden set the fastest round ever recorded in European Tour history.
The first to teeing off Sunday’s final round, Soderberg played solo due to an odd number of competitors. At 7 over through 54 holes, Soderberg knew he wasn’t in contention for the Dubai Desert Classic title, so he decided to employ a speedy tactic to his final round: jogging.
He quickly finished his round of 3-over 75 in 1 hour and 36 minutes, shattering the previous mark of 1 hour and 59 minutes set at the 2019 Italian Open by Thomas Pieters.
“I always kind of wanted to jog and play as fast as I could,” Soderberg said after Sunday’s round, according to Golf Channel. “I struggled the last two days so I figured it wouldn’t necessarily hurt my game to just jog in between (shots) and not think too much.”
While Soderberg finished the event at 10 over, 19 strokes behind winner Lucas Herbert, he jogged his way right into the record book anyway.
Lucas Herbert defeated Christiaan Bezuidenhout in a two-hole playoff to win his first European Tour event at the Dubai Desert Classic.
Lucas Herbert survived two playoff holes against Christiaan Bezuidenhout Sunday at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic to earn his first European Tour win.
Herbert, along with Bezuidenhout, entered the final round six shots back of leader Ashun Wu at Emirates Golf Club. Wu finished Sunday with a 5-over 77 after he was 5 over on the back nine. He finished T-6 at 6 under.
On the 18th hole before the playoff, Bezuidenhout found water, but saved his chances at victory by making a putt for bogey to match Herbert’s final-round 68 and sit at 9-under 279 to force the playoff.
Herbert, who birded 18 the first time he played it Sunday, birdied the second playoff hole on No. 18 to seal the win.
Adri Arnaus, Dean Burmester and Tom Lewis finished T-3 at 7 under, while American Kurt Kitayama and Wu finished T-6 at 6 under.
Lucas Herbert celebrates after the second play-off hole of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, who was given a slow-play warning on the 10th hole, finished T-8 at 5 under after a 76. DeChambeau finished the round with three birdies and seven bogeys, four of which occurred on his final four holes. The 26-year-old was 3 over on the back nine.
The 2020 European Tour schedule continues Thursday at the Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
It was a windy day at the Emirates Golf Club and only 29 golfers were able to break par in the first round.
Thomas Pieters shot a first-round 67 and leads the Omega Desert Dubai Classic on the European Tour.
David Lipsky shot a 68 and sits alone in second.
There are 12 players tied at 3 under, two shots off the lead.
Defending champ Bryson DeChambeau is among four golfers who shot a 2-under 70.
The skies were hazy for part the day around Emirates Golf Club because of a steady wind, which made conditions difficult. Just 29 golfers broke par in the first round, including Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen.
“I’ve been working on my putting real hard and I just hope to see some progress,” Pieters told europeantour.com. “I saw that today, hopefully we can keep it up. I know I’m hitting the ball quite nice and I’m just looking forward to the next three days.
“It’s always a bit scary starting out, you don’t know what to expect even though you’ve put the work in – that competitive mindset sometimes takes a while to kick in. But I think today was one of my better rounds of the year.”
