Will Patrick Reed live up to his top-five quib?

Patrick Reed arrives at Hoylake this week well aware he is a man with a target on his back.

For many castigated the 23-year-old when he said he could justifiably be labelled one of the top five in the world after he added the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral in March to his other two victories on Tour.

But his game plan for Hoylake will certainly raise a lot of eyebrows also. For he has revealed he will play the venerable links in exactly the same way he has to secure his three US Tour victories this season.

“I played the Dunhill Links Championship and it was 75 degrees on the Old Course with no wind, then we went to Carnoustie and it was 50 degrees, blowing 40mph and raining sideways, but I was still able to shoot under par,” he recalls.

“And I think the main reason I was able to do that was because I stuck to my game plan of doing it the way I know how to play golf.

“It seemed to work for me then, with the only big change being I had to land the ball shorter, and get used to firing the ball with a swing for 150 yards knowing it would run the extra 20, which of course, it wouldn’t do in the States.

“So that is what I am going to do, although obviously, I’m expecting it to play firm and fast, and the only change I might make would be to put another putter in the bag, the one I won the Wyndham with last year.”

Whilst the American media have largely forgotten his earlier feats due to him taking time off for the birth of his first child, he roared back at Congressional recently before losing the lead on the final nine holes something he admits was partly due to his sabbatical.

But it proved Reed’s claim to be one of the top names in the game and one that cannot be taken lightly is on the money.

“Well, after I won at Doral, and the arrival of our baby was getting closer, my mind and focus was on making the birth. Golf is such a mental game that if your mind is elsewhere, it’s curtains.

“And, as you saw, it was certainly curtains as far as my game was concerned, but in the last couple of tournaments I’ve started to get back into it.

“I feel like I’m playing great and, apart from a couple of clubs in the bag that we are still working on, we are all set.”

Certainly his tie for 26th at the Greenbrier last weekend is proof if proof were needed that he is close to his best again. But playing links golf through the air? Now that truly is a novel idea.