Patrick Reed admitted his first round of the Investec South African Open Championship was a "grind" as he faced the challenge of playing in a new country.
Reed is playing in the 20th country of his DP World Tour career and arrived at Stellenbosch Golf Club on the crest of a wave following a brilliant start to the 2026 campaign.
After finishing in 26th on his first start at the Dubai Invitational, the 35-year-old has gone on to win the following week at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, lose in a play-off to Martin Couvra at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship and claim his second victory of the season at the Qatar Masters.
Country number 20: South Africa @PReedGolf playing worldwide on the DP World Tour 🗺️ #InvestecSAOpen pic.twitter.com/bvOLy91OKY
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 26, 2026
The American sits comfortably at the top of the Race to Dubai Rankings delivered by DP World, but he was six off the pace in South Africa after an opening round of 71.
It looked promising after an eagle at the par-five fifth, however, bogeys at the sixth, tenth, 14th and 16th overpowered his sole birdie at the 13th.
"Not great," Reed said. "I never really got comfortable, hit a lot of loose tee-shots and because of that playing out of the rough. Even when I was in the fairway, I just kept hitting the ball high on the face, it just sits so high on the grass.
"So because of that, the distance control wasn't quite what I want to and I felt from tee-to-green I struggled today. I had two short putts that I missed, but besides from that it was a grind."
Despite a disappointing one-over start to his first round, Reed showcased his quality with his wedges to get out of difficult positions and revealed he thrives from feeling "uncomfortable".
"Growing up, this was the norm of how I hit the golf ball. I never hit fairways, I never hit greens and was having to get up-and-down from everywhere, but between that, it was just a lot of hard work on the short game," he added.
"I grew up watching Tiger (Woods) and wanting to have that mentality and play as well as Tiger, but also it was fun watching Phil (Mickelson) hit those flop shots, so because of that I was always on the practice green hitting the hard chips
"That's the biggest thing. You practice those difficult ones and you have fun with those, and then you go on the golf course and you have some of those are like 'wait, I've done this before'.
"Because I've practised it so much, I know how much it can save me, not just in my career but every round you play. I try to keep myself uncomfortable and I definitely did that today."
