Golf’s villain at the top, slow play at the forefront, and no Tiger on the weekend—that’s the essence of the first week of the FedExCup.

Patrick Reed, arguably one of the most controversial figures in golf, returned to the winner’s circle with a one-shot win over Abraham Ancer at the Northern Trust. Reed, who shot 16-under for the week, just edged out Ancer, who earned himself a place in next year’s Masters with his showing.

Reed, who has struggled for much of the year, said he found his mojo again by stepping away from golf.

“Once I got to Bethpage [for the PGA Championship] and finished, I was going to play the following couple weeks and decided to shut it off,” he said. “I actually shut down the game for ten days and got my body and my mind right. Just got back up 100 percent ready to go and at that point I was able to sit down clearly think and talk through my team what we’re doing, what’s good, what’s not, what we need to fix. From that point, we had a very clear picture and path to move on to.”

Reed moves to No. 2 on the FedExCup standings, heading into the BMW Championship with the Top 70 players.

“It’s just the beginning,” Reed said after the final round. “It’s the first Playoff event. So you know, the good thing was I felt like I’ve been playing well all year. To come out and get the [win] this week and climb up the board quickly and get up to second, now just go out, rest up tomorrow and start playing aggressive again and try to get up there as high as I can going into East Lake [for the Tour Championship.]”

Slow Play Controversy

Nothing at the Northern Trust captured more attention than the slow play controversy of Bryson DeChambeau, who was called “a twit” by one European Tour pro after taking more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds to read a single putt.

Just look at Tommy and Justin, both looking completely bored. Slow players do this to their playing partners making the game less enjoyable. Problem is, the unaffected single minded twit in this instance, doesn’t care much for others.

— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) August 10, 2019

Multi-major winner Brooks Koepka fired at DeChambeau’s slow play, leading to a pre-round conversation with golf’s mad scientiest before the final round. Rory McIlroy and others chimed in as well, saying slow play is a huge issue on tour.

“I think it’s just gotten out of hand,” Koepka said. “It seems now that there are so many sports psychologists and everybody telling everybody that they can’t hit it until they’re ready; that you have to fully process everything. I mean, I take 15 seconds and go, and I’ve done all right. So, I don’t understand why they’re taking a minute and a half.”

DeChambeau defended himself, saying the one putt, which went viral on social media, was out of context.

“This is about playing golf, right,” DeChambeau said. “I’m trying to enjoy my time out there and play golf in the best way possible and I’m sprinting between every single shot because sometimes playing partners and caddies don’t walk at the necessary speed that they need to. This is a four-person job when we are talking about this. When you catch me out at my normal golf course, I’ll be playing in 2-and-a-half hours.”

Top players in the FedEx Cup

• Brooks Koepka remains at No. 1 after finishing 30^th. Despite an outstanding year, which included a win at the Players Championship and RBC Canadian Open, Rory McIlroy somehow drops a spot after finishing in a tie for sixth.
• Tiger Woods withdrew after the first round with an injury after carding a 75. No word on whether Woods will return for the second week of the playoffs. Woods dropped to 38^th in the standings.
• Only Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin are moving to the second week of the playoffs. Conners moved up four spots to 27 with a tie for 21^st, while Hadwin dropped five spots to 51. Mackenzie Hughes and Roger Sloan are both done for the 2019-20 season

Patrick Reed: What’s In The Bag

Since splitting with Callaway some time ago, Patrick Reed remains a free agent, using a mix of clubs from different manufacturers ranging from Titleist to PING.

Driver: PING G400 
Fairway: TaylorMade M6 3-wood
Irons: Titleist U-500 (3), Callaway X Forged CB 2013 (4), Callaway RAZR MB (5-PW)
Wedges: Artisan Prototype (51 degrees), Titleist Vokey SM7 (56, 60 degrees)
Putter: Odyssey White Hot Pro 3
Ball: Titleist Pro V1