Patrick Reed clears up BMW PGA and Irish Open withdrawal

Patrick Reed pulled out of this week's BMW PGA Championship and next week's Irish Open citing family reasons, but then signed up to play this week's PGA Tour event, causing confusion

World number 15 Patrick Reed has pulled out of this week's BMW PGA Championship and next week's Irish Open citing family reasons, but has since opted to play in this week's PGA Tour event, the Crowne Plaza Invitational, causing considerable confusion.

The American Ryder Cup star was due to tackle the West Course at Wentworth on Thursday-Sunday in the BMW PGA Championship, before moving on play in the Irish Open at Royal County Down the following week.

In a strange twist though, Reed didn't inform the European Tour that he wouldn't be playing until Saturday, citing “family reasons”, even though he had entered the PGA Tour event at Colonial days earlier.

In a short statement, the 24-year-old clarified the situation, telling the Golf Channel: “We have a family member who has been battling cancer and is now in hospice, and they say only has a few days if that left. So we don’t feel comfortable leaving the country at this time, and wanted to be able to go down and see him before he passes to say our goodbyes.

“We feel like we need to be close to home and family at this time. We plan on going to Europe and play overseas this year, just we needed to be within reach this week. And we hope that everyone would respect our privacy during this tough time.

“We are just trying to take it one day at a time. I would love to pick up two more events later on in the season.”

Reed has taken up European Tour membership, and competed in the World Matchplay Championship at the London Club last October, but will now need to find additional events to add to his schedule in order to reach the minimum number of European Tour starts to keep his membership status.