Patrick Reed feared for his life during his recent hospital stay, but recovered to play in the 2021 Tour Championship

Patrick Reed is playing in a 30-man golf tournament this week with $ 46 million on the course. This is where he has finished his season for most of the last decade on the PGA Tour, but he should be especially grateful for this year’s edition of the Tour Championship 2021, as he was not sure two weeks ago if he would ever leave the hospital.

Reed was hospitalized during The Northern Trust, the first of three FedEx Cup Playoffs events, with what he describes as bilateral pneumonia. He missed both that tournament and last week’s BMW Championship, slipped all the way to 30th in the FedEx Cup standings and almost missed the Tour Championship.

That was far from his biggest concern.

“The first few days, they sat there and told me you should text your family, talk to your family, because you just do not know,” Reed said Thursday at East Lake Golf Club. “I mean, this is not good. We’re not in a good place right now.

“With how the hospitals are these days because of COVID and everything that’s going on, it does not matter what’s going on. They will not allow people in there, so it’s just you in there. So I’m sitting there and them the first two days was the only thing that went through my mind: ‘I will not be able to say goodbye to my children. I will not be able to tell them that I love them. I will not be able to tell my wife, that I love her and give her a hug ‘.

It’s dark for everyone, even more so a professional athlete who has just come in his 30s. Reed said the pneumonia was in the lower lobes of his lungs “this is where many deaths and people go away.”

Reed said he was vaccinated against COVID-19 and was not tested for it while in the hospital. It contradicts, however an earlier report who quoted him and said he was later determined to be positive for COVID-19 after the initial bilateral pneumonia diagnosis. Reed tweeted earlier in the week that he was not sure if he had contracted the delta variant.

Although there is still confusion over his exact diagnosis, the seriousness of the health scare Reed experienced is quite clear.

He took a bus to East Lake from Houston this week, but said he was allowed to fly in a plane from Monday. He opened the Tour Championship a 2-over 72 in Round 1 as he tries to play his way into the U.S. Ryder Cup team as a curtain pick.

“I saw [ctain Steve Stricker] yesterday, “said Reed. He came out to me when I was 9 and I hit a hybrid at 9 to 8 feet and I made the putt for him. The biggest thing is - talking to Stricks and stuff like that - is just making sure I’m healthy, and I think the biggest thing for me this week is just seeing where I am. And I know that at the Ryder Cup, my game will be where it needs to be, as long as I feel my health is where it needs to be, and as long as I feel like I can stick to golf rounds. "

The Ryder Cup is obviously secondary to Reed’s health right now, but it’s going to be part of the story going forward. With only three rounds left of his season, it looks like Reed has been given a reprieve as it pertains to both his job and his well-being. Given his history, I suppose he gets the most out of it as he plays the rest of the week on East Lake just two weeks after having to consider whether he would ever set foot outdoors again.