AUGUSTA, Ga. — Upon October 6, 1956, a New You are able to Daily News sportswriter named May well Trimble couldn’ t begin their story on what he’ d simply seen. It was too much. He had been stuck. His paper’ s writer, Dick Young, reached across Trimble and typed it for your pet: “ The imperfect man frequency a perfect game. ” They had noticed the Yankees’ Don Larsen, the pitcher with a history of trouble, stop working all 27 Dodgers who found bat.
Exactly where, oh where, is Dick Younger when I need him? Only recently I wrote that it would be great if anyone other than Patrick Reed gained the Masters today. And what occurs? Reed is heroic. Reed is certainly unshakeable. Reed clanks when this individual walks. And now Patrick Reed, a good imperfect man, has won golf’ s grandest event by actively playing perfectly when it meant the most.
First, Reed offered Rory McIlroy no breathing space. Then, with Jordan Spieth burning down, Reed stood in the heat and declined to melt. When Rickie Fowler’ s 18th hole birdie compelled Reed to come up that long, lengthy hill and make a par along with golfing immortality at stake, Reed remaining his second in a bad spot– 20 feet above the hole– only to do the perfect work associated with leaving himself a dead-straight up hill 3-footer to win. His Weekend 71 left him a shot before Fowler, who finished with a 67, and two ahead of Spieth, in whose 64, with nine birdies, head out roars all day around Augusta Nationwide. McIlroy, needing to win to complete position Grand Slam, missed a two-footer for eagle at the second hole– it would have drawn him despite Reed, who began the day 3 shots up– and the poor man could never make a putt that will mattered, trudging in with a 74.
At fifteen under par for the tournament, Reed missed the Masters 72-hole rating record by three shots. Experienced he saved a couple shots Weekend, he’ d have become the first gamer ever to score four straight models in the 60s in a Masters. In 27 he is a six-time champion on the PGA Tour. In a number of Ryder Cup successes, he has already been such a raging, rampaging, in-your-Euro-face rival that some folks, speaking ironically, have got called him what they imagine he’d like to be called, “ Chief America. ”
He now has a better name, Masters champion, and he earned this not only with earlier rounds associated with 69, 66, and 67 using good work today at the twelfth hole, where many Masters dreamers have been awakened by nightmares. Michael jordan Spieth was three holes forward doing his Jordan Spieth issue. At the 12th, Reed was dealing with a 25-foot putt.
A roar from the fifteenth suggested, correctly as it turned out that will Spieth had made birdie right now there and stood at 13-under for that tournament, at last tied for the prospect with Reed. For those observers having a bias against Reed– I’ lmost all explain mine shortly– the moment offered hope that we would be spared viewing Sergio Garcia, last year’ h winner, drape a green coat over a pink shirt, Reed’ s i9000 choice for the most important round associated with his life.
And what does Reed do in the 12th?
L. D. Cuban
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Made the putt. Held his lead. “ Turning point, ” he said later. “ To generate that one seemed to kind of give that will momentum and just really that perception going into the last couple that no matter the actual throw at me, I can try this and have a chance. ” He sensed comfortable then because he had the particular lead and the back nine’ s i9000 two par-5s lay ahead– where he had made two eagles the morning before.
The bias? Tales of Reed’s troubles at 2 colleges – kicked away one team, despised by another– seemed credible. In a game associated with honor, it doesn’ t obtain much worse. More than once, too, he or she seemed to be cocky without good reason, since on a day four years ago. That will day he had won for the 3rd time, a fine achievement, but he previously yet to play in a major tournament and here’s how he summed up his career at age twenty-four:
“ I simply don’ t see a lot of men that have done that, besides Padraig harrington, of course , and, you know, the other stories of the game. It’ s one among those little things. I believe within myself and— especially with how much difficulty I’ ve worked— I’ meters one of the top five players in the world. ”
And now, the particular proud owner of a green coat, he heard a reporter request, “ Looking back, do you repent in any way saying you were top five, producing that comment, orl did you simply validate it today? ”
Reed said, “ I don’ t ever repent anything I really say. … Personally i think like I’ ve played several golf that I need to play to get to where I want to be, plus that’ s to be the best golf player in the world. You know, but the way you’ re going to do that is carry out in these big events and to earn these big events. ”
So , an imperfect guy played perfectly, and in some way I am reminded of an old golfing joke. An angel and a satan are playing. The devil curses a missed putt. The angel warns him not to take God’ s name in vain. The particular devil does it twice more. The 3rd time, lightning strikes the angel. And a voice comes down from the heavens, “ Damn, I missed. ”
