AUGUSTA, Ga. — Golfing is a sport where congeniality guidelines the day. It’ s one exactly where manners matter, where you are responsible for your own personal score and for looking out for your competitors too. Where villains are rare.
And yet as we start the final round of the most congenial, strictly golf tournament in the world, there’ s i9000 an underlying tension brewing, a potential bad guy in the Masters midst.
Patrick Reed holds the three-stroke lead with 18 openings to play at Augusta National. For just about any other 27-year-old five-time PGA Visit winner, there would be wild anticipation for the possible breakthrough major championship success. As if the storyline needed to be even more persuasive, Reed has ties to this city, where he went to college and gained two NCAA golf titles for the namesake school. How could you get more interesting than that?
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Left unspoken, however , could be the reputation Reed carries with your pet to the first tee, one as opposed to most any other golfer on trip. Reed has a past that atmosphere his present and has the potential in order to mar his future.
Jesse Cannon
Having turned pro in 2011, Reed didn’ t take long to get his way on to the PGA Visit, and once there he made a fast name for himself with earlier wins, his first coming just days before he turned twenty three. Within seven months, he gained twice more, the most impressive arriving at the 2014 World Golf Tournament at Doral.
“ I have three wins in the PGA Tour, ” he mentioned afterward. “ I truly believe that We are a top-five player in the world. ”
If he previously stopped there, it might have been OKAY. But Reed kept going:
“ I don’ t see a lot of guys which have done that besides Tiger Woods as well as the legends of the game. I believe within myself, especially with how hard I’ ve worked. I’ m among the top-five players in the world. I feel such as I’ ve proven myself. ”
No faster had the words left his mouth area, Reed was trashed by the golfing cognoscenti as cocky and brash. It’ s a reputation that will grew only larger with his manoeuvres at the 2014 Ryder Cup. It had been the first time Reed has played for that United States in a team competition, great performance was one of the bright areas in an American drubbing. But their outward antics— shushing the audience with a lone finger to the lips— only amplified the perception he previously created for himself.
Mind you, there are other brash golfers around. And Reed backed up the brashness with solid play, going 6-1-2 in two Ryder Cups, which includes his memorable singles win towards Rory McIlroy in 2016.
Reed’ s tale, however , goes back farther, and it is more complicated. As a junior golfer, Reed rubbed competitors the wrong way, and it carried on into college. In the book Slaying the Tiger , Golfing Digest contributor Shane Ryan comprehensive how before Reed came to Augusta State, he started his college profession at the University of Georgia unfortunately he dismissed from the team. The school never ever formally explained why, but Thomas reported that there were allegations associated with Reed cheating during practice models and stealing from his teammates. Both the school and Reed refuse either of these things happened.
After transferring in order to Augusta State in 2009, Reed once again was dogged by allegations associated with writing down lower scores than he or she shot in practice. (Reed has refused this ever occurred at possibly Georgia or Augusta State. ) But his performance for the Jaguars was unquestioned, as he went 6-0 in his NCAA matches while assisting the team claim back-to-back nationwide titles in 2010 and 2011.
Reed has was able to succeed on the PGA Tour regardless of this reputation in large part because he has been in a position to ignore it, or at least not allow it to interfere with the job at hand. He would wear his Captain America nickname along with pride, and chooses not to pay attention to the whispers about him. He’s earned more than $20 million actively playing the PGA Tour, which purchases an awful lot of earplugs.
Asked on Saturday evening why he thinks people upon social media tend to root against your pet, Reed’ s answer was informative.
“ We don’ t know. Why don’ t you ask them? ” Reed said, a bit gruffly but not completely dismissively. “ I mean, I have no clue, and honestly I don’ big t really care what people say upon Twitter or what they say if they happen to be cheering for me or not cheering for me personally. I’ m out here to complete my job, and that’ s i9000 to play golf. I feel like when I’ m doing it the right way, after that’ s all that really issues. ”
Just how long do you have to pay for the (alleged) sins of the past? It’ s something with no easy answer, but one which could be confronted on Sunday evening should Reed have Sergio Garcia help him into the green coat.
