US stars earn their stripes
ONE feels the need to deny doing anything ‘crazy’ in his very own Masters green jacket, while the other laughs and jokes about having a sandwich, a couple of cocktails — and now a whole bar — named after him.
They’re quite a double act, Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler. Young Americans with a special place in the affections of Scottish galleries, they’re guaranteed to entertain in Gullane over the next four days. And Carnoustie next week.
Reed, whose enduring lack of popularity Stateside remains baffling to fans on this side of the Atlantic, hit the ground running yesterday after confessing he’d left his green jacket hanging up back home — and admitting to a penchant for wearing the most famous blazer in sport while just kicking around the house.
‘Just if I’m getting ready for golf, I slip it on,’ he explained, pausing for effect before adding with a grin: ‘Nothing crazy …’ Laughter aside, Reed clearly enjoys being Masters champion, regardless of enthusiasm levels for his victory on the other side of the pond.
On the jacket itself, he said: ‘I’ve worn it a little bit out. When I wear it out, the energy that the jacket brings, it’s awesome.
‘The people always are friendly. They love it. They want to see it. They come over to take pictures.
‘It’s a lot of fun, especially being able to share it with Houston and my hometown, it’s nice.
‘It’s good to sit down and have some stories and talk about the week, whether I have the jacket or not, with friends and family, or just with people that are big golf fans.
‘I have not brought it here. I just felt like the liabilities of trying to travel overseas with it, if it were to get lost or anything like that, it would not be good.’
Reed made his name with Scots fans at Gleneagles in 2014, his crowd-baiting performance at the Ryder Cup the perfect riposte to whatever stick he was getting.
Since then, he’s been recognised as a kindred spirit. A right thrawn character who could easily be one of our own.
Always quick to leap into the transatlantic rivalry that underpins the Ryder Cup, he couldn’t resist when asked yesterday to comment on the notion that Team USA could dominate the event for the next decade.
‘Well, I hope it’s true,’ he said with a smile, before admitting that he will gladly play the role of lightning rod for the Europe crowd in Paris later this year, declaring: ‘I love that target on my back.
‘I feel like what happened at Gleneagles, normally you would have thought that would have hurt, every time you come over; you would have thought you would have had more enemies.
‘Ever since that happened and every time I come over, the fans are unbelievable.
‘I think the reason is because they saw the passion that not only do I have for my country but I have for golf. They love that kind of stuff.
‘You watch football matches and stuff like that; the passion those fans have for the players and their teams.
‘I feel like that has really kind of connected myself with the fans and it’s awesome.’ Fowler has always been a darling of the galleries over here, his willingness to embrace links golf paying off handsomely when he won the Scottish Open in Gullane three years ago. His victory prompted members to re-christen one of the clubhouse drinking dens ‘Rickie’s Bar’ — a venue Fowler will definitely visit this week. ‘It’s pretty cool when you get things named after you,’ he said. ‘There’s a sandwich back home at a local shop. I think there’s a drink back in Stillwater at Eskimo Joe’s.’ Asked if it was an alcoholic beverage, Fowler — the man Jordan Spieth would most like as his Ryder Cup partner if drinking were part of the competition, apparently — laughed and said: ‘Maybe! I think there’s a couple of drinks there in Stillwater, which is where I went to school at Oklahoma State.’
Fowler is an all-American boy, from his thousand megawatt smile to the tips of his toes.
Yet he flew over early ahead of this week’s tournament, headed straight from the airport to play North Berwick — and will throw himself at Carnoustie with all the enthusiasm of a native next week.
‘To be taken in, felt like a local after we won and now to have the bar named after us, I should just get a place and become semipart-time resident here in Gullane,’ he said.
‘I feel like the Scottish people and culture is very respectful and very welcoming — and they are definitely diehard golfers. They love their golf.’