Masters champion sticking with his laid-back mindset

Winning a dry and fast links tournament isn’t anything new to Patrick Reed, writes Eric Nicolson.

But the Masters champion won’t make the fashion faux pas that made him suffer on his road to victory the last time.

Reed’s first experience of links golf involved wearing waterproof trousers during a drought, but it also produced a performance which augurs well for his chances of a second major title.

Reed won the Junior Open at Heswall in 2006, the year Tiger Woods blew the field away in The Open Championship itself a few miles away at a parched Royal Liverpool.

Despite his unorthodox attire in the heatwave, the 16-year-old went on to win by three shots and now has his sights set on winning The Open in similar burned conditions at Carnoustie to get halfway towards a career grand slam.

“I remember it was about 110 degrees and I was in rain pants the entire week because I didn’t like wearing shorts,” Reed recalled. “It was so hot. I’ll never forget hitting the first tee shot and, being as young as I was, getting up there and it was 308 (yards). I was just like ‘Wow, I just hit a drive over 300 yards’.

“In San Antonio where I was living at the time it was the hottest part of the summer and the greens and fairways weren’t that firm. I mean, it’s just crazy.”

Reed has finished second, first and fourth in the last three majors and his combined total of 17 under par is nine shots better than any other player in that time. He said: “I’ve just tried to treat the majors like any other tournament.

“I’ve put too much pressure on myself. Now I just go in there and play golf and keep the mindset of ‘Hey, it’s just another day on the golf course’.

“I’ve been able to stay in that mindset the last three and that’s all I’m going to try to do this week.”

Reed divides opinion in his home country but his heart-on-sleeve Ryder Cup performance at Gleneagles won over Scottish golf galleries.

He said: “After the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles and I shushed the crowd, you would have thought I would have come over and had a lot of mixed reviews from people.

“But they seemed to really get behind me because they saw the passion I have, not only for the game, but for my country and golf.

“The more I started to talk to some of the fans, the more I started paying a little bit more attention to football and stuff. You see how passionate they get with their team who are out there grinding for their country and everything.

“I think they really enjoy that. You know, I think that’s the reason they got behind me.”

Patrick Reed speaking to the media.