In the pink on the green
Patrick Reed takes Masters golf title by one stroke.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Patrick Reed looks like a guy who spends his Sunday afternoons at the grill, arguing that charcoal makes the meat taste better.
His look is awkward — ill-fitting pants, an upside-down pin on his hat, a magenta shirt that will never catch on. His customary look is a scowl, and fellow Texan Jordan Spieth is infinitely more popular. While observers showered Spieth with roars Sunday at Augusta National, they greeted Reed with golf claps.
Reed said he noticed that playing partner Rory McIlroy got a louder ovation when they were introduced on the first tee.
“That played into my hand,” Reed said. “Fueled my fire.”
Reed will never be the most popular champion, but he is a major champion after grinding out a final-round 71 to win the Masters by one shot, at 15 under.
Spieth began the day nine strokes back, threatening to break the Masters record for the greatest Sunday comeback: eight shots. He played the first 16 holes in 9 under, tying for the lead. But Spieth yanked his tee shot on 18 and missed an 8-footer for par, settling for 64 and a 13-under total.
Rickie Fowler shot 67 and finished at 14 under, one shot behind Reed.
The 27-year-old Reed, nicknamed “Captain America” for his superhuman Ryder Cup play, knocked home a 4-footer for par on 18 for the win.
“No one expects me to go out and win. I expect myself to go out and win. My family and I believe.” Patrick Reed
McIlroy, in search of the career Grand Slam, hit just eight greens and shot 74.
“Frustrating,” he said. “I’ll sit down and reflect over the next few days and see what I could have potentially done better.”
Reed was due. Overdue, actually. He’s a superb player who had never broken 70 in 12 rounds at Augusta National before this year. And because he led Augusta State to two NCAA championships, many expected him to find immediate success here.
Of course, golf often works in reverse. Just ask McIlroy. The more you want something …
“As a kid growing up, it’s always: This putt is to win a green jacket,” Reed said. “Today was the hardest mentally a round of golf could possibly be. The Ryder Cup is a totally different type of pressure. You have a whole nation on your back, (but) win or lose your match, you still have a bunch of other guys that could pick you up.”
Reed began the day with a three-shot lead over McIlroy and was the slight betting favorite. But he said he watched Sunday morning as every Golf Channel analyst — save for Notah Begay — predicted that McIlroy would prevail.
“At that point it seemed like the pressure was kind of lifted,” he said. “No one expects me to go out and win. I expect myself to go out and win. My family and I believe. Seemed like everyone else was saying … Rory’s going to win.”
Spieth put it like this: “I almost pulled off the impossible.” Down nine shots on the first tee, Spieth binged on birdies. On 13, he hit the green with a hybrid from the pine straw, hollering, “Go, go, go, go!” before his ball landed softly and fed to 12 feet.
Reed was fully aware of Spieth’s climb, keeping one eye on the leaderboard at all times.
A key moment came, Reed said, when caddie Kessler Karain convinced him to lay up from 196 yards (partially blocked by trees) on No. 15.
“I wanted to go for it because I had a tiny, little window,” Reed said. “He’s like, ‘No, we have the lead. Chip it down there. Let’s try to make birdie with your wedge. Worst-case scenario, we’ll make par.’
“And when I made par on 15, he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t look at that board. It doesn’t matter. It all comes down to us. Go out and play golf, and we’ll win this golf tournament.’”
As for the shirt, Reed said it was selected because it matches the azaleas that bloom at Augusta National each spring: “Seemed fitting.”