REED SHRUGS OFF CHEAT STORM TO WIN

IN THE week when even one of his team mates (Brooks Koepka) called him a cheat, it was quite something for Patrick Reed to ignore all the opprobrium and win the WGC-Mexico Championship. I have been in two clubhouses when allegations of cheating have been put before the court of professional opinion and, believe me, you don’t want to be the bloke found guilty. The abuse on both occasions was unrelenting. Reed (left) is hard to fathom. On the one hand he is the most approachable of this generation of Americans — and the most quotable. On the other, he has got such a dark history, stretching back from his college days to the Hero Challenge last December, where he feigned innocence over touching the sand with his practice swing that improved his lie in a waste area. For heaven’s sake, EVERY golfer knows if they touch the sand. Then came the horrendous television evidence, and the gross extent of his violation. Dressed in all black instead of his customary red shirt on Sundays, Reed played the pantomime villain to perfection in Mexico, to an accompaniment, no doubt, of one-handed clapping everywhere. In other news, Tyrrell Hatton finished an encouraging tied sixth in his first tournament for 10 weeks following wrist surgery, while Rory McIlroy’s fifth place means a 98th week in total as world No 1 — the most by any European golfer in history.