AUGUSTA, Ga. – The sharks were circling, looking for any sign of weakness, any scent of blood in the water. They were ready to rip the lead from Patrick Reed’s grasp, his chance at major championship immortality with it.
They came early. They came late. They couldn’t catch him. He wouldn’t let them.
Patrick Reed kept swimming, kept his head above water, didn’t let all the action below on a star-studded leaderboard drag him down.
The 27-year-old Texan took every punch, slammed every door, finishing with a pair of slippery par putts at the 17th and 18th holes to guard a hard-earned one-shot lead. His one-under-par 71 was far from the most spectacular final round at the 82nd Masters, where rain-softened greens and inviting pins allowed for plenty of Sunday fireworks, but it was good enough for the history books.
With the weight of his first major weighing on his shoulders, Reed answered every challenge and slipped a green jacket on as the sun set.
“I knew it was going to be a dogfight,” he said. It’s just a way of God basically saying ‘let’s see if you have it’. Everyone knows you have it physically with the talent, but do you have it mentally; can you handle the ups and downs throughout the round?”
Reed has it.
He may not be the cuddliest figure in golf. His Hulk Hogan histrionics in international competitions might bother some fans. His sketchy resume in college, where his leadership role on two national championship teams at nearby Augusta University came amid questions about off-course issues that required him to transfer from the University of Georgia. One report said his teammates couldn’t stand him with the Bulldogs and it wasn’t much different at Augusta.
What you think doesn’t matter, though.
“I don’t really care what people say on Twitter or what they say if they’re cheering for me or not cheering for me,” Reed said on Saturday. “I’m out here to do my job, and that’s to play golf. If I do that the right way, then that’s all that really matters.”
Reed was perfectly happy to let his game do all the talking on Sunday, and if the subject was how could he handle major championship stress, it spoke volumes. From the moment he teed off until his final putt dropped he was under pressure. His three-shot lead nearly vanished by the second hole and did when he was briefly tied through 13. But he wouldn’t let it go for good.
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“He’s not scared on the golf course. He won’t back down.”
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He settled nerves after a shaky opening with a birdie from the fringe on No. 3 and responded to a bogey on No. 6 with a birdie at No. 7. He did the same thing after his third bogey – this one at the 11th – when he made his first birdie ever at the 12th. He didn’t birdie the par-five 13th – he was lucky to make par after his approach stuck in the bank above Rae’s Creek – but came back with one at the 14th and then parred his way in when one slip would have cost him.
“The birdie at 12 gave me the belief I can handle anything they threw at me,” he said.
Those who know him weren’t surprised.
“Patrick’s not scared. You’ve seen that previously from Ryder Cups and the way he plays out here,” said Rickie Fowler, who shot 65-67 on the weekend and finished at 14-under par but couldn’t catch his former junior golf rival even with a birdie at the 18th hole. “He’s not scared on the golf course. He won’t back down. I don’t see him as someone who will back up, you’re going to have to go get him. That’s how he is. He’s a fighter especially when he gets in contention.”
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Fowler finished solo second, while Jordan Spieth, the first-round leader, was alone in third, two shots back. Jon Rahm was fourth at 11-under after a 69 while four golfers were tied for fifth, six shots back.
It was an amazing afternoon as the average score of the next 15 golfers behind Reed was 68.2, or nearly four shots under par.
By the time the last group teed off one thing was confirmed: there were opportunities to be had on a golf course softened by rains the previous night.
Webb Simpson – on the strength of consecutive eagles at the par-four 7th and par-five 8th – was at seven-under for the round after 15 holes, although starting at three over, he was too far back to be a factor. Similarly, Paul Casey went nine-under through 15 holes after going birdie, birdie, eagle through Amen Corner and tacking on another birdie at the par-four 14th and one more at the par-five 15th. Bogeys at 17 and 18 spoiled his chance at a course-record 63 or better.
The five-hole run tied a major championship record for holes of birdie or better. Tony Finau – the guy who fixed his own dislocated ankle during the par-three contest – broke that mark with six straight birdies beginning on the 12th hole. Phil Mickelson, stumbling all week and tied for last to start, shot 67 and tied for 36th. Tiger Woods, the source of so much pre-tournament excitement as his comeback gains steam, shot a final-round 69 to finish at a respectable one-over-par and tied for 32nd.
But no one came harder, faster and with sharper teeth than the golfer that treats Augusta National like his own private preserve.
Starting from nine shots back, Spieth – who has finished second, first, second, 11th and now third in five Masters starts — posted an eight-under 64.
Two holes prevented him from making history with the lowest final-round score in a major and the biggest comeback at the Masters. One was the difficult par-four 18th, which plays 465 yards straight uphill. Spieth missed his tee-shot left, had to play a 200-yard rescue club to just short of the green, got on with a soft lob but couldn’t convert the par putt. It was his first bogey of his round and dropped him to 13-under, two-shots shy of Reed, who was at 15-under through 15 holes and – of course – stayed there.
Another would be the par-five 13th, when he had 10 feet for eagle but couldn’t convert. The birdie briefly tied Spieth with Reed for the lead, but Reed’s birdie at No. 14 took care of that.
But Spieth’s was a heroic effort. He was one off the course-record 63 at Augusta National, set in 1986 by Nick Price and tied by Greg Norman in 1996. But no one had ever shot that low in a final round. As it was, there have only been seven final-round 64s in Masters history.
“I almost pulled off the impossible,” said Spieth, who claims he didn’t look at a leaderboard all day. “I had no idea. When I finished and I looked down at the leaderboard I could have been in the lead by two and I could have been down by four. And neither would have surprised me … to be able to have a chance to win this tournament five years in a row is really, really, cool, and that’s how I’m going to take today.”
Reed was watching leaderboards – he always does. He expected challengers, but not an ambush.
“I knew someone was going to go post a number early,” said Reed, who earned $1.98 million for the win and a lifetime exemption to the Masters. “Did I think it was going to be that kind of number? No. …. It was kind of nerve-wracking. I’m glad he ran out of holes.”
If there was anyone with a sheepish look on his face afterwards it was Rory McIlroy. The Irishman started the day in the final group, three shots behind Reed, and played up the psychological advantage he held a little too transparently after his round on Saturday. His view was that all the pressure was on Reed as the leader, trying to win his first major, instead of on him trying to come from behind to win his fifth and – more significantly – become just the sixth golfer to complete the career grand slam.
“Patrick is going for his first and I’m going for something else,” McIlroy said with a grin. “It’s going to good fun.”
It might have been had McIlroy’s game not abandoned him. When everyone else was moving forward, McIlroy backed up with a 74 to finish at nine-under par and tied for fifth, posting the only over-par round among the top-15 finishers.
“Whether it be mindset or – I don’t know, I just – I just didn’t quite have it today,” he said. “I played some great golf [Saturday] I just didn’t have it today.”
He might not have caught Reed even if he did, however. The winner was that good.
Reed finished tied for 13th in driving accuracy, tied for sixth in driving distance (299.2) and led the field in putting, requiring only 1.44 putts per hole. It’s a tough combination.
“My mindset going in was to stick to my game plan, play golf, and I stuck to my game plan all week,” he said, his green jacket resting over his pink shirt – to match the famous Azaleas. “I didn’t stray from it the entire day. It’s something I needed to learn, especially at a place like this, how important it is to stick to what I believe … and it gave me the reward of winning my first green jacket.”
