Player Spotlight: Patrick Reed

In a new regular feature on Golfshake, sports journalist Nick Bonfield analyses one of the current crop of leading tour professionals.  This week the focus and spotlight is on Patrick Reed.

I don’t think there’s a more divisive figure in the world of professional golf than Patrick Reed. No one in the modern generation seems to polarise opinion more than the exuberant 24-year-old from Texas – a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and can’t seem to shake negative perceptions from some quarters forged by a series of indiscretions and misguided comments. Few can doubt he’s spoken and acted somewhat rashly in the past, fuelling the anti-Reed juggernaut, but I just can’t help but root for the guy. I find something innately endearing about him, and I know I’m not alone. All mistakes are magnified when you live life in the public eye and I can both understand and sympathise with some of the things he’s done. He is, after all, a young man finding his way in the world.

But, more than that, he’s a supremely talented young man. Mention the name Patrick Reed and most will immediately bring up the infamous ‘top five’ comment he made after securing victory in the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Almost a year on, it’s become an automatic reflex and remains inextricably linked to his identity. I, for one, find it quite sad that he’s been vilified and dismissed as a arrogant young man for a comment that not only came when his mind was clouded with emotion, but also one that wasn’t a million miles from the truth.

Yes, it was undoubtedly rash, and Reed would do well to be a little bit more couth, but I could understand his confidence at the time. His win at Doral moved him into the world’s top 20 for the first time; he’d just come up trumps in a field containing the world’s top 50 players; he became the youngest player to win a World Golf Championship and his win propelled him alongside the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson as one of a select few golfers to win three times on tour before the age of 23.

Between August 2013 and March 2014, he claimed three victories on the most prestigious golf tour on the world, rising 149 places in the Official World Golf Championship in the process. People immediately scoffed at his top-five remark based his position in the standings, but you could mount a legitimate argument claiming that, for those eight month, he was indeed one of the best five players in the world.

For the rest of the 2014 season, he struggled somewhat – probably, in part, due to markedly increased scrutiny after his victory in Florida. He only recorded two top-ten finishes between March and September but still managed to finish 21^st in the FedEx Cup, earning more than $4m in the process. But the end of the FedEx Cup didn’t signify the end of the season, and he was about to reveal more about himself, his character, his talent and his fiery temperament as a debutant in the 2014 American Ryder Cup team.

Great display at Gleneagles

Many people viewed him as one of the weakest members of the US side, but those who’d kept a close eye on him since the start of his PGA Tour journey had an opinion that very much contrasted with public consensus. It wasn’t just his three victories in his first two years on tour, though, that had many analysts penciling him down as a prospective surprise package at Gleneagles. Clues could be found much earlier in his collegiate career with regards his proclivity for matchplay golf and his winning constitution.

He never lost a matchplay match during his time at Augusta State – helping his team to two national titles – and made it to the semi-finals of the US Amateur at the age of 18. Some people are born with an innate and burning desire to be the very best; some don’t reach the heights they’re capable of because they’re not prepared to do all that’s necessary to turn latent talent into storied success. Reed, unequivocally, conforms to the former category.

When Reed was paired with fellow rookie Jordan Spieth for the opening fourballs, eyebrows were raised. It would either go down as a masterstroke from captain Tom Watson, or a huge and unnecessary risk to take in the first session on opposition soil. As it transpired, the gamble paid off. The two youngsters routed ‘My Ryder Cup’ Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher, saw off Martin Kaymer and Thomas Bjorn 5&3 the following day and halved with Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson in the Friday foursomes – a game they really should have won.

As the Americans have found out in recent years during the singles, it’s an entirely different proposition when the safety net of a playing partner is removed. Reed, though, wasn’t phased, despite going up against Stenson – a man who’d returned 3.5 points from a possible four during the first two days. In the second game out – a position of huge responsibility – he delivered a point in a feisty match remembered predominantly for Reed’s shushing gesture towards the Scottish crowd.

That action was interpreted by many as a sign of disrespect and held up as another example of Reed’s inability to control his emotions. Clearly, those people chose to ignore the fact he’d been heckled on the first tee. At the time, I chose to take at is an act of fervent patriotism from a man who was refreshingly pumped up, as compared some of his teammates. Who would you rather have on your team: Read, or Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan and Jim Furyk – players who displayed no charisma whatsoever? Reed also showed his humility and sense of humour the following month when four members of the European team hushed him during a dinner before the start of the Volvo World Match Play Championship.

The Future’s Bright

Reed worked hard in the off-season and came out firing in the first event of 2015, defeating Jimmy Walker in a play-off at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions to move to world number 14. Perhaps now, when the name Patrick Reed is mentioned, people will talk about him being one of only five people in the last 20 years to have won four PGA Tour titles before the age of 25. The others?  Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson.

With so many young golfers of the same ilk coming off the post-college production line, it’s refreshing to see someone exhibit more human qualities. Reed has passion, charisma and energy – a contrast to the many nondescript, robotic professionals on tour nowadays - and if he sometimes lands himself in bother as a consequence, then so be it.. Most of all, though, Reed has some serious game. He’s on the verge of the world’s top 10 and one of the players I think could not only win a major this season, but ultimately challenge McIlroy atop the Official World Golf Ranking. Watch this space.