AUGUSTA — Patrick Reed caught up to Rory McIlroy on Friday and didn’t even hand him a subpoena. You can still hold out hope for the weekend, especially if you are the kind of romantic, old-school sports fan who gets weepy at the thought of billable hours. But I’m afraid we are looking at a lawsuit-free tournament, and with the debut of Masters.com’s Every Blade Of Grass Cam, we probably won’t see any cheating allegations, either.
We won’t even see them play together on Saturday. Reed bogeyed the 18th hole to fall back to 6 under par, tied with Sam Burns for second place. McIlroy leads the field at 12 under after birdieing six of the last seven holes Friday. Reed will be in the group in front of McIlroy and Burns.
This is obviously McIlroy’s Masters to lose. He would take great pleasure in victory. He would take no pleasure in keeping the green jacket off the shoulders of his friends Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, all of whom are in contention.
But I think McIlroy would really enjoy beating Patrick Reed again.
McIlroy was asked Saturday if he is intimidating. His reply, “To others? No. That’s not me. That’s not what I want to do.” It is what Reed wants to do.
Reed is returning to the PGA Tour for weekends like this, which is kind of funny, because his one guarantee when he left for LIV Golf was that he could keep playing in the Masters. He is, after all, a past champion, and just 35 years old. He has at least another couple of decades of Augusta starts in him.
But since Reed left for LIV in 2022, he has not played well in major championships. Like most LIV players, Reed has struggled to go from the low-stress money buffet that nobody watches to high-pressure golf.
Reed finished fifth here in 2023, but even with a closing 68, he still finished five strokes behind Jon Rahm. At last year’s Masters, Reed made four consecutive birdies on the first nine on Sunday to put himself into quasi-contention, but even he said afterward that “I still thought I needed some help.” McIlroy helped him, and so did luck: Reed dunked his approach on the 71st hole for eagle to get to 7 under for the tournament. He looked more bewildered by the result than emboldened by it.
“You sit there and go, ‘Hey, mathematically, I might have a chance,’” he said afterward.
Mathematically, he did. But even with McIlroy’s second-nine stumbles, Reed still ended up four shots shy of the McIlroy–Justin Rose playoff.
Reed said then that his putting kept him from winning. This year, “The putter is definitely closer.”
Before McIlroy’s torrid finish, Reed said, “I love the position I put myself in. Hopefully, I can go out and have a good day tomorrow and have a good shot going into Sunday.”
McIlroy is at his best when he sees the course as his only opponent. Reed thrives on conflict. Even among pro golfers in a moneyed and feud-filled era, Reed is an odd and divisive figure. He played a practice round here this week by himself, but he has been doing that forever. He would say it’s because he plays deliberate, focused practice rounds. Others would take a less charitable view of his options.
Reed is the guy who anointed himself Captain America, the stars-and-stripes flag-bearer for American team golf, though none of his teammates seconded the motion. He then lashed out at captain Jim Furyk for benching him in 2018, and at Jordan Spieth for not wanting to play with him anymore.
Reed has been publicly accused of cheating far more often than the typical pro, going back to his college days. After one dubious adventure in the sand, Brooks Koepka ridiculed him for “building sand castles,” and after another, Justin Thomas mocked him on the course at the next event.
In Dubai in 2023, McIlroy refused to shake Reed’s hand at the driving range because of Reed’s litigious ways, leading Reed to flick a tee at McIlroy. That same week, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee accused Reed of taking a dishonest drop. The DP World Tour backed Reed, and so did McIlroy, but when McIlroy had a chance to beat Reed for the victory, he called it, “one of the toughest rounds I've ever had to play,” because of his disdain for Reed. He took extra pleasure in the win.
Yet as uncordial as Reed can be, and as untrustworthy as he might seem, he is also, in at least one sense, the most straight-shooting golfer of his generation. He does not even aspire to be everybody’s buddy. If he is never invited to eat dinner on a back patio in Jupiter, Fla., that seems to be fine with him.
Koepka maintained most of his friendships when he jumped to LIV, and again when he jumped back to the PGA Tour; he said Friday that LIV’s Jon Rahm sent him a nice text when he left the Saudi-funded operation. Reed is following Koepka back and is open about why: He missed the week-in, week-out competitive heat. If nobody missed him, well, good. Spieth once looked back on their Ryder Cup partnership and said, “When he felt insulted, he turned [it up a] notch.”
Reed won’t get insulted much this weekend. Augusta National is not that kind of place. But if he stays in contention, the patrons will surely see him as the foil, even the villain. That might be how he sees himself, too.
More Masters coverage on Sports Illustrated
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- Rory McIlroy Leads the Masters By Six Shots and It Is Over
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy Could Accomplish Two of His Favorite Things and It’s Exactly What This Masters Needs.
