{"id":2106,"date":"2018-04-09T06:41:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T13:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/?p=2106"},"modified":"2018-04-09T08:14:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T15:14:24","slug":"reed-takes-the-heat-and-masters-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/golf\/personalities\/2106\/reed-takes-the-heat-and-masters-it","title":{"rendered":"Reed takes the heat and Masters it"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Herb,blackglasses2\"<\/a>\n

Don\u2019t know about you. But I didn\u2019t have a lot of thoughts about Patrick Reed before this Masters.<\/p>\n

He had that epic, entertaining win over Rory McIlroy at Hazeltine in the 2016 Ryder Cup\u2014and good for him. The Captain America thing was fun. Other than that, he seemed brash in a sport that doesn\u2019t do brash well. And if he had a lot of game, he hadn\u2019t backed up that attitude on the course nearly enough to be on my radar.<\/p>\n

Obviously, that has changed.<\/p>\n

By Sunday morning, when the rest of the world seemed to be rooting for Rory McIlroy\u2014nothing wrong with that\u2014I did not feel that way. Watching Patrick Reed open a three-shot lead going into Sunday, I couldn\u2019t help but admire the way he played the game.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t hurt, eithet, that in a sport where players tend to look like they\u2019re on their way to the country club, Reed would have fit in fine on our saloon-league softball team.<\/p>\n

I like Rory. My wife and I even let McIlroy\u2014clad in shorts and carrying his own bag\u2014play through with his mates at Portmarnock a week before his devastating ankle injury before the 2015 Open. I walked with him when he won the 2012 PGA at Kiawah, and when he cooled off Keegan Bradley in the Ryder Cup at Medinah a month after that.<\/p>\n

\"1200px-MastersTournamentLogo.svg\"<\/a>Good for Reed.<\/p>\n

He makes putts. He chips\u2014how about that chip-in on No. 15 on Saturday? He sticks his irons. He\u2019s long enough. And most important, he\u2019s clutch. He digs in and gets it done.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to predict future major wins for him. But it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he won more. He doesn\u2019t look the part in that GQ way. But in this world of cookie-cutter perfect swings, you have to like that awkward, but intense Arnold Palmer whirlybird finish on certain shots.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s got the game.<\/p>\n

RICKIE\u2019S PATH:<\/strong> In many ways, Rickie Fowler is as capable a golfer as anybody out there. The thing I wonder about with him is how he handles the heat. Where players like Reed and Jordan Spieth seem to get juiced up by opportunity, Rickie doesn\u2019t seem as comfortable with the lead.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s getting closer.<\/p>\n

We got a glimpse on Sunday of how I expect him to win a major: Be close and play well down the stretch while remaining under the radar.<\/p>\n

SPIETH HEATS UP:<\/strong> What Jordan Spieth did in the first round (66) and with his incredible final-round charge (64) showed what he can do when he\u2019s on. Who knows what might have happened if his tee shot on No. 18 doesn\u2019t clip that tree?<\/p>\n

Watch for him in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock. With his wins at Chambers Bay (2015 U.S. Open) and Royal Birkdale (last year\u2019s Open), he\u2019s shown he likes those types of courses. And he\u2019ll attract plenty of attention at the PGA at Bellerive in St. Louis, when he\u2019ll have an opportunity to complete the career grand slam.<\/p>\n

When Spieth is on, he can play well anywhere.<\/p>\n

THE TIGER AND PHIL TAKEAWAY:<\/strong> Good for Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for stringing together some good stretches at Augusta.<\/p>\n

They were entertaining, and showed us they could win again at the highest level if they can play their best for four days.<\/p>\n

But as 40-somethings, they\u2019ll need to eat their Wheaties to put together 72 holes. Especially when you go down the list of 20-somethings who are teeing it up. When they’re on, they can do it. But for them to be on for 72 holes, that’s a tough deal.<\/p>\n

It sure is fun to think about, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t know about you. But I didn\u2019t have a lot of thoughts about Patrick Reed before this Masters. He had… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":2108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334,7],"tags":[1154,53,4242,975974,1163,933],"class_list":["post-2106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-personalities","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-tiger-woods","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-patrick-reed","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-rickie-fowler"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/04\/1200px-MastersTournamentLogosvg.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2106"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2119,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106\/revisions\/2119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}