Patrick Reed, Rory McIlroy rematch will be held at 82nd Masters
Rory McIlroy could probably give Patrick Reed some sage advice this morning. He probably won’t do it.
McIlroy and Reed will play in the final pairing of the 82nd Masters on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club. McIlroy will be going for the career grand slam. Reed will be going for his first major championship.
That’s the spot McIlroy was in in 2011, when the then 21-year-old entered the final round of the Masters with a four-shot lead. He still had a one-shot lead when he stepped to the 10th tee box and everything went as he would later say “pear shaped.” McIlroy straight shanked his tee shot into the cabins left of the fairway and fell apart, finishing in a tie for 15th after carding an 80 for the day.
“I’ve been waiting for this chance, to be honest,” McIlroy said Saturday night. The 2011 Masters “was a huge turning point in my career. It was the day I realized I wasn’t ready to win major championships and I needed to reflect on that. But now I am ready.”
It’s the kind of round some people will be expecting from Reed, the 27-year-old Texan who never has been in this position before. More accurately, it’s the kind of round some people will be hoping to see out of Reed, who is not the most popular player in the field.
A 2014 ESPN.com article was titled, “Patrick Reed’s turbulent rise.”
A 2015 book detailed the various reasons for Reed’s early exit from the University of Georgia golf team and subsequent tense time as an Augusta State golfer.
A 2015 ESPN survey of PGA players named him the second-most disliked player on the Tour behind (or ahead of?) only Bubba Watson.
So the world, or at least a decent part of it, will be rooting for Reed to do Sunday what McIlroy did on that day in 2011, which is to say, choke, big time. Reed was asked Saturday evening during his post-round news conference why so many people on social media were rooting against him.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask them? I have no idea, and honestly I don’t care what people say on Twitter,” he said. “I’m out here to do my job, and that’s play golf. If I feel like I’m doing it the right way, that’s all that really matters.”
Reed and McIlroy have done this head-to-head thing before. They had a wild match play battle in 2016, alternating great shots and boisterous celebrations at a Ryder Cup singles match won 1-up by Reed as the Americans won back the cup in the international competition.
“It’ll be calmer,” Reed said of this matchup. “There’s a lot of stuff you can do at a Ryder Cup that you can’t do at Augusta National.”
McIlroy also predicted Sunday won’t be “quite as intense” as the Ryder Cup, during which both players screamed loudly and made shushing motions toward the crowd or each other.
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“It’s not Europe versus America, hopefully not such a partisan crowd, but Patrick went to Augusta State, he’s not a local but he played very good golf here and I’m sure he’ll have a lot of support, but I know there are people out there wishing me well and hoping I play well.”
Rickie Fowler, who is in third place at 9-under par, was a teammate of Reed’s in the Ryder Cup and is looking forward to the re-duel Sunday.
“They are going to have a good time going out at it,” Fowler said. “They are fierce competitors and maybe the rest of us can put a few numbers up there and sneak up on them.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2018 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Patrick Reed, Rory McIlroy rematch will be held at 82nd Masters."