UGA Week: One major goal has eluded Patrick Reed

The professional portfolio Patrick Reed has compiled in less than three seasons on the PGA Tour is impressive – four wins including a World Golf Championship title and Tournament of Champions plus an undefeated performance in a Ryder Cup.

Only one significant milestone has eluded the former Augusta State star.

“It just seems like that one missing piece right now is just contending and trying to win a major,” Reed said. “I was able to play in my first majors last year, and I was able to kind of see what they were like. I missed two of the cuts and I made two of the cuts, but on Sunday I wasn’t even a factor, and that’s the main thing for me is just keep improving in the golf and then in the majors have a chance coming down Sunday to at least make some noise.”

Noise is a familiar companion for Reed, who led Augusta State to consecutive NCAA championships in 2010-11.

“Patrick Reed is not a villain, but he plays one on TV,” Sports Illustrated wrote in February.

Reed embraced his role as hostile target at the Ryder Cup, shushing the pro-Europe crowds with a finger to his lips after a clutch birdie. He dismisses periodic unflattering profiles about his reputation or family dynamic. He stirred up peers and patrons with his “top five” declaration after holding off a world-class field at Doral in 2014.

Reed doesn’t back down or apologize for his outspoken confidence.

“I don’t regret saying anything,” Reed said. “It’s just one of those things that it’s a goal of mine, and if I continue to play well and give myself chances on Sunday, hopefully I’ll get there.”

In fact, Reed doubled down on his “top five” goal when he returned to Doral last month, adding an Ian Poulter-like “it’ll just be Tiger and me” reference in response to a desired rivalry with world No. 1 Rory McIlroy.

“I would love to get up to that position where I’m a true rival against him or battling out 1 versus 2 but I’ve got some ways to go,” Reed said. “I think I’m 15th now so I still have a couple more spots to move up.”

On one impressive list, Reed already is top five. He’s the fifth player in the last 25 years to win at least four times on tour before his 26th birthday, joining Tiger Woods, McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.

“It always means a lot,” he said of being included in that modern fraternity. “You know, just the main thing is I feel like I just keep on improving day‑in and day‑out. I feel like I’ve improved on little things that I’ve needed to be a little more consistent, and luckily we’ve been in the hunt coming down Sunday. We’ve done pretty well.”

Reed keeps tracking toward elite stardom, opening 2015 with a playoff victory at Kapalua. He posted 21 consecutive rounds of par or better from the WGC-HSBC Champions through three rounds of the Honda Classic as he’s threatened several times to achieve his goals of another multi‑win year and higher top-10 percentage.

“It just seems like last year I either played really, really well or I didn’t really play very well,” Reed said. “And it’s just to get that consistency better, and those are just things that we’re working on with the mental game, with, you know, course management and just with the golf swing.”

Course management was the element that cost him most in his return to his collegiate hometown. Reed missed the Masters cut in his very first major.

“You need to know that golf course and I didn’t, and that’s what hurt,” Reed said. “You know, I felt like I hit the ball really well there. It’s just I didn’t play the course very well. I didn’t put myself in the right spots and I feel like I’m getting better at that with every course I play.”

With a full rotation of majors under his belt, Reed expects to be more comfortable this time around.

“I hyped them up too much,” he said. “Going into Augusta I was like, ‘Oh, no, it’s the Masters.’ Going into the British Open, ‘Oh, no, it’s the British Open.’ Same thing with PGA, same thing with the U.S. Open. And at the end of the day – I mean it’s so easy to say, so hard to do – but every round is the exact same. You go in, you just try to play your normal game, stick to your game plan. … But that’s just the main thing when it comes down to the majors. I just need to be a little more prepared going into them and not hype them up.”

The biggest arrow in his quiver this time might be the confidence he gained in the crucible of the Ryder Cup – a format that suits Reed’s intensity.

“The main thing about the Ryder Cup was it allowed me to learn how to play under the most intense pressure of my entire life,” said Reed, who was 3-0-1 for the losing U.S. team. “Especially with the confidence level and playing in that big of a stage, it was a big boost. I just feel like it’s going to give me a lot of confidence going forward when I get in those high-pressure situations to be able to hopefully come through.”

Reed has been dealing with a different kind of pressure in allegations made in a published excerpt from a pending book release claiming he cheated and stole while in college at Georgia and Augusta State. Reed initially didn’t deny the claims before getting signed statements from coaches Chris Haack and Josh Gregory that, he says, refute the claims made against his integrity.

“We wanted to let everyone know that none of this stuff is true. All of it’s false,” Reed told the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis in an exclusive interview in March. “It’s taken us awhile to come out and say it because we wanted to get the evidence and the facts to back it.”

While confirming that he “got kicked out of UGA” for two underage drinking incidents (one that was dismissed), he denied claims that he cheated in qualifying at either school or stole items from his teammates’ lockers at Georgia. He has demanded a retraction from the book’s author, Shane Ryan, and the publisher, leaving the door open for legal recourse.

“Golf’s a game of integrity,” Reed told the Golf Channel. “To be called a cheater and a thief, especially a cheater in golf, I mean that’ll stick with you forever. And then to be called a thief as well. Everywhere we go we’re on the road with a bunch of high-profile athletes. We all have lockerrooms. All of our lockers are open and unlocked. You just don’t want people to think you can’t be trusted and things like that. It’s something I feel needs to be addressed and needed to be set straight. None of it’s true. We have coaches to back it up.”