Patrick Reed has never came off warm and fuzzy. He has always been known as a person who marches to the beat of his own drum. That’s all fine and good. Let Patrick be Patrick.
Four years after Phil Mickelson threw Tom Watson under the bus, Patrick Reed assumed the mantle of bus driver. Speaking to the New York Times, Reed decided to let everyone know how he felt about not being paired with Jordan Spieth.
“The issue’s obviously with Jordan not wanting to play with me,” Reed said, adding, “I don’t have any issue with Jordan. When it comes right down to it, I don’t care if I like the person I’m paired with or if the person likes me as long as it works and it sets up the team for success. He and I know how to make each other better. We know how to get the job done.”
It’s natural to expect some squawking when a team gets beat 17.5-10.5 but Reed took it to another level. Furyk’s slogan was “leave your ego at the door”. Reed doubled down on his.
“For somebody as successful in the Ryder Cup as I am, I don’t think it’s smart to sit me twice,” Reed said.
I’ve always been one of the few who defended Patrick Reed but when he went full-fledged Phil Mickelson I had to take a step back. It was bad enough that the US lost on European soil again. There was no reason to pile on by pointing fingers. As a team, the US wasn’t very good. At least, Tiger Woods owned his poor play.
“It’s frustrating because I just didn’t perform at the level that I had been playing,” he said. “I got behind early in the matches and never got back. We were all coming here on a high and excited about playing this week but we didn’t execute like we had planned and wanted to.”
Just two years ago, the US was woofing and strutting around Hazeltine. Everything was figured out. The Task Force born out of Mickelson’s whining had worked and we were about to embark on an era of American dominance. Then “MoliWood” (Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari) became unbeatable. Every putt went in for the Europeans including the last one by Noren when the Ryder Cup had already been sealed.
What a way to end the 2018 #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/ZNWieEvAe7
— PGA of America (@PGA) September 30, 2018
Reed’s comments takes the United States back to the drawing board. It’s obvious that we haven’t learned how to be a team. A team that doesn’t have a bus driver.
