Take a whole bunch of guys from any walk of life, line them up in a row and you can guarantee within that gang, there will be all sorts of different personalities.
From jocks and nerds to mummy’s boys and hell-raisers, it takes all sorts to make the world go round.
When it comes to elite-level professional sport, however, you might think that all the guys have very similar personality traits. These are born winners, people that have honed their craft to climb to the very top of the ladder.
In golf, a sport with a reputation for being slow-paced and played by rather earnest types, there is one man who is breaking the mold.
Patrick Reed doesn’t look like much of a bad boy, with his cherubic face and soft Texan drawl, but the 29-year-old is crafting himself out a niche for being one of the PGA Tour’s, well, more unusual characters.
It’s rare for a golfer to be booed, that’s for sure, but that’s exactly what happened to Reed in the Presidents Cup at the tail-end of 2019 after becoming embroiled in a number of scandals and controversies on and off the course.
It’s funny because Reed really can play – he’s a former Masters champion and has seven wins all told on the PGA Tour, and he regularly features in predictions and odds columns from World Sports Network (WSN), where bettors can also see the latest odds and betting lines for each weekly tournament.
But there is a chip on his shoulder, of that there is no doubt and an awful lot of baggage has given him the self-proclaimed status as golf’s bad apple.
To celebrate, here’s three of Patrick Reed’s most controversial moments:
#1 – Young and Reckless
As seems to be the case with controversial characters, Reed’s list of misdemeanors began in his younger days.
At the University of Georgia, he became embroiled in a number of shenanigans which included underage drinking and the procurement of a fake ID – for which he was fined, put on probation, and sentenced to community service.
He was later dismissed from the golf team at the University, and had to transfer to Augusta State.
Accusations from Shane Ryan in his book Slaying the Tiger alleged that Reed had stolen from his teammates and cheated in tournaments. While Jason Payne, the then assistant golf coach at Georgia, said that, “There is no doubting the ability of Patrick as a golfer, it was Patrick as a person that we chose not to associate with.”
#2 – Major Meltdown
Coming up to the end of his second round of the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach, Reed simply had to play the eighteenth hole in sensible fashion to ensure he would make the cut.
His tee shot found the rough, and then he fluffed the recovery shot just 140 yards forward into a bunker.
Red-faced, Reed then fired his third shot through the green and into the rough beyond, and incredibly his fourth shot was pummelled back over the other side of the green.
If steam could come out of a human being’s ears, then Reed would have been a prime candidate. Instead, after duffing his fifth shot, he decided to snap his club over his knee – unbecoming of club golfers, let alone those competing in majors.
It wasn’t the first time that Reed has caused controversy at the US Open. In 2014, he requested that his estranged parents were escorted off the premises and that their passes were seized.
#3 – Sandgate
As recently as December 2019, Patrick Reed was up to his old tricks.
He was invited to take part in the Hero World Challenge, an 18-man event hosted by Tiger Woods that benefits his charitable foundation. There’s also the small matter of a $3.5 million purse to play for.
Our anti-hero found himself in a bunker and, as he took a few practice swings, the TV cameras showed that he had brushed the sand with his club – strictly forbidden in golf’s rather strict rulebook.
The accusation was that Reed tried to improve his lie, and he was subsequently given a two-shot penalty when his round ended.
Reed denied the accusation, but admitted it did look bad when watching it back.
And that’s Patrick Reed: misunderstood genius, or golf’s most irascible villain?
