Barry LeBrock
(An edited version of this article appears on FoxSports.Com)
All that was missing from Patrick Reed's televised post-tournament interview Sunday was the WWE Heavyweight Championship belt slung over his shoulder, and a strategically placed opponent writhing in pain in the background.
All that was missing from Patrick Reed's televised post-tournament interview Sunday was the WWE Heavyweight Championship belt slung over his shoulder, and a strategically placed opponent writhing in pain in the background.
Reed's impressive triumph at the WGC Cadillac
Championship was capped off with a verbal rampage that was far more Hulk Hogan than Ben Hogan: a grandiloquent
cherry on top of a sweet and well-earned Sunday sundae.
The newly-minted youngest champion in WGC history
had just ripped through the best PGA field assembled this year to his third
professional win and second of this young season. The man is on a roll. He is the only player on the planet to pull
off the hat-trick of playing his way into the top-20 of the world rankings, finish
in the top-20 of last season's money list and win three events since the start
of 2013.
Reed's lofty degree of early-career success is a
case that, to some extent makes itself. But just in case people hadn't noticed
his dizzying ascent, he matter-of-factly spread the gospel of Patrick to the
nation moments after sinking his tournament-clinching putt on 18.
Interviewer Steve Sands asked the 23 year-old Reed about
comments the golfer made Saturday, expressing his belief that he is amongst the
top five players in the world.
"I've worked so hard," the Reed soliloquy began.
"I won a lot in my junior career. I did great in my amateur career. I went
6-0 in match play in NCAAs, we won NCAAs (at Augusta State) two years in a row...
Now, I have three wins on the PGA Tour. I just don't see a lot of guys who've
done that, besides Tiger and the other legends of the game. I believe in
myself. I feel like I'm one of the top five players in the world. I feel like
I've proven myself."
Whoa! Echoes
of Bobby Jones, right?
The comments spit in the face of the established and
accepted norm in golf. But take a look
around. What outdated, unwritten rules
from so many years past remain pristine and untarnished? You don't have to stop tweeting and look at
the world through your Google Glasses to see things are changing faster than
anybody can quantify.
Football players can't lead with their helmets.
Basketball players are wearing jerseys with sleeves. A handful of baseball players
aren't even on steroids anymore. Things
change, people. Everything eventually does. And in this second decade of the
21st century, communication is at the top of the list. If you disagree, write
me a letter. When the mailman delivers it, I will call you to discuss. After 5pm
of course, when the long-distance rates go down.
Given the evolving nature of communication, who says
a little smack talk backed up by performance has no place in golf? What were you hoping for, perhaps "There
are so many great players out here I was fortunate to come out on top this
week"? Yuck.
You can keep your staid and rehearsed answers that
we've heard a thousand times after a hundred final-round victories. Give me a secure,
confident kid; bolstered by the muscular magic mix of youth and success, his
sun-kissed cheeks as red as his Tiger-inspired final-round shirt. Give me the young
gun, too green to have yet been gut-punched by professional golf's grand lesson
of humility, joyously spewing bullet-points from the resume of his past, all
too certain of his continuing success and grandiose plans for the future.
Even the most gentlemanly of golf's old guard can
see some beauty in the beast of Reed's self aggrandizing answer. Through his
media liaison, I asked Gary Player about the comments. "Frankly, I quite
liked Patrick Reed's candor, his self-belief and obvious confidence," the
legendary Player responded. "To me it's not really whether he is Top 5,
but rather that he thinks and believes he is. You cannot be a champion if you
don't believe totally in yourself and your ability."
Doral was a place for Patrick Reed to celebrate.
You'll have to forgive the premature anointing of his own greatness as he
joined just four others who have won three tour events by age 23. It probably
didn't help derail his myopic big-picture perspective that the dream foursome
he joins is made up of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and Sergio
Garcia.
Reed says he didn't even realize his comments made a
stir until the day after the tournament. He insists he has no regrets about the
interview, but with the benefit of retrospect said Wednesday, "I believe
if I keep playing the way I've been playing and putting in the hard work then I
will become a top-5 player in the
world. That's my next goal and I believe I can be a top-5 player."
He came into this season with the goal of cracking
the top-25 in the world rankings by the end of the year. After his recent
victory, he checks in at #20. That goal, naturally, has been tweaked. "Now
I'm looking for the top-10 or the top-5."
So, go ahead and gush over your Joe Whatshisname and
his scripted run-of-the mill humble Sunday soft talk. Give me Patrick Reed and
his truth-saying, star-slaying, gauntlet-laying swagger. You can call it cocky.
I call it refreshing.
Remember -- it's March. The Masters is still a month
away, Tiger's back has comprimised an already teetering game, Phil is
floundering, and Sergio, Rory and Adam Scott finished a combined 14 over par at
Doral. This sport desperately needs a good story, and right now, Patrick Reed
is it. Man, oh man, Patrick Reed is it.
Time to choose your Hogan. I'll take Hulk. You've
got Ben. Best 2 out of 3 falls. May the boldest man win.
Views: 2,281
Views: 2,281
