AUGUSTA, Ga. — Patrick Reed didn’t wait for the question to finish. He had his answer queued up upon hearing the first bit: “Patrick, how do you evaluate…”
“Awful,” he said.
“You asked.”
Reed’s caddie, meanwhile, had another assessment during the Masters’ third round. Just nine words, to be exact.
Saturday all around had been disappointing for Reed, who, after a first-round 74, rallied with a second-round 70 on Friday in breezy conditions at Augusta National and was in position for a Saturday move. But the 2018 Masters winner stalled.
His personal rundown of his one-over 73:
— “I drove it poorly.”
— “Hit my irons all over the place, couldn’t figure out my yardage.”
— “Then when I did figure out the yardage, I hit it above the hole. Had to putt defensive all day.”
— “No, there’s nothing good out of today. I guess the only good thing is I didn’t make a double. That was about it.
— “Yeah, it was a frustrating day.”
Sarcastically, Reed also noted he had a “first” — he’d needed a 4-iron into the 440-yard, par-4 17th, the result of a 215-yard drive. A 215-yard drive? Let’s zero in more closely there. A video of the scene, after all, had been making the rounds by Saturday night. Reed teed off, then almost immediately released his club with his right hand. His ball headed right. It smacked a tree. Reed murmured.
You … f***ing suck. F**k, can you make a good golf swing today? Please.
“Miss it. Hit it hard. I don’t know where it went.”
From there, he hit the 4-iron, which sailed through the green, though he managed a par. But frustration was cemented. Reed was also now walking to 18, where notably during Thursday’s first round, he teed off into a tree on the right, took a penalty and double-bogeyed the hole — only to do something similar on Friday. Then, he hit right of where he’d been a day earlier, but managed a par.
On Saturday, Reed hit his tee ball thrice right. It settled near where it was on Thursday.
And Reed said he and caddie Kessler Karain, also Reed’s brother-in-law, talked. Karain had the nine words.
“Walking up that 18th hole and seeing my ball in that big-leafed tree on the right again where I could barely advance the golf ball, and my caddie staring at me in the face and saying: ‘Your driving has cost us a lot this week.’
“You know, he says that, and yesterday it was blowing 50 and I only missed four fairways and that horrendous finish I had to start the morning (to finish his delayed first round). I ended up par-3 [16th] making a bogey, hit the middle of the fairway on 17, made bogey and hit it in the tree on 18 and made double.”
Did Reed have thoughts on the tree?
“So it’s just kind of one of those things that I don’t really know if it’s as much the driving,” he said, “it’s just make sure I don’t hit it into that one tree on 18. That tree is now — I’m in that tree twice, so I’ve made a double and a bogey there because of that stupid tree.
“Yesterday afternoon, I actually hit right of the tree, about four yards right of the tree, and I was able to snap-hook it around and chipped it up there close and made a par. Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe I need to aim right at that tree and expect to miss it because trying to go left of it has not worked. Yeah, biggest thing is driving the golf ball, I guess.”
But did Reed have thoughts on Karain? Said a reporter after the round: “It’s a good thing he’s a family member, right?”
“Yeah, exactly. I’d probably be dragging him up that last hole, I swear,” Reed said. “Just what you want to hear as you’re looking at the ball in the tree, and he goes, ‘You need to drive it better.’ Thanks, Kessler. I appreciate it. Great words of wisdom. Drive it better.”
Reed and Karain return at 1:05 p.m. Sunday for the Masters final round.
