Masterplan
Patrick Reed wins the Masters: American holds off Rickie Fowler charge to clinch his first Major
Golfer nicknamed Captain America showed nerves of steel as Fowler surged and Brit hope Rory McIlroy suffered more heartbreak
THE MAN they call Captain America because of his Ryder Cup exploits can now call himself Major Champion, after Patrick Reed proved a worthy Masters winner.
Reed held off all challengers on another heart-stopping final day at Augusta, with Rickie Fowler’s final hole birdie ensuring the outcome was in doubt until the last putt dropped.
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Texan terror Reed, 27, kept his nerve to clinch the par he needed for a one shot victor with the remarkable Jordan Spieth making it an American 1-2-3 after a thrilling final round charge almost brought him a share of the course record.
Only a final hole bogey prevented Spieth from becoming just the third man to shoot 63 at Augusta.
Fowler played that hole in textbook style, with a 299 yards uphill drive followed by an iron shot from 151 yards that stopped seven feet below the flag.
Reed, who had to hole a nerve-jangling five footer on 17 to keep his lead, must have heard the roar. And he left himself a four-footer same distance for victory after his approach finished 25 feet above the flag on 18.
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Only a final hole bogey prevented Spieth from becoming just the third man to shoot 63 at Augusta.
Fowler played that hole in textbook style, with a 299 yards uphill drive followed by an iron shot from 151 yards that stopped seven feet below the flag.
Reed, who had to hole a nerve-jangling five footer on 17 to keep his lead, must have heard the roar. And he left himself a four-footer same distance for victory after his approach finished 25 feet above the flag on 18.
But he sucked it up, and won, before a double fist pump and a pat on the shoulder from dejected playing partner Rory McIlroy.
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Reed has always given the impression he just loves a scrap, and after finishing second in the last Major of 2017 – the USPGA – he deserved to go one better here, and pull on the coveted green jacket.
Oh yes, and the Grand Slam is going to have to wait for another year, after McIlroy ran out of steam with golf’s greatest prize there for the taking.
As expected, 54 hole leader Reed hit a bit of a wall – four rounds in the 60s has proved beyond the greatest players ever to race the Augusta lawns, and it would have been a huge surprise if the Texan had become the first to manage it.
He didn’t. He shot a 71 to finish on 15 under. And that left him vulnerable, even though he took a three shot lead into the final round, on 14 under par.
Spieth and a host of players lower down the leaderboard showed there was a low round waiting to be shot.
And if McIlroy had shown anything approaching the brilliance that brought him a seven under par 65 just 24 hours earlier he would surely have become only the sixth player to capture all four Major titles.
But he found it even more of a struggle than the man playing alongside him in the final group.
Yet it could all have been so different, especially if McIlroy had converted a four footer for eagle on the second hole, which would have given him a share of the lead at 13 under par.
He had just made a miraculous par save on the opening hole – after hitting his drive so far right he thought it was heading out of bounds – while Reed bogeyed after a clumsy bunker shot.
The leader could only manage par at the long second, and an eagle there would have allowed McIlroy to look him squarely in the eye and say: ‘Come on, let’s do this’, just as they did in their unforgettable Ryder Cup battle two years ago.’
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But it seemed as if McIlroy’s self-belief – and his chance of victory slipped away along with that short put.
Even though the four-time Major winner’s birdie cut the lead to just one, Reed walked to the third tee feeling like he had dodged a bullet.
And when he made birdie to McIlroy’s first bogey in 32 holes, he was three clear again. From that moment, the danger lay elsewhere.
McIlroy, 28, bounced back with a birdie on the difficult fourth, gave it back on the fifth, and when he made a complete Horlicks of the long eighth – stumbling to a bogey six – his race was effectively run.
His body language changed completely - from the jaunty strut of a day earlier to a resigned, shoulder slump.
With his putter letting him down after proving his saviour so often over the first three days, another shot went down the plughole on eleven.
McIlroy had made just four bogeys in the first three rounds here. He ended up making five in his final round and that is never going to get the job done.
A share of was McIlroy’s fifth top ten finish in a row in the only Major to elude him, so he clearly knows how to play the course well. But just not well enough, so far anyway.
Spieth, who has now added a third to and two runner-up finishes to his 2015 Masters victory was in a seemingly hopeless position at the start of the day, nine shots behind his regular Ryder Cup partner.
He gave Reed a scare, and Fowler very nearly frightened him to death. But he is still alive and breathing, happily sporting a natty new piece of green clothing.
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