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Post-Masters Mailbag: Reed, Rickie and the major championship playoff outcomes I’d love changed

We are now a couple of days removed from a fairly stressful final round at Augusta National. There were moments of greatness, moments of heartache and a man standing alone at the end that never bucked his head when some of the best in the world were trying to chase him down. With all that went down those four days (And five if you count the early week fireworks at the Par-3 Contest) I figured a mailbag was a must. As always, any questions you have in the future can be fired over to my on Twitter at @shanebacon. Here we go!

Bacon: I wanted to revisit the line that Patrick Reed uttered that started this whole top-five conversation from 2014. After winning the WGC-Cadillac Championship that year by a shot over Bubba Watson and Jamie Donaldson, his third PGA Tour win in seven months, Reed laid it all out there with this quote.

“I’ve worked so hard, I’ve won a lot in my junior career, did great things in (my) amateur career, was 6-0 in match play in NCAAs, won NCAAs two years in a row, got third individually one year, and now I have three wins out here on the PGA Tour. 

“I just don’t see a lot of guys that have done that, besides Tiger Woods, of course, and, you know, the other legends of the game. It’s just one of those things, I believe in myself and – especially with how hard I’ve worked – I’m one of the top five players in the world.

“To come out in a field like this and to hold on wire to wire like that, I feel like I’ve proven myself.”

Reed’s confidence was fairly warranted at the time. He took down Jordan Spieth in a playoff to win his first PGA Tour event, shot 28-under over four days at the birdie-heavy Humana Challenge to win his second and then became the youngest player ever to win a World Golf Championships event when he raised the trophy at Doral.

And it also blew up across social media. People love a confident player, but for whatever reason, we don’t want them to be cocky. You can walk around with the stride of Dustin Johnson or the bounce of Rory McIlroy, the sideways stare of Tiger that Paul Azinger always talks about and the nickname that pros gave Phil Mickelson back in the day, but the moment you say it publicly that you believe in yourself it’s ludicrous.

Reed now has six PGA Tour wins at the age of 27 including this Masters. He has figured out something with his swing this year that has made him more of a threat at all types of golf courses, using that whirly bird move to move the ball left to right. I actually talked to Reed about some swing changes he was trying to make two Decembers ago at the Shark Shootout and even then he talked to me about moving away from the smother-hook that was a staple of his. He knew then that he needed to figure out a way to get the ball in play when the hole curves right. This year he’s figured that out, and he used it to perfection at Augusta National.

Do I think Patrick Reed could become a top-five player in the world? Absolutely. He’s 11th in the world now after that win and the confidence that Reed carried around before winning a major championship is only going to grow after staring down all those big names on Sunday at Augusta National.

I think the thing we are all forgetting about Reed here is that as different as he may seem as a professional and a person, the guy believes in himself as much as anyone on the PGA Tour. He isn’t that long off the tee, isn’t that great of an iron player and isn’t exactly the best putter, but if you ask him if he’s great at each of those categories he would tell you emphatically, “hell yes I am, why are you even asking?” We keep wondering about Reed and we’re missing the biggest point on this young man; the only person that’s opinion matters about Patrick Reed is Patrick Reed’s, and Reed believes he’s one of the best in the world. And you know what? He might not be that far off.

Bacon: Not only would it have been the greatest comeback in the history of the Masters, it would have gone down as the second best Masters Sunday in history, following only 1986.

He was nine shots back. Nine! And in between Spieth and Reed were names like McIlroy, Fowler, Rahm, Stenson, Fleetwood, Leishman and Bubba Watson. Spieth didn’t have a realistic shot at coming back in this Masters with those heavy-hitters ahead of him and he said such on Saturday.

There is a reason that a lot of big comeback victories don’t occur in final rounds of major championships. You have to fire a crazy low round at the exact perfect time and you have to get some help. Spieth did that, up until a bad tee shot at the 18th. He did everything he could to give himself a shot. Sure, people are going to point to misses at the 7th and 13th, but think about how many guys on Sunday failed to birdie 13 or failed to make a four on 15. These holes aren’t exactly No. 1 at Riviera. Spieth hit golf shots and made huge putts all afternoon long and if he hadn’t hit that branch on 18 and somehow gave himself a birdie look for 62, it would have been the most anticipated moment in my life as a golf fan. If it had gone, I’m not sure there would ever be a louder roar at the Masters. It’s a bummer we didn’t get that chance to view it, but what Spieth did was one of those moments that remind us that only Jordan Spieth of this current generation of great golfers can find the mental calmness amongst the craziness of a final round at a major championship to hit perfect shots and perfect putts with perfect reads and perfect speed to potentially give himself a shot at victory.

I mentioned this on Twitter, but look back at what Spieth has done and remember, he’s 24-years-old when thinking about this;

  • He holed a bunker shot at the John Deere Classic for a third straight 65 to get himself in a playoff that he eventually won at the age of 19, the first teenager to win on the PGA Tour since 1931.
  • He got up and down from the ball washer on the 72nd hole to land in a playoff with Sean O’Hair and Reed at the Valspar, eventually making a 30-footer to win.
  • Birdie at 16, monster three-wood at the 18th at Chambers Bay to set up a closing birdie that snagged his second-straight major championship in 2015.
  • With not a lot to play for at St. Andrews except for his third straight major and a realistic shot at the Grand Slam in 2015, Spieth made a monster birdie putt from some 40-feet at the 16th to tie the lead and give himself a shot.
  • Six birdies on the back nine at Colonial to win the Dean & Deluca including a chip-in that even surprised him, much like that putt on 16 this past Sunday at Augusta.
  • That bunker shot in the playoff last year at the Travelers.
  • “Go get that!” and all that came with it as he stormed back to win the Open Championship last year, his third major title.

The kid is just a different breed. He really is, and I think his 64 on Sunday was the most impressive round of his career.

Bacon: You know, a lot of people are pointing to that eagle miss at the second as the moment that derailed Rory’s round, but to me it was the bogey at the fifth. If you remember, he bounced back from that sloppy bogey on the third (when Reed got a little lucky when that putt that was racing past the hole caught the edge and dropped for the birdie to get the two shots lost over the first two holes to Rory back) with an absolute dart at the extremely difficult par-3 4th. There had only been seven birdies at the fourth all day long and Rory calmly knocked that one in for another shift of momentum, only to chop it around on five, eventually missing an eight-footer for par.

To me, that was the big moment where he looked internally and thought, “what the heck am I even doing today?” He had so many chances in that early portion of the round to get it back to all square with Reed and he squandered opportunity after opportunity, but after that bogey at No. 5 he never seemed like the same guy (he made just one birdie the rest of the day and it was a two-putt at the 13th).

Bacon: It doesn’t for me. If you listened to my Sunday recap Clubhouse podcast with David Feherty, he speaks of Rory being one of the streakiest great players in golf. I absolutely agree with that. To me, Rory is what he is, a freak of nature who occasionally has everything clicking and runs over the rest of the field like Tiger in the early 2000s. The problem is, when things aren’t clicking he isn’t winning. Some greats were able to win without their absolute best stuff and that just isn’t Rory McIlroy.

So my takeaway from that round and that Sunday for Rory is that if he wants to be considered one of the greatest to ever play the game, he is going to have to figure out a way to contend and win without his A+ game. That is when he could sneak into that 8-10 major category. As of now he will win a major every 3-4 years when the course is soft and he’s got the swing grooving and the stroke smooth.

There is another level to Rory McIlroy, which is scary, it’s just up to him to see if he can find it, and I think it is as much between the ears as it is on the driving range.

Bacon: I’m going with a tie between these two …

Bacon: I have been on record for a few years now saying I think this is the generation of one-time major winners. Looking back over the last few years, here are guys with one major on their resume; Webb Simpson, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Jason Dufner, Jason Day, Danny Willett, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Jimmy Walker, Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and now Patrick Reed.

The laziest thing we as golf analysts do is chalk up a loss in a major to a guy, “definitely winning one of these at some point.” We said it for years about Sergio Garcia, who finally got it done at the age of 37. We said it of Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf and Ernie Els and Greg Norman at Augusta National. “They will definitely win one eventually.” They didn’t.

So just look at that crop of guys I listed; You’d probably get great odds in Vegas against Simpson, Dufner, Willett, and Walker ever winning another major. Adam Scott is 37 and seems like his best golf is behind him. Rose turns 38 this summer. Stenson is 42. So of that list, how many more majors are won? Dustin probably gets at least one more. Thomas looks like a guy that will win 2-4 majors over his career. Jason Day seems talented enough to win more majors, but who really knows with him.

My point here is that it’s easy to look at someone like Rickie Fowler and say, “he will definitely win more majors than Reed,” forgetting the biggest factor in all of this; Reed already has a major under his belt. The last few years should show just how difficult it is to win major championships, and to say that Fowler is going to win two is, to me, a bit of an exaggeration if you simply look at that list.

Of guys under the age of 33 on the PGA Tour, there are exactly two names with multiple majors; Rory McIlroy (who hasn’t won one since 2014) and Jordan Spieth. That’s it. Of guys under the age of 39 on the PGA Tour, there are exactly three guys with multiple majors, tossing in Martin Kaymer’s PGA and U.S. Open trophies. That’s it! Three guys under 39!

So I think we love the idea of multiple majors. We look at these talented players and assume they’ll do it. But the talent pool in professional golf grows by the second, and every year that passes means four more guys that have turned professional with a real shot at finding themselves in contention with the 29-year-old guy who has been doing it for nearly a decade.

So, my answer? Reed. I’ll take the guy with the one major already. It’s the smart play here, even if I think Rickie Fowler is going to win at least a major in his career. He looks like he as all the tools to do so, but he’s now 0-for-33 in his career.

Now, ahem, let me get into sports analyst contradictory mode … *swigs a Red Bull, tightens tie* … THAT BEING SAID …

Bacon: I never bucked on Rickie’s abilities. I know he only has four PGA Tour victories. I know he’s been labeled Best Player Without a Major since Dustin’s win at Oakmont. I know that people tend to, for whatever reason, point to his exposure and endorsements at somehow his fault and pros do anonymous surveys and say he’s the most overrated player on the PGA Tour. I get all that, but come on, Rickie Fowler is a major threat at basically every venue.

How can you watch Fowler play that back nine on Sunday and think he’s scared of the moment? He birdied six of his final 11 holes at the Masters! If Reed’s putt on 17 doesn’t smash into the flagstick I am probably spending the first half of this mailbag talking about a playoff. That’s just how these things work.

Sometimes you are gifted majors and sometimes you have to go win them. I’ve been around enough old pros that grumble about certain players that always seemed to be in the right place at the right time when another player collapses and wonder why the hell they never got that lucky.

Golf isn’t quite like poker, but there is a level of luck involved. How many times does that shot Angel Cabrera hit in the 2009 Masters playoff smack into a tree and pop back out in the fairway? What if Rose’s ball had rattled around in the trees right of 18 and somehow got a lucky kick back in the fairway? Would Sergio be thinking, “Not again” in terms of falling on the wrong side of golf luck?

Reed got a couple of really great breaks on the second nine on Sunday, with his ball staying up on 13 and the flag getting in the way at 17 and those both hurt Rickie’s chances of winning despite his best efforts. We’ve seen it happen dozens of times in majors. One guy gets a break and the other guy doesn’t and that guy is standing wondering when the trophy ceremony is going to wrap while the other player is hoisting the trophy and giving a speech.

Fowler might not have proved everything to his critics on Sunday, but I bet he proved a lot to himself with that closing stretch of golf.

Bacon: I’m not sure there is a more universally approved of rule in sports than Augusta making fans give up their phones. Every single person that gets to the Masters that doesn’t know about this has 30 minutes of “HOW AM I GOING TO LIVE?!” anxiety only to realize it’s one of the best parts of the tournament.

You can just kinda walk around … look at the azaleas … see the hidden undulations on the golf course, sip on a craft brew, decide what order of sandwiches you’re going to eat, feel the wind on your face, change that sandwich order you already planned out, actually talk to the people you’re with without being worried your buddy is checking on Sandra MiniTourHopeful’s latest Instagram picture.

It’s actually scary how relaxing and freeing it is. With all the camera issues at PGA Tour events, I would love to say this is something that would work, but we all know it wouldn’t. Augusta National is such a special place that 99.6 percent of people that walk through the gate want to get lost in the experience. They want to see where Bubba hit that shot at 10 and what Amen Corner looks like and what pimento cheese actually tastes like and how many things they can buy before their credit card gets denied. The Masters might be the only place this cell phone policy actually would work, even if I love the idea of giving it a shot at some other events.

Bacon: Well, I must say, there isn’t an easier answer to a great question than this, so I’m going to expand on your question a little.

The answer is, of course, Tom Watson at Turnberry. I’ve always felt bad for Stewart Cink because this is always going to be the answer to this question and Cink just took advantage of a great opportunity that was given to him.

But looking back over the other majors, here are the ones I would flip:

Masters: 2009. Kenny Perry deserved that green jacket, and even more after how Cabrera advanced to the second hole of the playoff with that kick off the tree after missing his tee shot wide right that I mentioned earlier in the mailbag. Perry played such beautiful golf that week and let everyone back in the tournament when he bogeyed 17 and 18.

Honorable mention: Louis over Bubba in ’12 (Bubba still would have a green jacket and Louis would join that elite club of Augusta-St. Andrews major winners).

U.S. Open: 1947. Sam Snead deserves that Grand Slam, and the U.S. Open was the one he never could conquer, but really, it’s the way it ended that rubs me the wrong way. If you don’t know the story, check out the Dick McGeorge gamer, but I’ll give the cliffs notes; Snead had a short par putt on the final hole to go another 18 holes against Lew Worsham. With both players facing similar putts around three feet away, Worsham called in a rules official to pull out a damn tape measure to see who was away. Snead got pissed off, missed his putt and Worsham knocked his in for the win. That is one brutal way for that to go down.

Honorable mention: Mediate over Tiger in ’08 (dude battled his tail off) and Montgomerie over Els in ’94 (Monty should have at least one major considering his longevity on Tour, and like Bubba above, Ernie went on to win another U.S. Open).

Open: ’09.

Honorable mention: Sergio over Harrington in ’07. THAT WAS SERGIO’S CLARET JUG, DAMMIT! WHY ARE YOU RAKING THE BUNKER AND DELAYING HIS VICTORY, RANDOM GUY?! (Plus, Padraig won again the next year.)

PGA Championship: 2000. Bob May over Tiger. Maybe I just feel that certain people played well enough to win majors, but I still don’t know how the heck Tiger’s ball bounced BACKWARDS on the 18th hole in regulation. Plus, May hit a putt for birdie on the 72nd hole that befuddled every person that has ever struck a putt on that green, breaking the wrong way to go in. I really thought Tiger was going to miss that one to get into the playoff. This was back when I didn’t realize Tiger was a martian put on this planet to crush the hearts of 30-something journeymen trying to beat the most intimidating figure in golf history. Silly me.

Honorable mention: Not really another I’d change, not even Tom Watson at Oakmont in ’78. He had his chances to win that bad boy with a five-shot lead heading into Sunday, even if it cost him his Grand Slam.