Patrick Reed blasts “p*** poor” Masters round

The extent of Patrick Reed’s frustration at Augusta National would have you believe he opened up his Masters tilt with an 81 – not a one-under par 71.

But after letting a few shots go on the greens during Thursday’s first round, the exasperated 2018 champion let rip.

“Piss poor,” Reed moaned. “Pretty simple. Hit it fine, missed it in the wrong spots, and putted like a blind man.

“I expected the greens, just from previous years when they kind of have that type of look, I just kept leaving putts short. I thought they’d be faster. Just kept leaving them a little short. When I finally got the ball to the hole, didn’t have the right read.

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“Hit the ball fine and putted horribly.”

A reporter chimed in: “Given all that, a 71…

“I don’t care,” Reed replied. “It’s not good enough.”

He was not done venting there, either.

“I just couldn’t make a putt at all,” he said. “That’s the biggest problem. You have to make putts out here. At least I feel like the ball was starting straight. Just couldn’t get the ball to the hole.”

He added: “You want to break it. You want to break the putter. That’s what you want to do.”

But you didn’t?

“No, he said. “I should have.”

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Reed, still finely poised inside the top-ten after the early morning wave, may well be heading back to the putting green before Friday’s second round.

“Hit it to four and a half feet on 3 – missed it,” he explained. “Three-putted 5. Made birdie on 8 and 9. Made bogey on 10. Missed a five-footer for birdie on 11. Had a 12 to 14-footer for birdie on 12 I missed.

“Had a 15-footer for birdie on maybe 15 feet on 14, stopped right in the jaws short. Missed there on 18 right in the heart short from 12 feet.

“So I was hitting it fine. Ball striking wasn’t a problem. The flatstick is on vacation and needs to kind of show up. It needs to get on a flight and meet me here.”

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.