Patrick Reed depicted as a win-at-all-costs competitor and accused of cheating in a new book excerpt

Check out this great read on Patrick Reed

http://tobaccoroadblues.com/2015/01/30/the-villain-patrick-reed/

Article on TGC's site.

No doubt he's a great golfer, but a guy who at best you could say has a strained relationship with his parents, sister, and former college teammates from two schools, it makes me question his character and how much I'd want to root for someone like that.

I thought there's be an early response doubting along these lines.

You don't get called a liar based on body language, you get called a liar based on body language in light of a history of lying, deceit and dishonesty.

Regarding the "unnamed sources", do you think Reed is going to sue the author, and challenge him to "put up or shut up"? I think not.

And what do you think might be the motivation for such an article? Just made up for fun. I doubt it.

Like most things of this type, it probably exposes a fraction of the unattractive reality.

Reed is a fantastic golfer. He is clearly an unpleasant and arrogant individual. The other stuff revealed in the article just adds context to what the general public has seen over the last year.

I just finished reading the article. You pretty much summed up my take on all this.

I find it sad though, I've always been willing to cut Reed some slack. I admire his tenacity. Remember what he did with Monday qualifying before he was a tour member? I can tolerate an *******. But if these cheating and stealing allegations are true that's another story. Whatever his past he will need to address this situation before it completely blows up on him. Maybe it already has.

cubdog

He does seem to be a bully type? Time will tell, but I'm guessing you and @Shorty have got his personality down pat.

Yeah, this is how I read the article too. The part about the $400 he allegedly stole was the most disturbing.

Agreed, and I don't root for him exactly (except at the Ryder Cup, and there he proved worth rooting for). But I do think that Reed is great for golf, in a John Daly sense, and he should have more of a sustained career in him than Daly had. The sport needs personalities that make good copy, including some bad boys and head cases. I don't like Bubba Watson or Dustin Johnson AT ALL, but I'm still glad to have them around for that reason. And Reed has the potential to be even more fascinating than those two. If he starts winning majors, he might be like a bad cop to his playing partner Jordan Spieth's good cop (and it is cool for the sake of that narrative that the two of them appear to have such rapport).

I wouldn't put Reed in the same category as Daly. Daly is known as "colorful" but honest. He's someone we can trust, and that speaks for a lot.

Although, you might be right that Reed could be good for the game if he "cleans up his act" or can prove that he's a different person than he was in college.

Well, he'll be watching his act now, that's for sure, because of this book, the gay comments issue, and so on. That is, if he has any sense. You are right that his positioning is somewhat different than Daly's. Daly is colorful, while Reed might be a dark soul, a "golfer you love to hate." But I think the sport can get mileage out of that persona, too, because writers will eat it up (they already are). Imagine, for example, if he actually breaks into the Top 5 (not improbable), where he said he belonged. Great story!

And everybody likes to read about jerks and moody guys (Christian Bale and Alec Baldwin over in Movie-land, for example). We would read a lot of such stories about Pat Perez, if Pat Perez won tournaments.

Interesting read but can't say I'm shocked.  Only part of the story I disagree with was the first paragraph.   Sorry, I don't think he looks powerful, I think he looks fat.   As for cheating in tournaments and stealing from teammates, those are pretty serious accusations and I would have preferred they were substantiated or not included in the piece.

The rest isn't far from the guy we see on television.  He's a good to great golfer that's very arrogant, cocky and seems to have little respect for anyone on the Tour (including Tiger).   I don't know the full story but I have difficulty respecting or liking any person that disrespects their parents and cuts ties with their family.  If it wasn't for his parents, he'd likely never be playing professional golf or might be jail.

His arrogant attitude will suit him well for winning golf tournaments (he was great in the Ryder Cup) but I fear he'll lose in the game of life.  What's the point of winning all those tournaments and money if you have no family or friends to share it with.  We'll see how closely he follows in Tigers footsteps and if he falls into the same pitfalls of fame Tiger did.  Maybe Justine fears that as well and that's why she or her brother are his caddie and they are in attendance at so many of his tournaments.

This a very nice article to read. Patrick Reed isn't a golfer I liked to watch because of his earlier comments about being a top 5 golfer after only winning once. After reading this I will start to watch him more. I really don't care much about his past. It really doesn't matter now. He has a wife and a child and doesn't need us digging up his past I feel it serves no purpose. Let's talk more about his current accomplishments and what his future holds on the golf course.

Very interesting read...pun intended.

My first thought was to agree with this.. "“You have to remember that he was 17 years old,” he said, of Reed’s freshman year at Georgia. “We all do a lot of stupid shit when we’re 17.”"

My second thought is to think of my own brother who I did not grow up with, but had the ability to play the tour, he had scholarship offers to top Division 1 schools, this was 30+ years ago. A father I didn't grow up with was a PGA professional and had his tour card prior to a career ending injury. He was "that" father to my brother...pushed him to an extreme level in golf and demanded excellence. My brother rebelled by forgoing college and getting married and starting a family. My father drank himself to death..I never really had a relationship with him because of the booze...

The point being I really keyed in on the "over-heard" conversation between Patrick and his dad where it sounded as though his dad was really tough on him about winning at all cost. As a young man it's possible he didn't know how to play fair or play by the rules, he was never taught these things, the only thing that mattered was "winning." Do we have to "own" our decisions, sure we do. But like the quote above we all do stupid shit when we are young. It seems as though the parents like to think they are not throwing their son under the bus but the way I read it they are doing exactly that.

I don't know that I have sympathy for Patrick but it also seems there is more to this story then anyone wants out there. It sure didn't seem like anyone cared much until he became something worth tearing down...I wish him well, I hope the family can put the pieces back together again....

Good points, but the alleged stealing of $400 and other things from his classmates is a little beyond "winning at all costs".

He still has the potential to eradicate those demons of his past, but that's up to him.

I did some of the stupid things he did when he was 17 (notably getting smashed a fair bit in my first year at college). I didn't pinch things and I hope I've never been a sandbagger (mind you, I'm not sure I've ever really had the game for that).

The really intriguing bit, though, if it's true, is this business of stealing $400 from a locker and than flaunting it in the locker-room the very next day. A psychologist would have a field day with that.

I have always been one to think that any article that includes "unnamed sources" is just not important. It might have some entertainment value, but that's all.  Any article that includes  unnamed sources, or any information given under the condition anonymity is just a story.  Anyone who tells a media person, or a writer anything has a name, and should be named. Pretty much why I don't pay much attention to today's media, regardless of the subject matter. Just the way I roll I suppose.