by Jim Buzzerd
Patrick
Last Sunday Patrick Reed won the Masters and since then he’s been wearing his green jacket all over the place. He wore it to a Cleveland Cavalier game; a Houston Astros baseball game, a Rockets-Timberwolves playoff game and even a Chick-fil-A drive through. Reed has drawn plenty of criticism for flaunting the jacket. That’s not surprising though, because Reed has not done much to endear himself to golf fans since he arrived on tour in 2011 though it was 2013 before anyone really noticed. Every golf fan noticed Reed in 2014 when he boasted that he was the top five player in the world.
When he said that he had yet to turn 24 and already had three wins which put him in the company of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy as the only PGA Tour players who have won three or more times before turning 24 years old. Even though Reed had reason to be confident, most of us like our brash golfers in smaller doses.
So, Reed’s career was taking off, but his cockiness did nothing to endear him to fans of the sport. In fact, it worked against him. Most golf fans just didn’t care for Reed. I also leaned toward that category at first, but his obvious national pride exhibited in two Ryder Cup appearances swayed me back to his side. I mean from that day in 2014 Reed has pretty much backed up his cockiness.
Fast forward to last Monday when stories began to surface about how Reed has been estranged from his parents and younger sister for about six years. There is quite a bit of ‘he said, she said’ to the stories and there will be no determination made here, because there’s no way of knowing the real story.
Consider that Reed’s parents live in Augusta just a few miles from Augusta National, the home of The Masters and were forced to sit at home and watch on TV, because Reed didn’t want them in attendance. Of course no one was surprised at this, because at the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Reed, and or his wife Justine, had the elder Reeds escorted from the gallery by police. The Reeds had obtained the tournament badges from a business acquaintance of Patrick’s father, Bill.
Justine Reed has made Facebook posts alleging the rift between Patrick and his parents stems from a history of child abuse. An excerpt: “His parents verbally and physically abused him for most of his life, abused alcohol, and would get in fist fights with him in the parking lots after bad rounds. Patrick was seen as a ‘meal ticket.’ Not my words, his. They are sick people and need help. Time will tell all. And people are starting to wake-up and realize what kind of people his parents really are.”
Reed’s younger sister Hannah countered on Facebook denying all of Justine’s claims. Hannah posted, among other things, that Patrick, “has accused me of faking my own two kidney surgeries to get him back in my life, completely disowned me, never wishing me a happy birthday or congratulations for graduation.”
As stated, there is no way to know what is really real in this situation, but it’s a sad story to this point.
