MEXICO CITY – Patrick Reed was more concerned with how to save equality than with responding to his critics. He was consumed by navigating around trees from 152 yards away with a wider wedge than any chatter about his character.
Reed plays only for himself. And when the world seems to be against him, he does his best.
A week that started with Brooks Koepka saying that he thought Reed had cheated when he was penalized for wiping out the sand in the Bahamas, ended with Reed delivering moments of friction in the stretch Sunday to win the Mexican Championship.
Two shots behind with four holes to play, Reed escaped from three small birds to overcome a hesitant Bryson DeChambeau, closing with a 4-under 67 for his second world golf title.
As for external noise?
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“I’m used to it,” said Reed. “Honestly, it’s one of those things that at the end of the day, all I can control is me and what I do on and off the golf course. And if I feel like I’m getting better every day on and off the golf course and setting a good example for the next generation … so that’s all I can do and I feel like I’ve done a good job. “
If the questions remain, they have nothing to do with his moxie.
Eventually Reed made him interesting with a wild shirt shot through the trees in hole 18, forcing him to return to the fairway. He had to make two 35-foot shots for the eighth win of his PGA Tour career.
He only put once 45 times on 72 holes, an amazing performance on Chapultepec’s green poas. The birds eventually could not have imported without the 10-foot par put on the 11th and 8-foot on the 13th while DeChambeau was beginning to retreat.
“And after that, the hole seemed to get a little bigger,” said Reed.
In a wild final round in which five players had an advantage – four were tied in the head for the back nine – DeChambeau seemed to take control with five birds in a six-hole stretch starting from no. 9.
Everyone around him faltered – Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Erik van Rooyen – all but Reed, who played without bogey until he only needed one bogey to win.
DeChambeau lost two good chances to score 15 and 16, and then put three 65-foot times on par-3 17 to drop in a draw. Reed caught at the moment. Blocked by the edge of the trees to the left of the 16th fairway, he hammered a hook with a wedge that rolled around the ridge and fed on the slope up to 3 feet.
Reed never jumped with so many things around him, on and off the golf course.
He still has to shake off the whispers during the tour and head to the gallery for the hero World Challenge in December, when the video surprises him twice to sweep the sand away behind the ball in a desolate area in the Bahamas. Reed accepted the two-shot penalty and said that a different camera angle would show that his club was not as close to the ball as it seemed.
Koepka became the strongest voice during an interview Monday with SiriusXM in the Bay Area as he previewed his title defense at the PGA championship in May.
Radio host Sway Calloway asked Koepka if Reed was cheating.
“Uh, yes. I think, yes, yes,” said Koepka, known to have expressed his mind. “I mean, I don’t know what he was doing, building sand castles in the sand. But you know, you know where your club is. I mean, I took a three month break and I can promise you that I know if I would have touched sand.
“If you play, you understand the rules,” he said. “You understand the integrity that continues. I mean, there is no room for this.”
Reed has said all week that he doesn’t listen to what others are saying – he only plays golf.
Sunday did nothing but win. If he had something to prove, it was only for himself.
“Coming this week, I knew we were in a good model and I knew that all I had to do was keep trying to improve my golf game, but at the same time block all the noise, no matter what it was,” he said. Reed. “I feel like I’ve been able to do it really well for my entire career … I’ve always been able – when I get into the ropes – to focus only on what I have to do, and that’s the game of golf.”
He finished at 18-under 266 and moved to world number 8.
DeChambeau returned across the bridge to the 18th green to congratulate Reed. DeChambeau can appreciate heavy criticism: his variety is for the pace of the game.
“There have been a lot of things said in past years, I guess you could say that with him and even with me. Unfortunately, sometimes, sometimes we have a bad shot,” said DeChambeau. “And yes, there are things we have done that has not been fair, but we have not really gotten the best rap. … He is a great player, and he will be a great player for a long time and I have a lot of respect for his game.” .
Rahm had a chance to reach No. 1 in the world with a win, depending on how McIlroy finished. It was a controversial point when the Spaniard took the bogey on the 11th par-5 and dropped another pitch on the 14th with a short iron that passed just behind the green.
McIlroy remained in one fell swoop until nine straight holes without a bird.
Thomas lost the lead when he hit the water in the seventh par-3, then made another bogey on the next hole. So he had to play a shot for lefty 10 on his way to a double cart. He fired 73.
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