Patrick Reed wins his first major title  12:00, 09/04/2018

Patrick Reed

The 27-year-old had to hold off an early charge from Rory McIlroy and late ones from Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, but he earned his sixth PGA Tour win in the end.

This victory marks his first major title.

First, Reed gave Rory McIlroy no breathing room. Then, with Jordan Spieth on fire, Reed stood in the heat and refused to melt. When Rickie Fowler’s 18th hole birdie forced Reed to come up that long, long hill and make a par with golf immortality at stake, Reed left his second in a bad spot—20 feet above the hole—only to do the perfect work of leaving himself a dead-straight uphill three-footer to win.

At 15 under par for the tournament, Reed missed the Masters 72-hole scoring record by three strokes. Had he saved a couple shots Sunday, he’d have become the first player ever to score four straight rounds in the 60s in a Masters. At 27, he is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour. In a series of Ryder Cup successes, he has been such a raging, rampaging, in-your-Euro-face competitor that some folks, speaking ironically, have called him what they imagine he would like to be called, Captain America.