True Grit

Patrick Reed wasn't the most popular Masters Champion of all time, but no one has been more deserving of a Green Jacket

- Bill Elliott

It promised much and delivered some before ending with a small bang and an interesting ripple of applause for the winner. The 2018 Masters is over and will be largely remembered for what didn’t happen rather than what did.

What happened, of course, was that Patrick Reed won and did so magnificently, repelling the Sunday attacks of Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler with nerve, skill and obstinacy. He deserved his Green Jacket, even if suspicion remains that if he’d sought membership any other way then the po-faced custodians of Augusta National would have turned him down.

Reed’s long walk up the hill at the last hole was greeted by the most subdued reaction from the fans that I can recall since Vijay Singh’s victory 18 years ago, when someone dropped a pin in the media centre and we all turned round to see what had caused the noise.

Not that Reed will care. He walks his own mile and doesn’t seem to wonder where or why everyone else is going somewhere else. His self-belief is embedded in his psyche; his ability with a golf club and his enthusiasm for a battle are clear and obvious. It was, however, far from obvious that he would ever win at Augusta given a past record that suggested he should consider skipping this technicolour week. Yet somehow he has learned to play a course that seemed to mock him previously.

Opening rounds of 69-66-67 set up his chance, and although there were those inevitable moments when it seemed that one of the pin-up players was going to overtake him, his response to every rival thrust was considered, obdurate and impressive.

Rory comes up short