It’s no secret that Patrick Reed isn’t the most popular golfer on the PGA Tour. A recent quote attributed to Kevin Kisner by Golf Digest about Reed’s college tenures at Georgia and Augusta State further pushes that narrative.
“They all hate him — any guys that were on the team with him (at Georgia) hate him and that’s the same way at Augusta,” Kisner said. “I don’t know that they’d piss on him if he was on fire, to tell you the truth.”
Kisner’s comments are somewhat surprising, considering he’s said multiple times in the past, including at this year’s Open Championship, that he prefers to not talk about other players to the press. Reed’s peers have been mostly reserved when asked to elaborate on their feelings about the 2018 Masters champion, and exceptions have typically been done anonymously.
There was the Shane Ryan book, “Slaying the Tiger: A Year Inside the Ropes on the New PGA Tour,” in 2016, which brought to light anonymous cheating and stealing accusations from Reed’s Georgia teammates. (Reed, who denied those allegations, was kicked off the team in 2009 before going on to win back-to-back NCAA titles at Augusta State, in 2010 and ’11.)
Then there was this quote, told to the New York Times by an unnamed U.S. golfer following the Reed-fueled Ryder Cup drama in Paris: “He has no clue how to play team golf. I saw firsthand how bad of a team player he was. Eleven players understood the concept of team golf and only one didn’t. Unfortunately, that one proved to be too costly for the team to overcome.”
Reed has avoided tough questions about his past, as well, often saying that he doesn’t care what others think of him. It will be interesting, though, to hear how he responds to Kisner’s quote.