All the reasons why Sunday at the PGA Championship still matters

AUGUSTA, Ga. –  Staring his opponent face-to-face, especially in front of a hostile crowd, brings out Patrick Reed’s best. He’ll meet a foe from one of his most memorable performances on Masters Sunday. Reed will start the final round with a three-shot lead over Ryder Cup nemesis Rory McIlroy. Sunday’s setting will be much different than the context of international Cup competition in which Reed has excelled. The patrons of Augusta National are too polite to be partisan, of course, and Reed has ties to the home of the Masters after leading nearby Augusta State to consecutive NCAA titles. He may not have a rowdy crowd to fuel his fire on Sunday, but he’s facing an opponent much larger than a screaming mass of humanity. He’s playing against history. Reed stands between McIlroy and the Career Grand Slam. Two impressive rounds in Saturday’s soft conditions set up this final-round showdown. Reed shot 67, including two eagles on Augusta National’s famed par-5s, while McIlroy was two shots better after a bogey-free round. Reed insists that his focus will be on the golf course. Alister Mackenzie’s masterpiece is challenging enough, after all, but there’s no way to ignore the stakes when he steps to the first tee Sunday. “We’ll obviously still be feeling it,â€� McIlroy said. “It’s the last round of a major championship. Patrick is going for his first and I’m going for something else.â€� That “something elseâ€� may be the biggest achievement in professional golf. Using McIlroy’s quest for history as motivation could work to Reed’s advantage. He said Saturday evening that he’s trying to tap in to the energy and emotion that he exhibits in match play. This is the man who shushed the Scottish crowd at Gleneagles. He hurt Jordan Spieth’s hand with a violent high-five after holing out for eagle at Hazeltine. His singles match against McIlroy in 2016 may have been the peak of his match-play heroics. They played a four-hole stretch on Hazeltine’s front nine in 9 under par. McIlroy held his hand to his ear after making a long birdie putt on the par-3 eighth, imploring the American fans to increase the intensity of their cheers against him. Reed wagged his finger at McIlroy after making a birdie of his own on the same hole. He closed out the 1-up victory by hitting his approach shot to 6 feet on the final hole, setting off a celebration that whipped the crowd into a college-football frenzy. On Saturday, Reed and McIlroy combined for nine birdies and three eagles. McIlroy nailed a bump-and-run into the hole for eagle on the par-5 eighth, punching downward in excitement as he tied the lead. Playing in the group behind, Reed responded with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 8-10. “I was able to get into that (Ryder Cup) mode,â€� he said. That run set the stage for his dramatics on the second nine. Reed’s lead was down to two shots after his bogey at the 12th hole, but he responded with eagles on both 13 and 15. He pumped his fist furiously, showing the fire we’ve grown accustomed to in Cup competition, after chipping in on the par-5 15th. He was five shots ahead at the time, but his bogey at the par-3 16th and McIlroy’s birdie at 18 cut the advantage to three shots. “Patrick has a three-shot lead,â€� McIlroy said. “All the pressure is on him. He has that to sleep on that tonight.â€� A major is the next step in Reed’s progression. He already owns a World Golf Championship and a FedExCup Playoffs event among his five PGA TOUR victories. McIlroy knows how to win majors – he owns four of them – but now he has the extra weight of a historic accomplishment on his shoulders. Only five men have won all four of golf’s major championships. How important is the accomplishment? Tiger Woods called it “the ultimateâ€� after completing the Career Grand Slam at St. Andrews in 2000. Few know better than McIlroy that anything can happen on Masters Sunday. He may have finished in the top 10 in each of his past four trips to Augusta National, but this is the first time since 2011 that he’s had a realistic opportunity to win the Green Jacket. He started the final round with a four-shot lead, only to go down in flames with a final-round 80. The tee shot that he hooked near the cabins left of the 10th fairway was the start of a second-nine 43. It was McIlroy’s first chance to win a major, and the only 54-hole lead he’s lost in one of golf’s Grand Slam event. It’s easy to say that McIlroy would already own all four major championships if he’d closed it out here seven years ago, but he isn’t so sure. He called that loss “a turning point in my career.â€� “I feel like it made me a better player,â€� he said earlier this week. “I feel like it made me a better person.â€� Reed and McIlroy can’t ignore the rest of the leaderboard on Sunday, though. Rickie Fowler is in third place, two shots behind McIlroy and five behind Reed. Jon Rahm is another shot back. Both shot 65 on Saturday. But by the time they reach Amen Corner, it could be a mano-a-mano duel. That’s where Reed thrives. It’s a theme that dates back to his college days at Augusta State. He led the small school, which only competed at the Division I level in golf, to back-to-back NCAA titles. He went 6-0 in match play at those two NCAA Championships. His finest performance came against a hostile crowd. He beat Peter Uihlein, then the No. 1 amateur in the world, 8 and 7 in front of Uihlein’s home fans in Stillwater, Oklahoma.   “They are going to have a good time going at it,â€� Fowler said of the two men in the Masters’ final group. And we’ll enjoy watching it. This could be the classic Masters that we all anticipated.

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The 14th edition of the Presidents Cup is upon us. Top players from around the globe have convened at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, for this thrilling team competition between the U.S. and International teams. To get you prepared for the matches, here’s everything you need to know about how the Presidents Cup works. WHAT IS IT: The Presidents Cup began in 1994 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Prince William County, Virginia. This team competition between the U.S. and International teams is held every two years (except for one-year delays caused by 9/11 and COVID-19). The International Team is comprised of players from outside the United States and Europe. Each team is made up of 12 male players. This year’s match is being played at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sept. 22-25. NUMBER OF MATCHES: The Presidents Cup consists of 30 matches played over four days. There are 18 team matches – nine apiece using the Foursomes and Four-balls formats – followed by 12 Singles matches on Sunday. Foursomes, or alternate shot, consists of a two-man team playing one ball. Teammates alternate hitting shots until the ball is holed, and the team with the lowest score on the hole wins. In Four-balls, both members of the team play their own ball. The lowest score between the team’s two members counts as the team’s score for the hole. The United States’ Davis Love III, as the host Captain, chose to begin the Cup with Foursomes matches Thursday morning. The format for each round will then alternate accordingly. There will be five Foursomes matches Thursday, five Four-ball matches on Friday and two rounds of four matches apiece on Saturday. There will be four Foursomes matches Saturday morning and four Four-ball matches in the afternoon. POINTS: All matches are worth one point apiece, for a total of 30 points. There are no playoffs, with each side receiving a half-point for matches tied after 18 holes. WHO WINS?: The first team to reach 15.5 points wins the Cup. If the competition is tied, 15-15, at the end of Singles play, the competition will be deemed a tie and the teams will share the Presidents Cup. This is inspired by the 2003 Presidents Cup, which was deemed a tie after a memorable playoff between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els was halted due to darkness. RESULTS: The United States has won 11 of the 13 Presidents Cup. The 2003 edition ended in a tie, while the International Team won in 1998 at Royal Melbourne. The United States is the defending champion after winning, 16-14, at Royal Melbourne in 2019. WHO PLAYS?: World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III is the U.S. Captain this year, while former Masters champion Trevor Immelman is the International captain. Each team is comprised of six automatic qualifiers and six captain’s picks. The U.S. Team’s automatic qualifiers were based on FedExCup points earned over the previous three seasons. Each FedExCup point earned in the 2019-20 season was worth a half-point for the U.S. Presidents Cup standings. In 2020-21, each FedExCup point was worth one Presidents Cup point, and FedExCup points were tripled for the 2021-22 season. The top six players in the U.S. standings after the BMW Championship on Aug. 21 qualified for the team. Love made six captain’s picks on Sept. 7. The International Team qualification period ran from the 2021 Open Championship through the 2022 BMW Championship. The International Team’s points system operated similarly to the Official World Golf Ranking, except it used a proprietary calculation to determine field strength and the quantity of points awarded per event. International Team points earned from this year’s PGA Championship through the BMW Championship were given a 25% premium. The ranking was determined by the average points per start in the qualifying period (minimum 15 events). LINEUP CARD: Pairings for Thursday Foursomes will be made at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Sept. 21 from the Interview Room within the Media Center. The captain of the defending team (U.S.) will choose who goes first to start the draw, and the captains will alternate for the remaining sessions, i.e. if the U.S. chooses first for the first round, then the International Team will choose first for the second round. Captains set their lineups for each session one match at a time, alternating in a snake format. For example, if the U.S. Team chooses first, Davis Love III will announce his two-man team for the first match. International Captain Trevor Immelman will then choose which two-man team he will send out in the first match and announce his team for the second match. Love will then respond with his team for the second match and choose his team for the third match. The same process will be used for Singles. Each player is required to play a minimum of one match prior to the Singles session. Prior to 2019, players were required to compete in two matches prior to Singles. TROPHY: Created by Tiffany & Company, The Presidents Cup trophy weighs a total of 28 pounds. The trophy is spun by a spinner from five sterling silver circles into five different shapes. The spun components then are put together by a silversmith to create a cup. The smith runs a roller die to create the beaded embellishment that goes around the cup and the foot of the trophy. The oval logo is etched and applied on the cup. Labor dedicated to creating the trophy totaled 80 hours (spinning, smithing, finishing). The entire trophy is vermeil in 24-carat gold, and the original trophy is housed at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida.

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