Patrick Reed Thrives Amid Controversy

Patrick Reed insists that as easily as he puts in his earbuds and hits his playlist, the world’s noise is silenced.

Maybe it is.

Maybe it’s as simple as cranking up Post Malone, The Weeknd (I’m told they’re very popular these days) or just some good old George Strait to let Reed effectively go underwater and into his own fiercely competitive world.

Patrick Reed feasts on the controversy that swirls around him. Photo: Angel Castillo, JAM Media, via Getty Images

He’s not the first athlete to attempt to tune out the world but, at the same time, such competitors are fueled by the desire to prove something to the world. Reed seems to feast on the controversy that swirls around him, diving into it the way most of us consume an open bag of potato chips.

Reed knows what’s been said and is being said about him and he keeps marching forward. For all the self-inflicted damage he’s done to himself – a mea culpa after the rules incident in the Bahamas would have done him a world of good – Reed seems intent on proving the old adage t...