CHASKA, Minn. -- Tiger Woods made a beeline for an American golfer near the 18th green, the one golfer who always had the unmitigated gall to wear Tigers shade of win-or-else red on Sundays. Patrick Reed had a swing doctor in his youth, Peter Murphy, who worked with Hank Haney when the coach was working with Woods on Haneys ranch.Reed wanted to be Tiger when he grew up. Didnt every kid with a driver or a wedge in his hands? But Reed didnt just want to beat opponents as consistently as Woods did. He wanted to punish people, and scare them, just like Tiger did on muscle memory in his prime.Patrick took a lot away from Tigers demeanor, and his intimidation, Murphy would say, the way Tiger had an air about him. ...He wanted to show people that he wouldnt back down.Back down? Reed was no more likely to back down, or lay up, than the late, great Arnold Palmer. As a child prodigy in Texas, Reed was willing to put himself out there and risk a nine-car crash on the final hole in relentless pursuit of victory.And this is why Woods was heading right for him Sunday after Reed played in the Ryder Cup like Tiger did in only his wildest imagination. Woods doesnt respect opponents who shy away from full-contact engagement and the kind of psychological warfare that separates the winners from the losers, and the men from the boys.As an American vice captain, Woods loved it when Reed told him hed better not bench him for any of the four team sessions with the Europeans. As a high-profile -- if temporary -- witness of Reeds epic battle with Rory McIlroy, Woods loved it when the Americans best player traded punches with the Irish heavyweight in a prizefight best described as Ali-Frazier without the blood.So Woods and Reed sank into each others arms for the most meaningful embrace following the United States 17-11 victory over a European team that hadnt lost the Ryder Cup since 2008. They held each other tight while Reed asked Woods why in the world hed exited his singles match long before it was over.Where were you? Reed said. You left me.You had it handled, Tiger shrieked. No, you had McIlroy handled.You left me, Reeds responded through a delirious smile, and all of a sudden I made bogeys.Yes, Reed made three bogeys from the ninth hole forward. But that did nothing to diminish the staggering golf he and McIlroy played over the first eight holes, when the leadoff singles match of the day turned into Turnberry, 1977, the legendary duel in the sun between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.They shared in the damnedest sequence on Hazeltines eighth green, with their match all square after Reed had gone eagle-birdie-birdie to McIlroys birdie-birdie-birdie. The Irishman whacked a putt that his opponent estimated traveled 70 or more feet, and when it dropped, McIlroy lost his mind in another of his manic jigs and dramatically cupped his ear with his hand while mouthing the words, I cant hear you.On cue, Reed relished the challenge this moment presented 25 feet from pay dirt. When a guy does something like that, he said, you have to be mentally tough enough to go make a putt.Reed sank his, and the crowd went nuts as the American pumped his fists in his now-familiar Jimmy Connors-on-steroids way. Reed then wagged his finger at an appreciative McIlroy. These two Ryder Cup titans bumped fists and wrapped their arms around each others backs as they headed to the next tee.McIlroy was never the same player after that. Drained from his MMA matches with the Hazeltine crowds all weekend, his reactions to their jeering bordering on the absurd, McIlroy bogeyed the ninth and played his final 10 holes in 2 over. He couldnt get up and down out of a bunker at No. 12, giving Reed his first lead, and he missed a short par putt on the 13th. Reed conceded a short but slippery downhiller at the 15th that seemed like an overly generous gift to McIlroy, then responded with a winning birdie on the next hole.I ran out of steam, McIlroy conceded.His only birdie on the back nine came at the 18th, and that was a putt he never got to take. Up one, Reed hit his approach shot almost as tight as his opponents, stalked his line to the hole, and then drained the bird that killed off McIlroy and effectively ended Europes long-shot bid for an upset. Were all gutted, said the losing captain, Darren Clarke.A McIlroy victory couldve altered the dynamics of this entire day. Rory wanted Reed, and Reed wanted him, and in the end the 26-year-old Texan was left with a 6-1-2 record in two Ryder Cups, and with a reputation as one of the most ferocious competitors American golf has ever seen.Patrick has a lot of built-up emotion, said his wife Justine, and this is the time that he can really let it out and just have fun. The Ryder Cup is fun for him. He loves to compete. This is when he can really let out his personality and character.Sunday morning, Justine said her husband got up earlier than usual. As I woke up, she recalled, Patrick was walking out the door. He just said, Ive got to go do my job.Reed did the kind of fire-breathing, team-carrying job the Ian Poulters and Colin Montgomeries used to do for the Europeans. The U.S. has been waiting forever for a player with this kind of passion, this kind of fearless approach to a tee-to-green representation of his country.Its funny how this player turned out to be Reed, a me-centric kid thrown off the University of Georgia team for boorish behavior (some of it fueled by alcohol), suspended by his Augusta State coach for more boorish behavior, and universally loathed by the same Augusta State teammates he would lead to back-to-back NCAA titles.His college coach at Augusta State, Josh Gregory, would say his goal was to convince his players they were better than they really were, a pitch he never made to Reed. Patrick, Gregory said, already thought he was twice as good as he really was.Reed wasnt the most popular player in PGA Tour locker rooms even before his 2014 claim that he stood among the worlds top five players. Hes estranged from his family (neither side talks about the dividing issues, for the record), and in some ways he might resemble the pudgy, obnoxious, hot dog-scarfing American depicted by Danny Willetts brother Peter in an article that did Danny and the Euros no favors.No, in the context of on-course decorum, Patrick Reed might not have been Arnold Palmers cup of iced tea. But on a day of redemption for Davis Love III and Phil Mickelson, who was good for 10 birdies in his halved match with Sergio Garcia, Reed was the difference between winning and misery.Any time I feel like I can go one-on-one against somebody, Reed said, its something I love to do.He traded theatric bows and fist pumps and finger-to-lips shushes with McIlroy, who had never lost in Ryder Cup singles, and exorcised a legion of red, white and blue demons. The Hazeltine fans chanted his name, and the ultimate match-play lion -- a guy without a single top-10 finish in the majors -- roared in delight.Its a dream come true, Reed said.Make no mistake: Patrick Reed will never be Tiger Woods, not by five country miles. But Reed has already become the Tiger Woods of the Ryder Cup, and thats really bad news for the international golfers whod grown accustomed to sinking the Americans on both sides of the pond. Custom Frank Thomas Jersey . 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Inter president Erick Thohir says in a club statement on Wednesday that Vidic is "one of the worlds best defenders and his qualities, international pedigree, and charisma will be an asset. Joel Garner, the former fast-bowling great who is now West Indies team manager, feels players from the region have promise but dont work hard enough.Weve always had promising players, weve always had attractive players, the problems we have is that, most of the players are identified, I dont think they work hard enough, and they fall away, Garner said, in a media interaction on Tuesday. I think that if the players are prepared to work as hard as they need to work, they can get to the top of world cricket as well.When asked which areas the players might need to work harder on, he pointed to the lack of long innings and sizeable partnerships, which has been a problem for West Indies right through their ongoing Test series against India, apart from the final day of the drawn second Test in Jamaica.I think that the longer they spend in the middle, the easier the batting becomes, he said. And I think that is one area that Id like to see improve, where youd like to see the fellows batting long, not only batting long but batting effectively.If you look at it, partnerships are important in any cricket game. The reason we were able to save the game in Jamaica was we had batting partnerships virtually whole day. If you dont get the partnerships, you wont get the performances. Its very important to take something away from the game in Jamaica, to look at how we prepare and how we can build on it.Garner said the lure of T20 may be hampering West Indies younger players coming through the junior ranks.I think that, when you look at our cricket, we are challenging maybe up to Under-19s, he said. If you look at every world competition, when you look at them, West Indies is there. Where we have the challenge is when we go away. I think everybody looks at the T20 cricket and they want to play the T20 format of the game as opposed to playing the longer version of the game, and, you know, it is a matter of choice. Why work for five days if you can work for three hours? I think that thats the mentality and its something that weve got to try and change in terms of how our players look at the cricket and the typee of cricket our players want to play.ddddddddddddWhile Garner clarified that he wasnt dissuading players from playing T20, he wanted revenues earned from T20 to be invested in the grassroots, and for the players to be able to play more first-class cricket. He compared the current situation, where domestic players play ten matches a year, to the situation of the best West Indies players of his era, who were all overseas professionals in county cricket.I dont know about discouraging [players from taking part in T20], he said. As I said, T20 cricket is used to raise finances for everybody, and I think that if you look at it, that is where we should have been trying to say we can, you know, earn some income that we can reinvest in our junior cricketers and in our local cricket.We are fortunate that we can play ten games now as opposed to five. Are ten games enough in a year? When I played, I played 20-somebody or 40-somebody games in a year playing county cricket, and that is where the strength of the cricket is - the more you play, the more you get accustomed to it, the harder the cricket is, and the more professional you become.Asked about the proposal to split Test cricket into two tiers, Garner said such a move would keep Test cricket to a chosen few.I wish them luck if they want cricket to remain with the big three or the big four, he said. You have the two-tier system, I mean, youve got to start someplace, and the only way you can get into the two-tier system is by playing against the teams that are above you in the table. If you cant play the teams above you on the table, how will you get in?So, to me, it begs the question, what purpose does it serve? Are you trying to preserve Test cricket or are you trying to keep it to a chosen few? I cant answer it for you because you want to preserve Test cricket, the only way you can preserve Test cricket is to let people at the lower level play against teams above them to be able to compete and to be able to progress. ' ' '
