On a cool and crisp Georgia afternoon, several of the game’s biggest guns made spirited runs at Patrick Reed, but one by one, he turned them away. 

Reed, 27, who spent his last two college years at Augusta University, not all that far as the crow flies from Augusta National’s 12th green, was too stubborn to back down, capturing his first major championship by one stroke over Rickie Fowler (67) and by two over Jordan Spieth (64). Reed finished at 15-under 273, becoming Augusta’s fourth consecutive first-time major champion (following Spieth, Danny Willett and Sergio Garcia). 

All four of the game’s majors are now held by players 27 or younger. 

Spieth is only 24, lest we forget, but he’s already built a highly impressive record at this Tournament. He shot 270 to win in 2015 at age 21, and he keeps on giving himself chances, even as most counted him out on Sunday. 

Starting nine shots behind Reed, Spieth kept his head down, never glanced at a leaderboard, and just kept making birdies.There would be nine in all. With a 33-foot curler for birdie at No. 16, he pulled next to Reed at 14-under. Spieth went to No. 18 needing one more birdie to shoot a Masters-record 62 – instead, his drive hugging the left side clipped a limb and kicked straight right, and he made bogey. If it’s ever possible to be disappointed with a Sunday 64, this was the rare time.

“I’m kind of glad he ran out of holes,” Reed said.

Said Spieth: “With eight people ahead of me starting the day, to get that much help and shoot a fantastic round was nearly impossible. But I almost pulled off the impossible.”

Reed had set out to become the first player in Masters history to shoot four rounds in the 60s, but a final-round, 1-under 71 delivered what he came for: a champion’s Green Jacket. Fowler, 28, also seeking his first major, kept the pressure on Reed until the end, making one last birdie at 18 (from 7 feet) to pull within a shot. His solo-second finish marked Fowler’s best showing at a major. He shot 65-67 on the weekend. 

This was Reed’s fifth visit to the Masters, and he’d never finished better than a tie for 22nd. Early-week prognostications involved mostly names such as Rory McIlroy, Spieth, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. There wasn’t much Reed mixed in making the American's victory that much more of a surprise.

Masters.com