No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 12: Shane Ryan Talks About His Patrick Reed Story

Episode Date: January 30, 2015

If you somehow missed it, Shane Ryan dropped an incredible story on Patrick Reed, and he joined the NLU Podcast to talk about it. Here is the story. Thanks to Shane for coming on to... The post NLU Podcast: Shane Ryan Talks About His Patrick Reed Story appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Welcome back everybody to the NoLanup podcast, the first ever emergency podcast. And for those listening on the first time, for the first time you can find us on Twitter at NoLanup or visit our website NoLlangup.com. But for the important stuff, we have Shane Ryan, who drops today one of the most profound and interesting and compelling golf stories I've read in a

long time. It was the all-inclusive piece on Patrick Reed going back into his past. And for those that haven't read it, I suggest you pause and read the investigative report that Shane did on Patrick Reed. and hear to talk about this report How it came together and what we're supposed to think of Patrick Read now is Shane Ryan himself Shane What is this day been like for you? What's up Chris? Thanks again for having me Yeah, it's been a crazy day, you know, it's and I knew it would be I haven't I think I got two hours of sleep last night between like seven and nine And so I'm real tired this interview might get real rambly and a little bit psychotic, but hopefully not

But yeah, no, it's been you know so far the feedback's been good, but it's one of those things where You know as we've seen with other golf stories sometimes the other shoe can drop hours or days later Obviously the doctor v story comes to mind where you initial, I don't want to be fooled by the initial enthusiasm, you know. Yeah, you don't ever, I mean, I don't write stories like you do. This is nothing like I do as far as investigating, but you don't really know, I imagine, how a story is going to play until it's actually out. And even initially, like you said, the Dr. V story, well, it takes a while.

I mean, if Patrick Reed comes back and refutes everything you said in the next two days, then you're gonna probably be on the defensive and people coming after you. So it's a good first run, but you never really know how a story is gonna fully play out. Yeah, and it's interesting.

Like, if he does, if they do come out and deny everything, it's, you know, my sources are anonymous, but I mean, honestly, these stories, anybody who's been around in golf has heard these stories a million times, and I'm the first one to get, you know, people as anonymous sources saying this stuff, but it's, I don't know, I guess I just don't see a denial coming. I don't think that's how they'll play it necessarily, but we'll see. I'm ready for anything and I'm very confident in the reporting. So yeah, it was clearly you spent a very large portion of time on it.

I want to know, in your opinion, there's a lot of shocking things to me. I want to hear from you first what you were most surprised at as you uncovered these things and what you think to be the most significant part of the story. I guess I think the big thing is going to be, and the Gull Channel did a little blurb on it this morning, and their thing was cheating and stealing, and I think those are going to be the headlines that stick out. I guess those surprised me, but again, I had heard these details early on, so it was not like something, it's not like I heard it from the source and was like oh my god it was more like okay finally I've got it you know when somebody finally said it I guess I don't know if the most surprising thing was kind of learning what

Patrick was like as a kid where you know the anger had kind of always been there and I just think there's a sublayer of insecurity to read that probably drives a lot of this stuff. And I think his identity is really, you know, tied in with golf, which, whatever, he's a professional golfer that's normal. But I think maybe more than normal. And it's been that way, I think, for a long time.

So, you know, I learned a lot about read, but I still feel like there's a lot there that I don't know in that, you know, probably a lot of it will never know, but I think we might see some more stuff come out even over the years, but yeah, it's just like, you feel like you're scratching the surface, and a lot of times when you write a story, you feel like you understand someone after,

and in this case, I don't know still that I do. Yeah, I think, that's interesting you say that say that because yeah you're trying to get to the bottom of something and I think you you end up walking away from this one with more questions than you do answers as far as what is driving this person or how this person operates because I don't really think a lot of people can relate to like what you've written because it's not something a lot of people really experienced in their life and it doesn't sound like a person that you come across on a daily basis and one thing that the thing that shocked me the most and literally made my jaw drop when I read it was that he was suspended for cheating

and what made that so I guess because that's the first time I'd ever really heard anything like that I don't have my ear as close to the street as you do and but I do know and talking talking to some of the few PGA torpos that I do know, how seriously they take the rules. And it's a true code of honor, and the guys that have made even the slightest loose move in a tournament, or when being paired with somebody, that gets remembered. I was talking to one of my friends, and I said yeah, you know, do you know this guy so and

so I used to play with him as a junior and he's like, oh yeah, that guy, I remember what when he pulled this, he illegally dropped this ball in 2009. I'm like, what, like, how do you remember that? So for that to be, to get truly suspended for cheating in a qualifying match, that was absolutely shocking to me. Yeah, and cheating is one of those things. It's just such, it's the harshest possible word. It's even harshest in the word choke, I think, which golfers also hate.

But you look at the Brandtl-Shamblety thing with Tiger. When he used that word cheater on him, it created a huge storm because it's such an important word. And golfers are obsessed with it. I mean, I think you probably know the Blaine Barber story where he was in Q school and he qualified, but he kept thinking back to the fact that his ball might have moved when he was in the bunker. And a few days later, he kind of called himself out on and penalized himself and lost his chance to get his PGA tour card. And the funny thing is the person who advanced because

he dropped out was Chess and Hadley, who obviously went on to become rookie the year last year. And Blaine Barber now is on the PGA tour this year and he's doing pretty well, so it's a happy ending, but it's just such an obsessive impulse not to cheat for golfers. And it's such a huge, huge thing when you do. So so yeah that that's gonna stick out to a lot of people that's gonna be the big thing I think yeah I mean on tour it's a scarlet letter it's basically a tat it's color that's tattooed on you that never goes away I mean VJ had his issues back in the 80s when he I mean store the very strong story is that he just basically changed the number on a scorecard to make a cut and he's never been able to live that down.

I mean, he's had a lot of other hairy issues in the past as well, but it's something you can't really get rid of. And that's what I was just kind of surprised that I'd never heard that about Reed if this was this widely known, I guess, amongst those guys. But it also kind of goes to, I think, you can attest to this more than I can as well, that the tour guys don't like to talk a lot of shit about each other especially when it's on the record. Yeah, no, no, it's very difficult. You know, it's funny though. I can't remember if I mentioned this in the story, but in the chapter in the book where this comes from, I do mention, I got a lot of quotes from people like disparaging Baba Watson.

That was the one exception. There's something about Baba that just did, but you're right. Other than that, nobody would talk about Reed. It's just incredible. The code of silence, I mean, the amount that people don't like this guy, but the amount that they won't say anything bad about him. You know, like, you saw the quotes from Harmon,

but you know, Harris Singlish is another guy who has maybe like the most reason of all to want to kind of submarine read, and he won't either. And yeah, just like I said, it's like an omare to a thing. They're gonna be totally silent. Yeah, you can't really gain anything from it. Like you don't really need, you don't wanna make, I always say this, golf writers have too much time

on their hands as it is, and if you're gonna give them free material, like if you're just gonna create a debate or talk shit about another player, it's gonna get run into the ground, and it's what you're gonna be known for. I mean, I think this Robert Allen be thing is maybe not the best example, but you just were three weeks later we're still talking about this story of Robert Allen be face

planning outside of a bar. And it's like if you're gonna if you're gonna if you're gonna call out Reed or if you're gonna go on record with this it's gonna create a ridiculous stir and I think they know that. Yeah I think I think there's just a sense that to do that would be some kind of betrayal no matter what the person did uh... i think i think to one thing i i found a lot last year is that there's this huge sort of golfers versus media uh...

battlefield or it's just like this dichotomy like there'd like to sworn enemies which actually we saw with alan b uh... you know when you got when he got caught for being a liar, his first defense was to blame the media. So, like, I don't know, it's just one of those things. Yeah, they tighten the leggings. Man, that Alan B story. I wish I knew exactly what happened.

But it's so good. Kyle Porter had one of the best tweets ever on that. He's like, Alan B's quote, was, yeah, you'll see, this story will come out. Kyle's tweet was just like, I'm pretty sure that's tweet is like I'm pretty sure that's already happening I'm pretty sure it's exactly what exactly what people are doing right now you know it's funny is you just think like okay look if you do something stupid you have two options that are smart either you tell the complete truth right away or in

Alan Bees case just like heal from your wounds and don't say anything and don't just just go nobody can't tell no comment to lie. I mean when there's that many people around you just can't lie. I mean the truth always always seems to come out especially now. I mean if it takes years or it's something like that it's like Alan B what are you do man? All you're doing is drawing attention to yourself and you're gonna look like an idiot, you know? That's the thing is he didn't have to tell anybody that this happened. So what if he scuffed his face?

I have literally, I actually can relate to Almy because I've, on New Year's, I think three years ago, I walked out of a party and I face planted, and I had to get nine stitches above my eye. And I had to go to work two days later and sit in a conference room, and what did I do? I just told people, hey, I was drunk at a New Year's party and I fell on my face pretty embarrassing. I got a concussion and had to get nine stitches,

and guess what? People laughed about it, and then it was over. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not Robert Allen be going on national TV, but it's like just own it. Oh, you know, his own. He's not married, right? I mean, there's no, there's no kind of conflict

that way or maybe he is. I don't know. I think he was. I think twice to four. I don't know, but yeah, I regard. Yeah, so essentially he's single and it's just like, yeah, you know what guys like, if anybody asks, there's no reason for him to like hold a press conference for it

Yeah, why not your face you know what I had a few drinks and I fell I mean that's it Like that would be like a funny little blog and then it would be gone and people Like I it would make me like him more right because it is like everybody has a story like that In this piece I revealed my own story. I feel it was important to do that in some way, because of just like, look, if we're gonna call out a kid who for drinking in college, we should just be open. Be open about what happens.

I'm not gonna take like the soapbox on that one for sure. That's what I was gonna ask next was like, I feel like with everyone, if you wanted to focus on a certain part of anyone's past, yours, mine, you could write a piece that would make us sound like terrible. Oh, for sure. Yeah. You can write a story about some girl I did wrong or something.

If you wanted to, you could make me look horrible. And I think the people kind of approach, contender approach, articles, or pieces with that mindset. And, but in reading yours, it wasn't like this was isolated. You go all the way back several, several years, multiple places, seeing him bounce around the way he did from Georgia to Augusta State, multiple teammates. This isn't like a, I'm trying to paint Patrick Reed in a bad light, like this is.

Yeah, and I think like, for me, what I was trying to do is present those alcohol incidents in the in the framework of like why he was doing it and what it says about him as a person and i don't think far as i know like he's not a big drink or anything like that i mean i could be totally wrong and that i don't know the guy's personal life but you know his parents said he wasn't a big drinker at all i think he just like

needed to cope in some ways with what was going on at Georgia. And I just think he kind of went over the edge. And like I said, it's more about who Patrick Reed is as a person versus like, oh my God, Patrick Reed had a drink, which, gosh, when we were 18, we were all drinking in college and getting written up by RAs

and doing all manner of stupid things. And that's just the way it goes. So that's nothing against Patrick Reed, but it's just, I feel like it's an interesting detail to help describe who this guy is, which was kind of the goal I was going after. But like I said, I didn't get there, but hopefully it's a little bit clearer.

Yeah, no, I think, for me, I never knew his whole college story. I never knew the story of him winning back-to-back. I knew he'd won back-to-back in C.A. titles. I didn't have the background on Augusta State and the manner at which it happened. Like, that is a story book. Playoff's the two-year-run, lead-able.

It's unbelievable. I heard this early in the year for the first time and I was like, you've got to be kidding. This happened. It came down to the last match with he and Harris English. Like, it's just, you know, that kind of stuff doesn't happen that perfectly you know no it doesn't like it that gets rejected in Hollywood when you write a two yeah too good too good

man so that's what kind of made it kind of sad though it's just like the fact that his teammates quote that said I want to win the national title but I want you to beat the shit out of Patrick Reed or whatever it was. Yeah, it is. A day, I mean, that's, and the great thing was learning, like, because everybody is always looking for the redemption story, and I don't like that.

That's one thing about sports writing, I don't like, because sometimes it's not true. Demption story is great if it's true, but the thing that made the Augusta State team so good was that they all hated each other. And so in practice, it's like Henrik Norlander against Reid and they just want to beat the crap out of each other. And that's what made this team so like, fighting competitive.

So, it's like a line in the story. It's like by the time they get to the pressure situation, they're like, fuck it. Like I just face Patrick Reid every day this week. Like I'm not scared of you Chess and Hadley or whoever else is there Uh, and that's that to me is just like you know that's That's like a sports movie, but it's like a 70s sports movie like one of the funny ones like slap shot, you know Or yeah, well that's what the thing about golf in general

I I put on a high school golf team. Obviously not this not the equivalent to the story But as much as like our coach tried to make it like a team atmosphere, like we are a team, we are a team. There's no real team aspect to it. We never played like alternate shot or anything like that. You played singles every single time. You can hate each other and still be just as effective of a golf team. If not more effective. Yeah. And I think that there's a certain degree to which they're battle hardened, going into those championships because you had a guy that everybody hated on those teams. But that guy also was the best player. And they knew they knew they needed this guy and their team. And they knew he was going to deliver.

I mean, nobody, and you saw it in the Ryder Cup again. I mean, this guy is a badass. This guy is a badass and a winner. I mean, that's the thing about Patrick Reed. He's no chump, you know, I mean, he's really, really good. Yeah, that's what I found interesting is the fact that he played so well at the writer cup after all this and thinking about, I never, I figured the tour guide didn't like him that much, but I never realized that he could potentially be messing up the chemistry this much,

but I think, I don't know where I currently stand on him because I made fun of him so much when the top five comments came out, I beat it to death like I do, and I felt like at that time he just lost his swagger. It was the first time it really had come to public light this ego thing of his and I had no idea how big underlying it was and I was I took pleasure in watching him kind of spiral out of control after that. I was like no one should get away with saying

things like that when you can't back him up because I just I didn't think he really had the track record and for him to come out the way he did at the Ryder Cup I jumped completely on board like that. I just I think golf needs somebody like that can kind of play this villain role that is gonna shush the crowd when his team is getting just spanked by the European team. He doesn't give a shit. He's still going to put his finger to the entire crowd and I'll back on board and I think that Ryder Cup got his swagger back and that's why I predicted he was going to have a huge 2015 and that's why I'm kind

of upset with you right now is because I'm holding a 100 to 1 Patrick Reed Masters ticket right now and I feel like this story is going to bring him right back down. That's so funny. Yeah, well one of the funniest things I've ever seen Chris was at the Ryder Cup toward the end everybody kind of gathered on whichever whole it was in jame Donaldson you know stuck his iron and be keegan bradley and the europeans are going nuts obviously in the americans are kind of standing up

the fairway a little bit looking very solemn and patrick read is one of them you know he's doing his best to doing his best to look to look solemn all of a sudden you know you know he had shushed everybody earlier that day the European fans look out really into him and they're high five in him and they're shouting his name and slowly you see this smile start to creep on to his face and I'm walking behind the whole time there you know they're heading up

to whatever you know Victor Dubesons match or whatever that was finishing he's high five and everybody it's building and building. It got to the point where the guy has a picture of joy, Patrick Reed. And I said to the Joe, I was with, I said, do you think he's gonna go celebrate with the Europeans? I wanted to see him go over and drink with the Europeans. He seemed so happy.

And it was cool. I mean, that was a really interesting moment because he was like that. And then a little while later, Victor moment because he was like that and then a little while later, Victor Dubuison was like that too. You know, the guy's kind of got him in there. And he's another, you know, stay tuned to the book. Let me put it that way. Victor Dubuison's another guy with the story very much like Reed. Yeah, and he was a very distant kind of difficult guy, but the Europeans really kind of embraced him. So you know, you saw those two moments of joy. It was kind of cool.

But yeah, you know, I don't, one thing I will say is I don't know how much players on the PGA tour, quote unquote, hate Patrick Reed right now. I think he's changed from those days. I think now he just is completely off on his own. You know, he's got his team which includes his wife and his brother-in-law, Kessler, Caddy's forum. He recently switched management teams, his agent used to be there, but the guy is just isolated, so I don't think he's actively pissing anybody off anymore. He's just now, he's just now in Ireland, essentially.

But the quote you had in there about the first you reported that there was rumors that he stole from the locker room at georgia and then the quote you had in there about people joking about that in the locker room like quick hydr thing c comes patrick i was rolling at that that was hysterical to me i mean it's probably not funny to have your stuff stolen but it's just hilarious that these guys all know this story or whoever whoever uh... made this joke and this is an actual joke of the BGA Toy Locker Room. Yeah, no, and that's that's the

funny thing is I mean that kind of stuff you know it's the old Faulkner quote which I'll probably mangled but you know the past is not dead it's not even past it's it's stuff stays with you and you know it's this stuff with Reed has been building and I ended up so young. Yeah I'm the one who ended up getting the story first but you know Connor did a good deal of digging with his ESPN story at Augusta last year. And then sports illustrator is coming out with a piece next week that I'm sure is going to have stuff too. So it's like, it's not me. You know what I mean? This stuff was going to come out one way or another. And just a matter of time when his past was

going to kind of rear its ugly head. Yeah, and that's the thing that got me to is he's still so young, what's he 24? It's like this wasn't that long ago. I mean, I part of me wants to think that he's matured since then, but then part of me also remembers that four months ago he was screaming at the European crowd. I don't know what I'm rooting for. I think I just, I want to like him. I think I just I want to like him. I really do. I want to root for him. I'm rooting for him because I predicted him to do so well this year. It's harder after reading your piece, but I think I still I think I'm

still on board with Reed. I'm curious if you take your journalist hat off as a golf fan, what is this a guy you would root for? Yeah, I like Reed read I mean it's it sounds strange to say because I've certainly done him no favors with this story but I do I really do like genuinely I don't know I want to say like because I don't think you know I would be friends or anything if you know if we had the opportunity to hang out but and I'm sure if I was a teammate of his in college I would have despised him just like everybody did. But as a sports fan watching him,

I mean, I just think it's good to have these guys. You know what I mean? I just think, I especially, like golf freaks out and golf wants to protect and wants everybody to be shiny clean, but that's not how you appeal to people our age and younger. I just think, I don't know. I don't know if necessarily I root from to win,

but I root from the being contention all the time because that guy is compelling as hell. And he's tough. I mean, name an American that's under 30, that's tougher than Patrick Reed. I don't think you can. That's the thing is he's got the resume to back it up. I mean, I laughed when it initially happened

because it was only his second win, but man, he has the resume to back it up. He really does. Oh, sorry, that was his third win after he made those comments on wrong, but he has proven himself to me and I think, you and I have never met in person. You and I can't get on the phone and talk for 25 plus minutes wherever you've been going. We can't talk about WebSims for 25 minutes. There's not, there's so many guys.

The last 23 minutes would all be snoring. We'd let them. Well, I'm sorry, if we did list his shanks, like one by one, it might last 23 minutes, but yeah. We need guys that are interesting. I want golf to grow. I want golf to be more interested. I want more of my friends to watch it.

I sent the article along today to some of my friends that aren't even necessarily golf fans, and they were just like in shock by it. They loved it. It's weird to say they loved the story, but I mean, it's interesting, it's compelling. And I think the part that was most, maybe, again, I think I said this three times,

the part that was most interesting to me was in shocking was the fact that he's estranged from his family now. I didn't quite grasp how that happened. And it's not a fun thing to talk about, but his parents didn't even attend his family now. I didn't quite grasp how that happened. And it's a fun thing to talk about, but his parents didn't even attend his own wedding. Yeah, and you know, I talked to his parents and got a lot of details about Reed as a kid

that will be in the book that weren't necessarily in this article. Oh, actually, if I can have an aside real quick, there's one really good story that I'll give you the exclusive, which is that. Oh, yeah, here we go. So he moved from Texasisiana at a certain point and i'm gonna forget the name of the damn school but there was a private

school right on louis uh... ls use campus right in bed rouge that's like a private high school that's a theater kind of into into ls u and it's difficult to get into and so he his family had no concept of him getting in there. But you know all of a sudden it happened that like they're like yeah maybe you should apply like word came down maybe you should apply and the story was that they wanted him to go there because LSU wanted to recruit him for golf right.

But the really funny thing is they needed two letters of recommendation and they're like the reads are like I don't have any idea who could write a letter of recommendation And they're like don't worry about it. We've got it taken care of well come to find out one of the letters of recommendation Is from some guy who's never met Reed who is like an LSU basketball player back in the day the second letter also from someone who never had met Reed was from Nick Sabin What the football coach and LSU at the time? What? Yeah, yeah, try that one on man. It's one thing I left out of this story to say for the book but, right? I don't understand this so like Nick Saban wrote a letter of recommendation

for Patrick Reed who he'd never met. Yeah, they wanted to get this kid into the feeder high school, whatever the hell it was called. And yeah, I mean, it's, you know, they, because they wanted him to go to college at LSU and play golf there. And so they needed to let us a recommendation. And one of them, what, according to his parents, one of them came from Nick Sabin. So, that's phenomenal.

But anyway, that's a complete sidetrack uh... one thing one thing i will say about his parents it is a sad story but what's really interesting to me is this was there for anybody uh... who just followed his his you know his folks on twitter i mean that that was what was interesting to me is like i'm trying to crack the case and all the sudden it's like it you know it's like hiding in plain sight right in front of you. I found these Twitter accounts and I'm like, well, there you go. There's something. And I had a national

writer tell me today, after the first tweet that I wrote about, Bill reads tweet of, you know, sometimes your family can disappoint you or whatever he said, it was actually tweeted on Read's Wedding Day when he got married, which I didn't, which I didn't really, I didn't put two and two together. And so I added that to the story it you know as like a parenthesis a national you know right a golf player just told me this but yeah so I mean it's really really kind of dramatic stuff wow yeah I mean it's it's what somebody point I think it was Adam Sarson to point it out to me once that his mom I think searches on Twitter Sarson that pointed out to me once that his mom, I think, searches

on Twitter for the phrase Patrick Reed. Like he had a tweet or something that said Patrick Reed and Patrick Reed's mom does not follow him. And she like favored it or something. So I thought it was interesting that she, after hearing your story, I thought it was interesting that she was like monitoring what people were saying about her son on the internet. It kind of, it's, it gives you an uneasy feeling. I mean, I make fun of people way too frequently and when you get like parents involved, it just doesn't make you feel real good about yourself.

No, yeah, it's a tough one. It's a, you know, it's tough because it's tough to draw too many conclusions because you get into that situation. And I think it's like fair game to say, you know, here's what's out there, and here's what people are saying. But in terms of getting deep into the family dynamic, I'm not even gonna pretend, you know what I mean? I'm not even gonna be a non-chair psychoanalyst on this one because you don't know

what the hell happened there. And everybody's, this is especially a case where everybody's story from each side is highly questionable, I think. I mean, I just don't think you can trust anyone perspective and you may never get at the truth in these cases. But that was the depressing part of the story for me. Yeah, I think you did a good job of not diving too much into that because you can only

speculate there. I feel like you're not going to get a lot of details. The story is about his behavior on the golf teams and both Augusta State and Georgia. You had multiple credible sources, it's not like so. It was good to keep the focus on what was much more credible I thought. Yeah. Yeah.

And what do you think is, I guess, next for Patrick Reed? And what do you think the people, do you think this is gonna change people's opinion about him? I don't know. I don't, I mean, winning takes care of everything. What I mean by that is that he's gonna be a larger than life figure if he continues to win.

Now, this might change people's opinion or might alter what people think, but Patrick Reed's been doing a pretty good job of that himself. I mean, without any help from anybody This you look at Shanghai And everybody kind of got on him for what he said but

For me the first part of what he said with the gaysler whatever I don't know whatever it's your podcast I won't say it but that part that we all know wasn't necessarily the most disturbing part to me the most disturbing part Was when he continued and said go fucking hang yourself Like it's one thing it's one thing to shout abuse at yourself And yeah, he shouldn't use that word But I think there's a lot of people throwing stones that you know live in glass houses with that kind of thing, but The fucking vitriol of it, you know the anger the anger behind it makes you go Jesus I mean the rage that that this guy has go fucking hang yourself yikes, you know, I mean it's

that this guy has go fucking hang yourself yikes you know I mean it's it's it's it's a different kind of thing I don't think I'd ever say that to myself on a golf course and I'm I'm about as angry as they come uh sometimes I'm I'm if you know that I in general I feel like I I don't know the things I've said after a bad golf shot like it's kind of like a blackout thing like no it's just like you're totally wrong yeah I'll just say something terrible. Like Tiger says it to himself all the, like you suck Tiger. Like I've said some things after I've hit a golf shot that I would not want Eradon National TV.

Yeah, you're right. No, that's why I totally are. I'm talking about time with the reaction to that. I mean, yeah, you gotta know that you've got microphones around you and what you say is probably gonna end up on TV, but it's, I can't, I'm not, yeah, you gotta know that you've got microphones around you and what you say is probably gonna end up on TV, but I can't, yeah, that's a glass housing for me. Like, I can't get on them for that. No, you're totally right.

The more I think about it, no, you put it that way. It's like when I think of the things I've said, I don't know if I've ever encouraged myself to kill myself, but I've definitely called myself a piece of shit and things like that. Well, you gotta remember that if that happened pre-writer cup i probably would have been all over him but now is post-writer cup so i was back on board it had a exact i'm not exactly like uh...

not by as in this in this scenario so no but you know the short answer your question is i don't think there's any reason not to enjoy Patrick reader to root for him you know they mean it just interesting guy and i you know said, I think golf, it's really good for golf. I think to have a guy like this. Yeah, and I think it's, it's, one thing I've learned,

I've recently, I've told you, I've recently moved from the US over to, I live in Holland now. And I've just learned that some things are just different. It doesn't mean that things, one side is wrong or one side is right. Like one example, like in Europe people just don't have a good concept of lines, right? They just like cram into the train every morning and like guys are cutting off women and I don't, I just like that doesn't

really happen in the US, right? Interesting. So my reaction was like initial reaction was like, oh, people here are rude, like people are just rude. Yeah. And I started thinking about it. It's just like, no, like that's just the way that it is here. That's, that doesn't mean that they're wrong or they're rude, that's the way they know. And that doesn't mean that they're any less or wrong about it.

And the US people are more right about this. And I've come into hundreds of scenarios like that. And it's gonna be an appreciation for the way that somebody comes up or the way that somebody is, just as a person, is it's hard for other people to understand that. There's something clearly, I'm not gonna say wrong with read, but there's something clearly different.

And it's not like it's his fault. It's just the way that he is. He has an ego. And I admit to this, I have an ego and I I I've I've met this I have an ego and I don't have the game to back it up like if I had Patrick Reed's golf game I probably I'm not saying I'd be like him but I would be probably pretty tough to deal with from a day to day basis. No I think I think what you said is really profound you know what I mean I think I think that's

something I would even argue maybe because of the way we live here in America, it's harder for Americans to kind of embrace the difference sometimes. Just kind of following up on what you said, the first time I went to Europe, my stepdad had spent some time in Scotland and he said, look, like when you go over there, like things move at a different speed and it's going to frustrate you, but you just got to be able to roll with the punches. And I don't know if you found that, but I've found that every go to Europe it's you you want things done on the double and it's they don't they don't do like that there but I think there's something about the the

rigid way that Americans live and I guess I should say like middle class and up Americans live that gives us these expectations that probably trickle down to the behavior of people and we want to paint something as odd or weird when like you said It's just different and there's not necessarily a need to I don't know what the word is but like ostracize a person based on that and I feel like we want I mean golfers are pretty uniform and we kind of just expect them to be to fall in line and when people fall out of line We scrutinize it like we talk on a podcast for as long as we have right now. Yeah But I feel like I knew guys on golf teams in high school and whatnot

And it seemed to be like the best player on other teams It was a pretty common theme to not be liked. I remember one guy I won't say his name for the one percent chance that people will know who it was. The number one guy on our biggest rival was the best player in the area. And people hated that guy. He was such a douchebag. I don't know if that was maybe out of jealousy or if he had the big ego. So I can kind of see it. I can kind of see it, not to the extent that read is, but I get it a little bit. This is a thing I go into in the book in a different chapter. Is that you're 100% right. You have to be selfish to be a good golfer and you have to be

You have to be you have to have an ego and then you you know you always do tour saws for the guys are blaming blaming other things for their bad shots That's that's a defense mechanism or a brain mechanism they need yeah You know what I mean? They need to think every time they make a mistake. It's something else's fault And if you're smart enough to see past that, you're screwed because you're not going to have these blinders on that make these dudes so successful. It's fascinating. Yeah, no, I totally agree. Well, hey, man, I'm going to let you go.

You've been on for over 30 minutes here and I know it's been a crazy day for you. I can't thank you enough for coming on. This has been an awesome story. Congratulations on the story. I was going to buy your book regardless and I'm so on board now If this is what this is what we had to look forward to Yeah, I think it's gonna be good, man. Yeah, I really appreciate it. It's always really fun talking to you I feel like I can't I look down and you said that and I'm like oh shit

It has been 30 minutes. It feels like about 10 it does fly by but I know you got a lot a lot going on So it thanks again to everyone for listening. This was Shane Ryan, Grantland Golf Rider and Shane, when did your book come out again? Right now, May 26th is the date. May 26th, it's called slaying the Tiger. You can find it on Amazon and you can pre-order it right now. All right and for those of you that haven't read this article, I don't know why you listen this long anyways but you can find it on Shane's Twitter feed at Shane Ryan here or you can find it on ours at no Lang up, but let's do it again next time man. Well, maybe maybe have a more a more fun

Discussion or maybe we'll have a tiger win to discuss or a major championship, but thanks again for coming on looking forward to do it again All right. Thank you very much Chris Thank you very much, Chris. Be the right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? Better than most.