Patrick Reed did not wear his signature color at the Masters and he likely won't be allowed to wear it at the majors anytime soon
- Patrick Reed won the Masters, but he did not do it wearing his signature color.
- Reed usually wears red during the final round as a tribute to Tiger Woods.
- The move has upset a lot of golf fans.
- At the Masters, Nike stepped in and forced Reed to wear pink as part of a "storyline," and it seems unlikely to change anytime soon.
Patrick Reed won the Masters, holding off challenges from some of golf's biggest names, but he did it without wearing his signature color, and it appears he won't be allowed to wear the color at a major anytime soon.
If that seems similar to what Tiger Woods has done his entire career, that is because the move is intentional, an homage to his idol.
"The best player ever to live when I was growing up wore black pants, a red shirt," Reed told Augusta.com. "I was growing up watching him, I always thought, you know, it would be cool to wear black and red on Sunday."
Despite the good intentions, the move has angered a lot of golf fans who believe the style is Tiger's signature and should be his alone on the PGA Tour.
Those fans got a reprieve on Sunday at the Masters when Nike stepped in and mandated that Reed wear pink instead of red during the final round.
According to Reed, it is a new policy Nike has for their golfers in which they are all on the same script.
"Nike has where, all the players, they're doing a new thing where all the players stay in the same kind of storyline," Reed said at the Masters. "All of us will be in the same color tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday."
We saw this during Saturday's third round when all of Nike's golfers were in a similar shade of blue.
Not surprisingly, Woods was exempt from the pink dress code on Sunday, where he wore his traditional red shirt, albeit muted with a black sweater vest.
For the foreseeable future, Reed will seemingly be required to wear whatever color Nike picks for the final rounds of the major. It also seems unlikely that Nike would put all of their golfers in red shirts on Sunday when that has been Tiger's signature look for so long.
In other words, if Nike does plan to stick to this "storyline" at all of the majors - something they have been doing at tennis grand slams for a few years - then it will be a long time before Reed will be allowed to wear red on Sunday at a major.
In the minds of many golf fans, this should please the golf gods.
More Masters coverage:
- Patrick Reed wins the Masters by holding off late charges from Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler and getting one lucky break
- Jordan Spieth's caddie convinced him to change clubs just before one of the most impressive shots of the Masters
- How to qualify for the Masters, the world's most prestigious golf tournament
- How to get tickets to the Masters, one of the most exclusive sporting events in the world
- How to watch the Masters tournament online for free
- Photos show what golf's biggest stars looked like when their careers started