CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Patrick Reed took the week off before the Masters, and it paid off beyond the work he did on his game.
He also had time to get his eyes checked.
“First week ever wearing contacts, and I go ahead and make every putt I look at and win a golf tournament,” Reed said.
Reed said he had been struggling with reading at a distance — specifically the menu guide on his TV — when his wife, Justine, had seen enough. Reed recalled one moment when his wife and her parents could see the words, but everything was blurry to Reed.
“So we went to the eye doctor and next thing you know, I could see up close, but I can’t see anything past about 30, 40 yards,” Reed said Wednesday. “Everything was really blurry. So I got a prescription for contacts, put them in and all of a sudden I’m just looking out like, ‘Wow. I can see everything.’
“Now all of a sudden I can read greens pretty well,” he said. “And it worked at Augusta.”
Reed received the contacts a week before going to the Masters, where he had a one-shot victory for his first major. The only problem was putting them in.
“It would take me 30 minutes to 45 minutes to get them in,” he said. “Getting them out is easy. Putting them in, I was struggling. Now it’s easy, but wake up 15 minutes before you’ve got to leave that first week at Augusta? No chance. It was wake up an hour and spend 45 minutes on my eyes.”
