A little after 5 p.m. local time last Sunday, Mel Reid grabbed her iPhone, opened the Twitter app, typed in one emoji and hit retweet with, presumably, as much force as one of her drives last week at Seaview Golf Club in Galloway, N.J.
About an hour earlier, Reid had won the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Now, she was going to win the internet, too.
Reid led by a stroke entering Sunday. The week before, at the Cambia Portland Classic, she led by two entering the final round, then fired a 2-over 74 and lost her chance at her first victory on the LPGA Tour. A Twitter user felt compelled to remind her of that on Saturday night.
“I read a tweet yesterday, and it was probably one of the only bad tweets that I got saying, ‘She’ll choke,’” Reid said Sunday. “It gave me a little bit of motivation. I’m going to reply to him tonight with this picture of me and the trophy and a big shh face.
“It did give me a bit of motivation. I was like, ‘I’m going to prove it.’”
She did.
Reid built her lead to four, saw it drop to two after a bogey on the 17th hole, then reached the par-5 18th in two and two-putted for birdie and the victory. Reid was doused in Champagne on the green. She did the press conference. She then tweeted.
The sender deleted the offending tweet. And maybe their entire Twitter account.
Boom.
“I know it sounds stupid, but probably the best thing I could have read,” said Reid, who has won six times on the Ladies European Tour. “I’m definitely not letting that happen. Someone is going to have to beat me today. I’m not going to give it away.”
The celebration would continue.
The ShopRite trophy is shaped like a vase. Or, for first-win-on-the-LPGA-Tour purposes, it’s shaped like a glass.
“It’s a big trophy so I’m going to have to fill it up with something,” she said Sunday. “So we’ll see how that goes. Yeah, look, I reckon I can fit a few beers in there.”
A few dark ones. Golf Channel reporter Jerry Foltz tweeted a picture of Reid hugging the trophy at a nearby restaurant – and it was less than half-filled with beer. Her partner shared a photo of Reid taking a drink. Her caddie, Ryan Desveaux, also joined in. She would be fined an undisclosed amount by the LPGA Tour for breaking coronavirus protocol, and Golfweek reported that it was for being inside a restaurant.
“Yeah, I did celebrate on Sunday,” said Reid, who began play Thursday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with a 4-over 74. “Got in a bit of trouble. It wouldn’t have been me if I didn’t get in trouble. Yeah, I mean, I obviously took it a little bit easier than I probably would have done normally.
