PGA Tour golfers and their caddies are typically close-knit as it is, especially when things are going well.
So it goes for Patrick Reed -- whose caddie is his wife, Justine. Reed climbed to the John Deere Classic lead Friday morning with a 63.
"You're going to see us basically forever," Reed said after his round. The lone exception, he said, would occur if the couple were to "decide to have a family."
Mostly, though, Reed discusses X's and O's when talking about his caddie. Standing 95th in PGA Tour FedEx Cup points, Reed has earned $679,432 this season while making 11 of 20 cuts, including seven of his last eight. On the course, it's the golf that matters most between player and looper.
"I mean, she helps me with everything," he told the PGA Tour. "I never check the wind. She tells me what the wind is. Most of the time, she helps me pick most of my clubs. She seems to know my distances better than I do. She’s great at reading putts. So I kind of have the full package."
The question was posed to Justine Reed: Is her share of the weekend paycheck the standard 10 percent?
“I can’t answer that question,” she said. “According to (Tour golfer) Dicky Pride, I get 100 percent.”
This week, Justine Reed isn't the exception in the group. Playing partner Billy Mayfair also is married to his caddie, Tammy.
"They had to do that on purpose, I haven't seen that happen out here before," Patrick Reed said Thursday. "It was good. Billy's a great player; to have his wife on the bag, two young guns have their wife on the bag, it was fun to see. It was definitely a great match.
"We had a blast."
It's tough to imagine a more challenging way to prove an engagement is worthy of marriage than Reed and his wife making the rounds in a rookie Tour season full of Monday qualifiers.
“We respect each other to the max,” Reed said last month. “She’s a huge competitor and athlete, so I believe everything she says."
The faith and the teamwork continue this week, perhaps with Reed starting the weekend in the lead.
