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MELBOURNE, Australia — Patrick Reed’s drive Thursday morning on the par-4 first hole at Royal Melbourne Golf Club hit the runway-hard fairway and started skittering toward a greenside bunker.
The bundled-up fans seated behind the tee box, tracking the ball’s progress on a giant video screen, urged it to find the sand. When it complied, the Presidents Cup was alive with the sounds of schadenfreude.
Reed, 29, earned the nickname Captain America because of his success in team-play events like the Ryder Cup and this week’s biennial competition, a typically genial affair pitting the top United States players against those from outside Europe.