2020 Masters Choose Your Own Adventure, Patrick Reed vs. Jon Rahm: Pay the Man

Reed wins and Manning wins the bet from you.

You quickly start to understand what NFL defenses saw for so many years. Here’s this unassuming guy, doesn’t look too athletic, has a goofy smile — and he’s making all the right calls, just carving you up like a 32nd-ranked pass defense.

Apparently, for a guy with $248.7 million in career earnings, winning a thousand bucks off a stranger isn’t enough. He wants more. It’s as if he’s up 28-0 in the third quarter and still throwing bombs to Reggie Wayne.

As the day progresses, it’s clear that Reed is going to win his second Masters title in three years. He continues pulling away from the crowd of contenders, while everyone else appears to be stuck in neutral.

Manning, the guy who bet on him, is loving every minute of it.

He’s either not content to simply cash the wager, though, or is doing you a favor by trying to win some of it back.

When Reed has a gnarly lie in the middle of three greenside bunker to the right of the seventh green, Manning offers, “Even-money for two hundo says he gets this up and down.” You take the bet, Reed nearly holes the shot and easily taps in for par.

When Rahm has a similar shot on the ninth, he says, “I’ll give you 3-to-1 that he doesn’t get this up and down.” Again, you take the bet. Rahm splashes it out to 20 feet and misses his par attempt.

Over and over, all day long, Manning offers bets on everything — and wins almost every single one of ‘em.

“You see those two guys over there,” he says, pointing to two fans about 20 feet away, each holding a beer. “Fifty bucks says the guy in the red hat takes a sip before the guy in the green hat.” As a member, he might have an edge on some of the specific shots you’ve bet throughout the day, but there’s no way he knows anything more than you here, so you take the bet. Seconds later, the man in the red hat takes a big gulp from his cup.

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Manning is a gracious winner in the most passive-aggressive way possible. It’s akin to throwing a touchdown pass, then helping up the defensive lineman who nearly sacked him and saying, “Man, great pass rush. You almost got me that time!”

By the time Reed taps in his winning putt, your ledger shows that Manning has won 16 of 19 bets between the two of you, taking a grand total of $2,350.

“Hey, that was a fun day,” he says, extending his hand, palm up. You reach out, slap his hand five and thank him for a great time. “I appreciate the slap,” he continues, “but I was reaching out for my money.”

You stumble a bit and explain that, well, you’re about $2,193 short of what you owe him.

“Ah, the old Trevino strategy,” he answers. “Playing with money you don’t have. Well, guess what?” You think maybe he’s about to let you off the hook. After all, a guy who’s earned a quarter-billion dollars doesn’t need your money for his petty cash.

But that’s clearly not his style.

“You see the thing about Trevino was…” he pauses for just the right amount of time, suggesting he’s used this line before. “He didn’t have Venmo.”

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