HECKLE ALL YOU WANT!
VILLAIN REED READY FOR FAN BACKLASH
PATRICK REED believes the noise will go away when the media decides it should go away. It’s a theory that is about to receive the acid test when the controversial American gets to the notorious 17th here at the Players Championship.
The idea that this is a hard hole because the green is surrounded by water would raise a snort of derision from some of its victims, like Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter. In fact, every year it invariably plays the easiest of the four par threes.
It is a hard hole during the afternoon when the 25,000 spectators who turn it into a bearpit have had a few beers and decide to throw a few verbal brickbats. ‘I simply don’t know how he coped,’ said Justin Thomas, regarding Garcia’s horrendous experience in 2015.
Last year, Poulter was so upset he took to Instagram, posting: ‘Really feel sad for my kids that they had to listen to the abuse of a few idiots who can’t handle a few beers.’
In 2010, one such idiot was so amped up, he had to be tasered by police.
Now it is Reed’s turn to run the gauntlet, the arch-villain in so many golfing eyes following his actions in improving his lie while attempting a shot from the sand at the Hero Challenge in December.
His incensed Ryder Cup team mate Brooks Koepka claimed Reed’s actions were so flagrant ‘it was like he was trying to build sand castles’.
Dressed appropriately in all black, Reed did not duck the issue yesterday. ‘I don’t know what to expect at the 17th but the heckling in general doesn’t bother me,’ he said. ‘I think the PGA Tour has gone a great job on the security and the fans. On the whole the fans have been pretty good. You’re always going to get a couple of people who are going to say something.’
Reed added that, the media apart, ‘the players and all of us have moved on’, a dubious claim given Koepka’s comments, and one where judgement is probably best reserved until he has completed the flashpoint 17th this afternoon. We can be sure that the PGA Tour, in readiness, will beef up security.
One thing that will help is the fact that he is arguably playing the best of his gilded generation of Americans, with a WGC victory in Mexico to his name already. ‘Winning always helps quieten the noise,’ said Reed.
The former Masters champion is part of the strongest field of the year so far, with Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood the only notable absentees and the world’s leading trio — Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and
Koepka — a particularly tasty threeball.
Then there is Tyrrell Hatton, who is wondering whether being the winner of Arnold Palmer’s event means the Americans will finally pronounce his name right on the first tee, and not as Tie-rell.
Pointing to Luke Donald’s recent experience at the Honda Classic where, in one sentence, the announcer called him McDonald, got the year wrong when he won the event and mangled his birthplace High Wycombe, Hatton added drily: ‘I’m not hopeful.’