Reed plays victim after two-shot penalty row
In his own inimitable manner, Eddie Pepperell yesterday summed up the game’s reaction to Patrick Reed’s penalty for improving his lie in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. “What the f--- were you thinking?” the English pro tweeted.
Ultimately, the blatant infraction cost Reed a place in a play-off at the Hero World Challenge last night as Henrik Stenson won his first title in two years. And in characteristic fashion, Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, seemed oblivious to the cloud he cast over the event that Tiger Woods promotes in the Bahamas.
“Honestly, I haven’t been paying attention on what’s been going on in the media, but I really wasn’t intending to improve a lie or anything like that,” he said, after finishing third behind the Swede and Jon Rahm in second. “But do I feel I get a raw deal? Of course.”
Reid maintained that the blame was all on a misleading camera angle. With that argument, it is fair to say that the 29-year-old was in a tiny minority and it is also entirely reasonable to deduce that his role as golf’s pantomime villain has just become even more pronounced.
To recap, Reed was leading by two on the par-five 11th of Friday’s third round. As he was preparing to play a shot from a buried lie in the waste area, TV pictures showed him twice brushing back sand from directly behind the ball with his club. Reed carried on regardless, only being notified by the referees when he had finished his round. By that stage, the clip had been replayed over and over and had gone viral on social media.
Reed spent five minutes in the recorder’s hut being shown the footage and duly accepted the two-shot penalty. However, it looked so obviously purposeful that was not nearly going to be the end of it – especially when he tried to explain it away.
“It was in a full footprint and I felt my club was that far behind the ball when I was taking a practice swing,” Reed said. “Every time I get in one of those bunkers I am scared to get my club close to it [the ball]. I accept the two-shot penalty, even though there was not any intent as I was far enough away. I think with a different camera angle they would have seen it was not improving the lie as I was far enough away from the golf ball.”
Be sure that Reed now shoulders a huge stigma. Of course, he has found other ways to be controversial – from criticising US Ryder Cup team-mates, to confronting camera crews, to bellowing homophobic slurs – but this affords his notoriety a new edge and it will be intriguing to see how the locker room behaves towards him, particularly as he was a loner anyway.
And then there will be the galleries. This week, he is playing for the US in the Presidents Cup against the International team in Melbourne and the Australian crowds are not known for their diplomacy.
Woods will be his captain Down Under and will not be happy with Reed for bringing bad publicity to the Hero invitational tournament that he himself promotes.
Marc Leishman, the world No 27 from Victoria, is in Ernie Els’s International team and believes that after this, Reed will present easy fodder to the home crowd. “He’s definitely opened a door and he’s brought it upon himself,” Leishman said. “You never want to cross the line, but I think there’s some pretty good ammo there.”