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Patrick Reed is back. Or at least, many golf enthusiasts think it’s there again.
Everyone’s favorite golfer to hate encountered yet another controversy at the Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday, when a rules controversy led to accusations that Reed cheated by picking up a ball he claimed to have been encrusted.
The long streak of events on the 10th hole at Torrey Pines essentially went as follows: Reed hits the ball out of a bunker. The ball veers to the left of the green and bounces once before landing in a thick rough. Reed arrives at the ball and asks a volunteer if he’s bounced. A volunteer says “No, I didn’t see it bounce.” Reed announces that he is going to check the balloon and picks it up. Reed puts it down and calls the settlement manager. Reed tells the rules official that the ball has not rebounded and asks him to assess whether the ball has broken the ground. The rule official acknowledges the burst ball and awards Reed an integrated ball relief. Reed goes up and down tied with a much better lie.
Here’s the kick (and the rebound):
And here are the consequences:
So where did Reed go (or do) in all of this?
First, many golf fans, as well as CBS analysts, were skeptical that a ball could become encrusted after it bounced. Reed’s ball only bounced a few feet in the air, so physics questions abound here.
Second, Reed’s order of operations – picking up the ball, calling the rules official, telling him it didn’t bounce – certainly looked like someone trying to get away with transforming. a bad lie into an integrated ball decision. Saturday’s round was played with favorite lies due to the recent rain, but that does not apply to balls in the rough.
Patrick Reed defends integrated ball claim
After the tour, Reed defended his actions in interviews with CBS and Golf Channel, claiming that he did not see the ball land or bounce and reiterate that the volunteer told him that the ball did not bounce.
“When we’re out there we can’t see everything,” Reed told CBS. “When that happens, you have to rely on what the volunteers say, what the policy makers say. In the end, we feel like we did the right thing and the rules manager said we did it perfectly. That being said, we moved on and just kept playing.
Speaking to the Golf Channel, however, Reed acknowledged that “the ball bounced” and said it was “literally impossible” for a ball to curl up on a bounce.
Some golfers did not have fun watching the situation unfold, especially Michael Gellerman, Reed’s competitor and Marina Alex from LPGA.
PGA Rules Official Agrees With Patrick Reed
While many have called for Reed to be penalized, one person on Reed’s side was PGA Rules Officer Ken Tackett. In an interview with Jim Nantz of CBS, Tackett said he thinks Reed acted appropriately on the 10th hole.
“He went through the process,” Tackett said. “Everyone felt that the ball had disappeared from the shot, the volunteer said he was not bouncing, he checked if it was depressed, he called an official … He did everything we ask to a player. It’s hard, you have to question it when you see the video. Soft conditions, there are a lot of variables there.
“We agree with the outcome of the situation.”
Reed gets no benefit of the doubt
This kind of controversy only seems to happen with Reed these days, for obvious reasons. Charges of cheating have followed Reed from his college days and hit a crunch when Reed got caught blatantly cheating at the Hero World Challenge 2019. The fact that his younger son – and brother-in-law – had an altercation with a spectator at the Presidents Cup following the accusations did not help matters.
So even though Reed truly believed the ball didn’t bounce, asked everyone available to check, and saw a ball improbably embedded in the ground, it’s hard to believe for some that he did. that an honest mistake. And if Reed saw the ball bounce in the video after saying that a ball couldn’t fit in a bounce, you must be wondering why he wouldn’t take a penalty.
The rest of Reed’s round didn’t go very well either, as he went from a four-stroke lead after the fateful 10th hole to four bogies at back 9, sitting tied for the lead with Carlos Ortiz at 10 cents at the end of the third round.
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