I’m sure Patrick Reed would love to say, “We’re on to the Presidents Cup” but that will be difficult after his actions in last week’s Hero World Challenge.
In case you missed it, Reed was deemed to have improved his lie in a waste area during the third round. I’ve linked a video here so you can see the whole episode. According to the Rules of Golf, you can ground your club in a waste area but you cannot improve your lie. After the round, officials discussed the incident with Reed and determined he would be assessed a two-stroke penalty.
Patrick Reed gave his side of the story, basically saying that from a different camera angle it wouldn’t have seemed as close to the ball. He said he didn’t intend to break the rules. PGA Tour rules official Slugger White said he couldn’t have been more of a gentleman about it.
That’s all well and good and I don’t want to pile on a guy who gets quite a bit of heat from fans and media alike. However, rules incidents have followed Reed for quite a while now. His teammates from the University of Georgia have accused him of cheating. There was even a video from this same event in 2015 showing him doing something very similar. To me, it seems like, where there’s smoke there’s fire.
In my viewing of the video, it’s pretty clear. Even if he wasn’t close to the ball Reed has to know there is something not right. I don’t quite understand why professionals would even ground their club near the ball anyway. They’ve practiced most of their lives from regular bunkers where you cannot ground the club. When I’m playing I never ground it on the actual swing because that is what I’m used to doing. I’m far from a professional but that behavior makes sense to me.
I’d love to see the rules around bunkers changed to make everything more clear. I don’t have the answers but the simpler we can get the rules the better. Pros call rules officials over for the most mundane things and it slows down play. Either way, Patrick Reed is going to have to weather the fallout from this now that even his fellow players a using the cheater word. Yikes!