Patrick Reed Caught Improving His Lie, Blames Bad Camera Angle
- Updated: December 6, 2019
Everybody loves to see a good professional rules violation, especially when its called on Patrick Reed. This one, in particular, was bad. Like egregiously bad.
During Friday’s third round of the Hero World Challenge, Reed found a waste bunker off the tee on the 11th hole and his ball came to rest in a footprint.
Everything was fine until the TV camera caught Reed brushing the sand behind the ball during a “practice swing” not once, but TWICE, essentially improving his lie and giving himself a significantly better chance to hit a decent shot out of it.
Patrick Reed gets busted cheating at the Hero World Challenge pic.twitter.com/r25cE6zenE
— Viral Sports (@NotScTop10plays) December 6, 2019
After the round, Reed was found to have violated Rule 8.1a(4), which prohibits players from removing or pressing down sand or loose soil in order to improve the conditions affecting the stroke.
Reed was assessed a 2-stroke penalty, even though he did it twice. So instead of being only 1 back of leader Gary Woodland, he’s now 3 back heading into the final round. Here’s a closer look:
A closer look at Patrick Reed’s two-stroke penalty during Round 3 of the Hero World Challenge. pic.twitter.com/z2aqkajnYq
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 7, 2019
“You could see, the club did get behind the ball closer and then when he took it away, you could see the path of the sand come away in two different occasions,” said Slugger White, PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competitions.
“He did it the first time and he put the club down again and he did it another time, but that’s irrelevant. It doesn’t make any difference.”
“There was no quid pro quo” – Slugger White, when asked about the Patrick Reed bunker penalty pic.twitter.com/8HsUj8xiCc
— Two Inches Short (@TwoInchesShort) December 6, 2019
Reed spoke about the incident afterward and took “responsibility” for his actions, but here’s the kicker … he blamed the camera angle that caught him redhanded!
“I was far enough away from the golf ball because when I take my practice swings anyways, I don’t ever put the club directly behind the ball because I’m always scared of the ball moving,” Reed said. “I’m always going to give myself some room, especially on practice swings. After seeing that camera angle, because it brushed the sand, it’s a penalty…
It is a big part, intent, but at the same time, when you only have one camera angle, that’s all you can go off of.”
What else do you expect from a guy who’s house is decorated like this? pic.twitter.com/UfGEsaLRzP
— Two Inches Short (@TwoInchesShort) December 6, 2019
This freakin’ guy! He was leading the golf tournament at the time. He knew full well there’s going to be cameras on him. There’s literally ALWAYS a camera behind you when you’re leading. Everybody knows that! But using the camera angle as an excuse is an all-timer!
Of course, this wasn’t the first time Reed was caught doing the SAME EXACT THING in a waste bunker from the SAME CAMERA ANGLE. Here he is back in 2015. Notice any similarities?
This was Reed a few years ago and got away with it! pic.twitter.com/6Ju29iip9w
— DZ Golf (@DZ_Golf_Nam) December 6, 2019
This one probably wasn’t intentional either. Just an innocent mistake. It will never happen again…
*eye roll*
Looks pretty innocent to me tbh pic.twitter.com/26evIm5DWD
— Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) December 6, 2019
Sign up today for free and be the first to get notified on new updates. Subscribe to our mailing list!
Purchase the latest gear at the Two Inches Short Am Shop!
Follow TIS on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
