… Albany, Bahamas
Patrick Reed will arrive in Australia Monday morning local time in readiness for Thursday’s start to the Presidents Cup and hoping there is no backlash following a controversial incident during the third round here at the Hero World Challenge.
The 2017 Masters champion was slapped with a two-shot penalty when video evidence surfaced he had brushed back the sand behind his ball in taking a shot from a ‘waste’ bunker on the Albany course in The Bahamas.
You could argue the two-shot penalty cost Reed forcing a play-off in the event with eventual winner, Henrik Stenson and with Reed falling short by two shots in ending tied with Stenson, and this after Reed posted a triple-bogey ‘8’ at the offending hole, the par-5 11th.
And here is the questions Reed faced by the media who travelled to the Bahamas this week to report on the event.
Q. Were you surprised or taken aback by the scale of reaction of what happened yesterday? It’s one of these things that kind of blew up.
PATRICK REED: Honestly, I haven’t been paying attention on what’s been going on in the media. You know, for me, it was just something that I’m going out there to play the best golf I can. At the end of the day, after I didn’t feel like in the — while I was there playing the hole that I really did any kind of rules infraction, but then afterwards seeing it on camera, there was Slugger and I sat down and Slugger said that you have to take two strokes. After seeing it on camera and seeing sand move, obviously it’s a penalty. So at that point I had to accept it and move on. I mean, the last thing you can do is let it dwell, especially when you have 18 holes left to go because you still have a chance to win a golf tournament. You’re only three back, so you have to go out and play a solid round of golf which I did, but at the same time it’s not going to be enough.
Q. Does one of one of those things that harm your reputation or harm people’s perceptions of you, do you worry about that?
PATRICK REED: No, because at the end of the day I wasn’t intending to improve a lie or anything like that. Like I said, I didn’t feel like I was doing anything that was improving a lie, but then when you saw it on camera, because of that camera angle, they said that the sand was moving, and when the sand moves like that, it’s a penalty.
Q. Is there any worry that it might spill over to next week? I’m sure you’ll be asked about it there and that it might be some sort of distraction, or are you pretty good about putting those things —
PATRICK REED: I’ve dealt with enough media, I’m pretty good. There’s not really anything that’s going to be said or done that’s going to really derail me at the end of the day when I go out there to play golf, especially next week. I’m playing with my team and for the whole country and at the end of the day nothing’s going to get in my way. Go play the golf I’m supposed to.
Q. Did you do any mental math, if you add two shots right now you’re tied for the lead? Do you allow yourself to go there?
PATRICK REED: No, of course not. I mean, once the scorecard’s signed, it’s over with, then you’ve got to move on. You can’t dwell on the past. You look so far ahead in the future, you do that, you’re distracting yourself from what’s at hand. If I did that all day today, it wouldn’t have been a 66. Who knows what that number would have been. All I could do
is focus on what I’m doing at hand and that’s continue making quality golf swings, continue hitting good putts and try to shoot the lowest round I can.
Q. Do you feel sometimes you got a raw deal from people?
PATRICK REED: Of course. You know, of course I do, but at the end of the day you’ve just got to — you only can control what you can do, you can’t control everyone else. As long as I can go out there and do what I’m supposed to do and live life the way I feel like I’m supposed to live my life, that’s all I can control.
Q. Patrick, the depths of Twitter uncovered a video from here a few years ago in which it was a similar situation, you brushed some sand. Is it something that maybe you have to look at how you do your pre-shot routine to kind of be more careful from now in?
PATRICK REED: Well, I haven’t seen the video so I wouldn’t be able to tell you. The biggest thing is I know whenever you get in there and set up to the golf ball — when I was talking with Slugger, when you set up to the golf ball, when you’re taking your golf swing, you’re allowed to take a normal golf swing on pre-shot routines. I mean, that one that brushed the sand yesterday was a rules violation. I had to accept it. I didn’t like it, but I have to accept it and got to move on. But I can’t — I have no clue what you’re talking about from the past. I haven’t been on Twitter or anything like that.
Q. Are you going to be more careful now?
PATRICK REED: Of course. The whole thing is everyone’s careful in not breaking the rules, that’s the name of the game. You go out there and play golf, you don’t go out there to play golf to break rules. You know, at the end of the day, would I have liked to have those two shots back? Of course. But at the end of the day, you know, I mean, it happened and you have to move on. I mean, it is what it is.
Q. Do you prefer if he came to talk with you on the golf course maybe to avoid that?
PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing, if it was a Sunday round, for sure, because you always want to know where you stand. But the thing is, if I — whenever I was taking the backswing, if I felt like sand was moving or if I saw the sand moving, I would have called him over immediately anyways. So since I didn’t feel it or see it move, because of that it was probably the right thing for him anyways to wait until after the round because it wouldn’t have affected how I played on a
Saturday. And with me not feeling or seeing it, he would have had to show me a video of all that anyway, so it’s not like — you know, we would have been basically just holding up play. It was all handled the right way, when they told me, when they told me and when we looked at it. No, it was all done correctly.”
