Patrick Reed, who made social media hot by throwing a wooden tee at the world’s No. 1 male golfer, Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), garnered another attention this time by placing his tee shot on top of a tree during the game. The referee had to use a telescope to confirm that it was Reed’s ball, and social media once again raised controversy over the authenticity of the ball.
Reed sent his tee shot to the right of the fairway in the 17th hole (par 4) of the third round of the DP World Tour (European Tour) Dubai Desert Classic (total prize money: 9 million dollars) held at Emirates GC (par 72) in Dubai, UAE on the 29th. The ball caught on the relay screen flew towards the three palm trees and disappeared.
Fortunately, the ball was confirmed to have been caught on a tree, but it was unclear whether the ball belonged to Reed. The field officials immediately rushed over and checked the ball with binoculars, and after hearing that Reed had marked an arrow on the Titleist Pro V1 ball, it was determined that the ball belonged to Reed.
Reed received a penalty of one stroke under a tree and attempted a third shot, sending the ball to the edge of the green and finishing with a bogey. If the ball was not confirmed, he was able to minimize the damage by returning to the teeing ground and avoiding having to take a third shot with a one-stroke penalty.
After the game, Reed said, “I would have gone back to the teeing ground if I hadn’t been 100 percent sure that the ball on the tree was mine. Fortunately, the officials confirmed my arrow mark,” he said. “I was lucky.” He continued, “I once dropped a ball on a tree during a tournament in Malaysia. At that time, the caddy went up to the top of the tree to check,” he added of his past experience. It was on the 10th hole in the second round of the CIMB Classic held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in October 2014.
In a statement, the DP World Tour said, “Two field judges and several marshals were with us. In order to make a clear decision, the referee chairman did not ask the player which tree the ball landed on, but checked what the ball mark was.” 스포츠토토
The commotion has ended, but the controversy continues on social media. An American golf coach shared his relay video on his SNS and said, “Patrick Reed’s ball was found in the tree on the left of the three trees, but the ball seems to fly to the right on the screen. What did I see wrong?” He was suspicious of Patrick Reed, who had been accused of cheating on the rules of golf on several occasions in the past.
Before the event, Reid tried to say New Year’s greetings to Rory McIlroy on the practice range, but when he was ignored, he turned around and took out a wooden tee from his pocket and threw it at McIlroy, causing a ‘T-Gate’ stir. Reid took a birdie on the 18th hole (par 5) and reduced 3 strokes on the day to record a total of 11 under par 205 strokes, and faced the final round with a tie for 4th place, 4 strokes behind the leader McIlroy (15 under par 201 strokes).