Third-round co-leader Patrick Reed found himself faced with another rule issue at the Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday as he sought relief for a trapped ball – those TV replays had bounced back first – then picked up the ball for a rule. official could come.
Reed, the 2018 Masters champion who accused him of cheating after an incident at the 2019 Hero World Challenge, had his approach shot drawn from a fairway bunker to the left rug at Torrey Pines’ 10th hole in San Diego.
A ball embedded anywhere in the green, except in sandy areas, is entitled to a free drop, which is what Reed was looking for. But reruns showed that the ball had bounced before sinking into the rough.
CBS analyst Nick Faldo wondered how a ball could be embedded – or connected – if it had bounced back first.
Due to the heavy rain during the tournament, the round was played with the desired lies, or “lift, clean and place”. But that only applies to balls that are in the fairway.
To make matters worse, Reed picked up the ball – which should only have happened if his playing partners, Robby Shelton and Will Gordon, had been consulted and allowed him to do it. It was unclear whether Reed asked them or whether they responded.
Reed was told to the rules officer that his ball had not bounced back, but he refused to watch replays on television. “I checked and I think it broke ground,” Reed told Tour Rules official Brad Fabel. “Ever since I took it to check it seemed like it broke ground. They said it didn’t bounce.”
Reed said in a post-round interview that a tournament volunteer told him the ball didn’t bounce; and he explained that he picked up and marked the ball because no one saw the ball bounce, and he tried to determine if it was embedded. When Fabel checked the area, he determined that Reed could receive help.
That gave Reed the ability to clean the ball and drop it within a club length. He got the ball up and down for a par and is level with Carlos Ortiz after shooting a third round 70.
Rules official Ken Tackett explained during the CBS broadcast that it didn’t matter if the ball had bounced first, as it was determined that the ball was embedded. Faldo questioned that and Jim Nantz, main station of CBS, called it a “bad look.”
At the 2019 Hero World Challenge, Reed came under immense scrutiny after it was found that he had “ corrected his lie ” in a trash area when dragging his club back during a practice swing. He was later sentenced to two strokes and then. accepted the punishment but maintained a different camera angle would have acquitted him.
Reed was harassed during the Presidents Cup the following week and his caddy and brother-in-law, Kessler Karain, even got into a fight with an onlooker, leading the PGA Tour to suspend him from the last day’s action.