Patrick Reed found himself at the centre of yet another controversy last weekend after he was given a two stroke penalty for manipulating his lie ahead of a bunker shot.
The incident took place at the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas. Footage shows Reed placing his club on the sand in order to cultivate a friendlier lie, not once, but twice. This is a clear violation of the rules.
While this may have been considered an honest mistake for other players, Reed has become known for his creative interpretation of the rules in recent years.
The two stroke penalty would prove costly, with the American finishing two shots behind eventual winner Henrik Stenson.
His focus now turns to the Presidents Cup, where Team USA will take on a selection of international players. However, it appears he will not be allowed to easily forget the incident.
Former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen is on the international team, and he said that Reed would get a tough time from the Australian crowd and claims he would ask questions of any teammate who attempted such an act:
I think he's going to have a tough time. I mean, it looked like a very stupid thing he did. It doesn't look great for him, I can say that. It's going to be a tough one to get rid of.
That's going to be all on him (to apologise) what he really feels inside what he did. I mean, obviously it looks bad from the outside. It does not look great.
If it was someone on my team, I know a bunch of us would ask him straight the question, and then probably take it from there.
First time participant Cameron Smith shared a similar sentiment, telling the Australian Associated Press:
If you make a mistake maybe once, you could maybe understand but to give a bit of a bullshit response like the camera angle … that’s pretty up there.
I don’t have any sympathy for anyone that cheats.
I hope the crowd absolutely gives it to not only him, but everyone (on the American team) next week.
One person who has backed Reed is his team captain. Team USA is being led by none other than Tiger Woods, who said the incident is now behind him:
Yes, I have spoken to Pat about it, it's behind us, we're onto this week, we're focused on going against this great International team here.
As we all know, Pat was penalised and that was it, end of story. Unfortunately, he missed the play-offs by those two shots but we're looking at this week.
