2020 PGA: Given The Chance To Bend The Spirit Of The Rules, McIlroy Passes

/
Screen Shot 2020-08-07 at 7.39.55 PM.png

When Rory McIlroy missed his tee shot right of Harding Park’s third green, the usual army of volunteers and three-deep crowds was not there to direct him to the ball.  After his group that included Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas had hit their approaches, the marshals on hand headed to the green’s right side. It was down deep.

According to Kama Yechoor, a volunteer who had finished his shift and was watching the group, those on hand were looking for the ball in an area pin-high right. Turns out, Rory had not flown nearly that far and the ball was sitting well down somewhere beside the fronting greenside bunker.

Jane Crafter, a former LPGA great and longtime commentator working ESPN’s Featured Group coverage, approached the scene to assess the tee shots and was going to help the search.  Everyone this week is a marshal without spectators. No one wants to see a player lose a ball. Even though the bluegrass roughs were topped off at 3.5 inches, the tall stuff is already a stout five inches in shaded areas.

“I didn’t see it, but I felt it,” Crafter said. She stepped on McIlroy’s ball as she approached.

When McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond arrived, Crafter was told what had happened, according to Yechoor. He called for a ruling.

The task fell to Mark Dusbabek, a roving official working as part of the PGA of America’s rules team this week situated off the nearby 13th fairways. He is also a full-time PGA Tour rules official and before that, a former linebacker who played three years for the Minnesota Vikings.

Dusbabek told McIlroy that he was entitled to replace the ball under rule 14-2, which addresses a ball at rest moved by an outside agency. Since Crafter did not see the lie, Dusbabek told McIlroy that they had to “estimate what the lie was.”

So McIlroy placed the ball down next to the spot where it had been embedded, laying it on top of the dense rough. Dusbabek, kneeling low and conversing quietly with McIlroy, looked at the two-time former PGA Champion.

“He said he didn’t feel comfortable with it sitting on top like that,” Dusbabek said.

Dusbabek told McIlroy he could place it to how he thought it might have sat before the accidental embedding.

“No one really knew what the lie was, but if everyone is going around looking for it, it obviously wasn't too good,” McIlroy said after the round. “So I placed it, I was like, that just doesn't look right to me. So I just placed it down a little bit.”

Not giving himself an advantage all but ruled out saving par after short-siding himself with the tee shot.

“It was a better lie than he probably would have had since I couldn’t see it,” Crafter said. “But he certainly did not give himself much to work with.”

After a second round 69 that included six birdies and a triple bogey, McIlroy explained his thinking.

“You know, at the end of the day, golf is a game of integrity and I never try to get away with anything out there. I'd rather be on the wrong end of the rules rather than on the right end because as golfers, that's just what we believe. Yeah, I would have felt pretty wrong if I had of taken a lie that was maybe a little better than what it was previously.”

Given the recent efforts of some elite players to fiddle with or overtly stomp on the spirit of the game, McIlroy’s instinct to not abuse the rules seemed especially refreshing.

Brooks Spots Ant Hole, Opts To Not Call In Rules Officials For Relief Discussion

/

I believe the kids would call this trolling.

Brooks Koepka Friday at the WGC FedEx St Jude in a tough spot. A day after Bryson DeCahmbeau and caddie lobbied for relief from a dangerous situation in the form of an ant hole as well as a burrowing animal hole:

Michael Shamburger filed a nice post recapping both situations including the clip originally Tweeted by PGA TOUR partner CBS before getting scrubbed by Cult Ponte Vedra.

Enjoy while you a before the Brand Police serve a warrant on Shamburger show up at his doorstep in a valiant effort to protect Bryson’s image.

BTW, Koepka got off to an awful start Saturday in Memphis and rallied to post 68, leaving him three back of Brendon Todd. DeChambeau is T40 after a -1 69.

Bryson Spots Ant In Attempt To Get A Free Drop, CBS Shares The Video And Of Course, Ponte Vedra Has It Taken Down

/
Screen Shot 2020-07-30 at 9.09.32 PM.png

With all due respect to Yoda, the spirit of the rules is not strong with this one.

Since the PGA Tour took down the video tweeted by their partners at CBS—paying lavishly for the rights btw—below is a shortened version posted that will inevitably be targeted by Cult Ponte Vedra in a futile attempt to scrub evidence of unsportsmanlike conduct by Bryson Dechambeau. The full version would allow you to see the various avenues he attempts to pursue in search of a better lie, including the spotting of one red ant in hopes of protecting himself from harms way.

This came after his Memorial antics whining about a ruling and mashing down rough, proceeded by his caddy trying to bully a camera operator. The total package should give you an idea of just how dire the situation is in the players-first, rules/golf core values of the game a distant-second-mindset that has overtaken the PGA Tour.

Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com with the details and DeChambeau’s post-round comments suggesting he’s always going to respect the officials.

The original Tweet, now sleeping with the fishes even though, did I mention? CBS pays lavishly for the right to share these things. Got to love the partnership bonds!

Rahm After Memorial Win, "The ball did move"

/
Screen Shot 2020-07-19 at 8.54.09 PM.png

A weird final day at the 2020 Memorial will be remembered as the day Jon Rahm became the —- player to be the world’s No. 1 golfer, and his 16 hole hole chip in. Followed by a post-round two-stroke penalty for causing the ball to move (but before he signed his scorecard).

Mike McAllister at PGATour.com with the definitive account of what happened once Tour rules officials started looking at the video and before Rahm signed his winning card.

The shot in question was his second from the rough just off the green at the par-3 16th. As Rahm was at address, the ball moved slightly. Rahm then holed the shot, but slow-motion replays showed the label on the ball moving slightly.

“I didn’t see it,” Rahm said. “You know, I promised open honestly and I’m a loyal person and I don’t want to win by cheating. … The ball did move. It’s as simple as that.”

Rahm was first asked about the potential of a penalty during his post-round interview with CBS prior to reaching the scoring area. Slugger White, PGA TOUR Vice President of Rules & Competition, then showed the replay to Rahm and the penalty was assessed prior to signing his scorecard.

The chip-in becomes a bogey and a 9-under-par winning score over Ryan Palmer, who badly missed the previous week’s cut over the same golf course.

After, Slugger White made clear quite assertively that this was a 9.4 violation and HD had nothing to do with the call.

“The rule is 9.4,” White said. “It was a ball at rest by the player, moved, and since he didn't put it back, he was assessed a general penalty, which is two strokes. That's pretty much the bottom line. …

“When he put the club down behind the ball, it moved ever so slightly to the left, so it changed positions. He accepted it like a gentleman and the man that he is, and we just went on with it.”

Views were split, though Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee feels a poor precedent has been set.

Here is shot and a closer look at the ball move. As I discuss on this week’s Shack Show, the practice of so aggressively grounding the club was apparently all week at Muirfield Village and it nearly cost the winner the outright victory he’s enjoying.

Golf Values Reset: Rekindling The Early Days Of "Play It As It Lies"

/
Screen Shot 2020-05-10 at 10.06.10 PM.png

With new rules and regulations during the COVID-19, golfers are flocking to courses and based on social media, enjoying their golf more than ever. Even with all sorts of safety precautions stripping away elements thought essential to enjoyment of the game, it turns out the mere privilege of being outside, getting exercise and hitting the ball has brought priorities into focus.

Play it as it lies has been under fire some time. Golfers get to touch their ball too much, particularly on the greens. (Though magically, for a short, dark period in the early 2000s would mysteriously leave it down to provide a backstop for competitors even when playing for millions of dollars. Go figure.)

There are also drops, excuses to touch the ball to gauge how it lies or if it’s scuffed too much. And then there is all of that dabbing, touching, extricating and other surgery allowed in the immediate surrounds of the ball. The effect puts a few dents in play it as it lies.

Worse, massive amounts of capital and man hours are expended annually to prevent golfers from having to find a lie that might set in motion a series of ” tragic” events like sixes and sevens. Land has been rearranged to flatten stances, bunker floors have been remodeled to allow for an ideal stance. Even in hazards, where technically no one should not be entitled to any coddling, golfers demand perfection and today’s talented superintendents deliver.

But with the COVID-19 precautions such as unraked bunkers and flagsticks in holes, golfers are reporting normal eastern sunrises and western sunsets despite these pandemic-related “concessions”. Many are enjoying the stripped-down game even more.

So while we’re hiding rakes and treating flagsticks like they are radioactive, why not pretend golf balls are potential virus carriers and return to the days of leaving them down unless absolutely necessary. The backstoppers should be thrilled. The realization that a bad lie now and then is a small price to pay for the privilege of playing in these times of quarantining. We might even be able to shed a few ounces of bloated entitlement bred by exposure to mostly pristine playing opportunities?

While doing some research I popped open Scotland’s Gift-Golf and C.B. Macdonald explained in Chapter I (Introduction to St Andrews) how the early golf he played there as a young visitor was centered around a “code of honor” where “the player must play the ball as it lay.” He ended the first chapter with this longing for American golf to capture the essence of the primal game that hooked him:

So strong was the influence of my associations with St. Andrews that for many years touching the ball in play without penalty was anathema to me, a kind of sacrilegious profanity. The impression of the true old game of golf is indescribable. It was like the dawn or the twilight of a brilliant day. It can only be felt. The charm, the fascination of it all, cannot be conveyed in words.

Would that I could hand on unimpaired the great game as it was my good fortune to know it. The iconoclast and the Bolshevik, knowing nothing of golfing law or golfing sin, may mar its spirit, but I have faith in its supremacy.

Based on the early reactions I’ve heard about unraked bunkers and slower, less refined maintenance, the spirit, the “charm” and “the fascination of it all” is being “felt” again. Maybe with less touching of the ball, more acceptance of playing it as you found it, and scorecards taking on a little less importance, perhaps we can see a return of the primal St Andrews sensations that so enamored Macdonald.

Screen Shot 2020-05-10 at 10.01.21 PM.png

Golf Needs To Get Ahead Of Its "Banging Scheme" Before It's Too Late

/
Screen Shot 2020-02-19 at 9.45.52 PM.png

Those following the Houston Astros debacle in baseball that was not properly handled by Commissioner Rob Manfred would likely agree that had more been done early on to stop the shenanigans, there would less of a crisis than the one now facing Major League Baseball.

I’m also confident in saying that had Patrick Reed been disqualified and suspended for conduct unbecoming a pro golfer following his Hero World Challenge lie improvement, there would not be an appetite for more Reed bashing that we see today.

Which, in case you didn’t know, continued Tuesday morning when Brooks Koepka mocked Reed’s efforts and excuses and used the dreaded cheater word. Thene things took an even more incredible turn Tuesday night when No Laying Up’s podcast with Peter Kostis led to explicit accusations of multiple cheating incidents.

From Will Gray’s GolfChannel.com summary of the Kostis portion of the podcast:

"I've seen Patrick Reed improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now," Kostis said.

One such instance came during the final round of The Barclays in 2016 at Bethpage Black, an event that Reed went on to win. After hitting his drive on the 13th hole into thick rough just off the fairway, Reed put an iron down multiple times behind the ball before ultimately hitting a 3-wood, a turn of events that drew Kostis' attention in live time on the broadcast.

"That's the only time I ever shut [Gary] McCord up. He didn't know what to say when I said, 'Well, the lie that I saw originally wouldn't have allowed for this shot,'" Kostis said. "Because he put four or five clubs behind the ball, kind of faking whether he's going to hit this shot or hit that shot. By the time he was done, he hit a freaking 3-wood out of there, which when I saw it, it was a sand wedge layup originally."

Kostis can’t be accused of sitting on his observations:

But another comment from Kostis may speak to something I saw extensively last week at the Genesis Invitational and also at the Farmers in January: a habit of most modern golfers to put their club down behind the ball in not-so-gentle fashion, test the lie, and often with obvious pressure levied.

Kostis on Reed:

"I'm not even sure that he knows that he's doing it sometimes. Maybe he does, I don't know," Kostis said. "I'm not going to assign intent. All I'm going to tell you is what I saw."

After watching players regularly put a club down behind the ball, change clubs, do it again and test how their club sits (even on tight turf), I can only conclude that no one has told a generation of golfers: “that’s a bad look to be, uh, banging at the ground. Some people might even think you are improving your lie.”

While it took a long time to get backstopping under control, perhaps someone in golf will begin talking to players immediately when they are seen banging away at the grass and pressing into the ground behind their ball. It might just prevent an integrity crisis the sport does not need.

Koepka Lumps Patrick Reed's "Building Castles" With Astros Scandal, Says Lie Improvement Going On More Than It Should

/
Screen Shot 2020-02-18 at 8.42.23 AM.png

Well there’s some synergy for you.

Brooks Koepka, co-architect of revisions to Memorial Park, home to the 2020 Houston Open benefiting the Cheating Astros Foundation, shared his views on Patrick Reed’s Hero World Challenge waste area antics with SiriusXM’s Sway Callaway (full clip below).

After answering in the affirmative to the “cheating” word, Koepka is more than clear on his views about Reed and overall lie improvement practices he sees.

From a GolfChannel.com report:

When asked by host Sway Callaway if Reed was cheating when he improved his lie, Koepka said: “Yeah. I don’t know what he was doing, building sand castles in the sand. But you know where your club is. I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touch sand. If you look at the video, obviously he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.”

After making an Astros comparison, Koepka touched on something once sadly controversial and now going on too often in pro golf: mashing the grass down behind a ball.

In fact, during a U.S. Open (he didn’t specify which year), Koepka said that he watched one of his fellow playing competitors blow a drive right, into 6-inch rough. He saw that player take out a 3-wood and pat down the thick rough behind the ball, only to then grab a wedge and hack the ball out 60 yards down the fairway. Koepka looked at the other player in his group and said, “This ain’t right.”

“It goes on a little bit more than people think,” he said, before adding: "I’ve been guilty of it. I haven’t opened my mouth. But now if I saw it, just because of where I’m at in the game, the stature that I have, I would definitely say something.”

The full interview…hope Brooks doesn’t get too big of a fine for this!

Sigh...Keven Na Roots For His Backstopping Ball To Help Another Player

/
Screen Shot 2020-01-18 at 9.18.46 AM.png

Just when we thought the whole backstopping thing was over, along comes Kevin Na adding a new layer.

To be clear, no violation of the rules took place. But the spirit of the rules? That’s another story.

Russell Knox was in golf’s deepest bunker and later took to Twitter clarifying he had Na idea what was going on 25 feet above him. But as we see in video posted by the PGA Tour Twitter account, Na has hit his approach, left it, is standing just a few feet off the green and can be heard rooting for Knox’s shot to hit his ball (“hit my ball”). Thanks to reader Gray for noting this shot, only seen while Playing Through during second round American Express action:

You know the drill by now. Backstopping is the scratch-my-back-I-scratch-yours weirdness that has been endorsed by those yearning for some sort of club membership in the world of professional golf.

The practice seemingly subsided since last February’s embarrassing episode featuring Amy Olson and Ariya Jutanugarn. But as fans have come to understand the strange little practice, they don’t like it.

Just check out the overwhelming number of to a magnificent bunker instead focusing on Na’s actions. A sampling screen capture:

Screen Shot 2020-01-18 at 9.19.43 AM.png

In a week where cheating in sports has been dominating news and social media as the Patrick Reed situation lingers, logic dictates that players and officials are on heightened alert for anything that could be misconstrued. Nope.

Now imagine in the near future when sports gambling is legal and Na is heard rooting for another player’s ball to hit the one he purposely left near the hole. Given the reactions to this shot to the PGA Tour’s Tweet there will be an outcry or worse, gamblers wanting inquiries and refunds.

All of this would be a non-issue if Na merely walked the six or seven paces to slap a coin down behind his ball. But pretty soon, if not already given what’s going on in sports, this bizarre cultural practice will be put in a different spotlight. And not one with soft lighting or minor consequences.

Patrick Reed And The Astros: Smoltz On The Parallels And Differences Between The Cheaters

/

Is this a bad time to remind everyone of the PGA Tour’s Houston Open brought to you by the Astros Foundation? Eh, it’s in the fall. We’ll deal with the cheating Asterisks then. Hopefully Patrick Reed is not their headliner. Oh right, Brooks Koepka has to play.

Anyway…

The LPGA kicks off its 2020 season with the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions where a celebrity tournament within the tournament draws many of Major League Baseball’s recent greats. Former Brave and current Fox broadcaster John Smoltz was asked about the breaking Astros scandal and Patrick Reed’s recent brush with integrity.

Randall Mell with the full story for GolfChannel.com and Smoltz’s view that both golf and baseball are struggling to manage technology. But this was a nice quote:

“What makes golf unique is that it's up to the integrity of each person to determine whether they want to apply the rules as they're meant, and that's why golf has always been known as the gentleman's game. But it's frowned upon, and we all know enough people, and play with enough people at our clubs, that just can't help themselves by getting an advantage and an edge, because they want to compete, and they want to be successful. That bothers me, but it's not immune from anywhere.”

While the Reed fallout continues because fans do not feel he got the punishment deserved for so blatantly bending the rules last December, Major League Baseball may face a similar issue if fans and players feel the Astros punishment did not fit the crimes committed.

Patrick Reed's Lawyer Tries To Silence Chamblee's Suggestions Of Cheating

/
Screen Shot 2020-01-10 at 7.50.05 AM.png

While anyone who has played the game is uncomfortable with the actions of Patrick Reed—at best—his obvious effort to improve his lie at December’s Hero World Challenge has also involved behind-the-scenes efforts to squash free speech.

Eamon Lynch reports on a cease and desist letter Reed had his attorney send to Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee demanding and end to accusations of cheating.

“The purpose of this letter is to obtain assurance that you will refrain from any further dissemination, publication or republication of false and defamatory statements concerning Mr. Reed, including any allegations that he ‘cheated’ at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas,” wrote Peter Ginsberg, a partner at the New York City law firm of Sullivan & Worcester.

Ginsberg, who previously represented Ray Rice and has sued the PGA Tour on behalf of Vijay Singh and Hank Haney, confirmed to Golfweek that he represents Reed and sent the letter.

Chamblee’s comment drawing the most ire from Team Reed: “To defend what Patrick Reed did is defending cheating. It’s defending breaking the rules.”

Since the letter was sent in December, fans have continued to taunt Reed at the Presidents Cup and in his first 2020 PGA Tour start. Having served no suspension and having been deemed a gentleman for accepting his two-stroke penalty presumably for not trashing the scoring trailer, appears to have only outraged a majority of fans who value the integrity of professional golfers.

Sending such a letter on top of whatever other efforts Team Reed are pursuing behind the scenes would seem to only be keeping memories fresh of Patrick Reed’s recent and distant past issues with the law.

The rest of the story includes comment from Chamblee on the apparent claim by Reed’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, that video captured by Golf Channel cameras exonerated his client. This, even though it was the video that became the only way we learned of Reed’s nefarious actions.

The Reed Rules Saga, Files: Calls For An Intervention, Fans Need To Back Off And Monahan Weighs In

/
Screen Shot 2020-01-06 at 8.29.57 PM.png

It’s no “mashed potatoes.”

Twenty-four hours later, Sunday’s “cheater” yell remains a shocker in a sport largely heckle-free. And totally predictable given Patrick Reed’s lack of a legitimate explanation for his cheating episode at the 2019 Hero World Challenge.

The outburst was surprising for the event, home to chill Maui crowds.

Brentley Romine on what was said and when during the 2020 Sentry.

Randall Mell writes for Golf Channel on the need of Team Reed to host an intervention due to overall point-misser tendencies.

Because this isn’t even really about Reed’s welfare. It’s about where the game is being further pushed if he doesn’t admit his need for forgiveness and seek some sort of absolution. It’s about how even reasonable golf fans are willing to accept heckling when it’s aimed at a player who is so remorseless in his indiscretion.

The sport is in trouble when heckling can be justified as defense of the game’s honor.

Michael Bamberger had a different view of “the heckle heard ‘round the world”, saying it’s the job of fans to save the sport by remaining genteel:

If golf is on the road to anything goes, on the part of players or spectators, the professional game will be on life support before Tiger gets his 18th major.

Ultimately this all ignores what I see as equally important: has the lack of any significant punishment for Reed increased the likelihood of more fan incidents? We considered this going into the Presidents Cup, and now we know how those crowds treated Reed (not well).

A second high profile episode in his first PGA Tour start of 2020 now exists during a sudden death playoff. And his case is closed. Commissioner Jay Monahan speaking in Maui, as reported by Dave Shedloski at GolfWorld.com:

“Golf is a game of honor and integrity, and you've heard from Patrick,” Monahan said. “I've had an opportunity to talk to Patrick at length, and I believe Patrick when he says that [he] did not intentionally improve [his] lie. And so you go back to that moment, and the conversation that he had with [rules official] Slugger [White], and the fact that a violation was applied and he agreed to it, and they signed his card and he moved on. To me that was the end of the matter.”

Given that Reed appears to have gotten away with something in the eye of most fans and PGA Tour leadership, it’s easy to envision many more fan episodes.

Oh, and he video, if you missed the 2020 Sentry:

Golf Central’s discussion of Reed’s issues with fans:

Reed: If I Had Cheated, "It would have been a really good lie, and I would have hit it really close''

/
Screen Shot 2019-12-10 at 8.48.29 AM.png

Patrick Reed’s Presidents Cup press conference was carried live on Golf Channel and his attempt to answer questions about his Hero World Challenge run-in with the rules included an odd rationalization. From Bob Harig’s ESPN.com story on Reed’s remarks and the notion of cheating:

"It's not the right word to use,'' Reed said after a practice round at Royal Melbourne, where the Presidents Cup begins on Thursday. "At the end of the day, if you do something unintentionally that breaks the rules, it's not considered cheating, but I wasn't intentionally trying to improve a lie or anything like that. If I was, it would have been a really good lie, and I would have hit it really close.''

What an odd way to think.

Maybe Patrick’s new irons feature a sand shock absorption feature? Because I’m fairly confident no one who has played golf for any length of time would claim they are unable to see or feel the type of contact with the ground he displayed.

Video of the session, which includes Reed saying the matches are “personal” now that International team members have called him out:

Meanwhile there was little sugarcoating of the Reed situation on last night’s Live From the Presidents Cup (video embedded below):

Brandel Chamblee – “In general, the team will have the appearance of a well-oiled machine, but deep down, the marrow of this team, they will be affected by this controversy. Their DNA as a team has been altered. There are no two ways about it.”

Chamblee – “I have never seen a more obvious breach of the rule than this. One that is not in any way – nobody who watches it in any way will be able to acquit him of what transpired [at Hero World Challenge]. His comments aside, this was a gross breach of the rule. The court of public opinion is a lot harsher than the rule book. The rule book is going to give him two shots. The court of public opinion is going to make him pay for this for a long time.”

Nobilo – “Public opinion says this is far more egregious, but the rule book disagrees with that. That is why were are almost in a double jeopardy situation. If there is anything positive that does come out of this situation, is that this rule is addressed going forward.”

Chamblee – “To have somebody on your team who so flagrantly abuses the rules of the game of golf, and there is no more sacred rule in the game of golf than play it as it lies. They [the U.S. Team] have a couple of hurdles against them. They are on foreign territory and now they have ceded the higher moral ground to the other team.”

Chamblee – “The whole team made a deal with the devil when he was chosen for the U.S. Team. All of the baggage that they thought was going to come with him has multiplied exponentially with what happened last week. I cannot imagine that Tiger Woods’ choices for teammates for Reed can be anybody other than just himself.”

Jaime Diaz – “Everything was smooth and safe but for one thing. He didn’t think he moved any sand. Players are too good and have too much feel to not have a sensation like that. It is just hard to believe. I think this is going to hang him up forever.”

Jim Gallagher, Jr. – “This week might be difficult for Patrick Reed and it could be difficult for his partners. That is the hard part. The captains are trying to deflect it and go forward, but I don’t know if it will keep deflecting because this is growing into a life of its own.”

Rory: Reed Taking More Heat Than Most Because "It's Him"

/
Screen Shot 2019-12-09 at 7.49.11 PM.png

I rarely disagree with Rory McIlroy much these days as he’s become one of the game’s sharpest observers.

But his view of Patrick Reed’s blatant lie-improvement at the Hero World Challenge fails to inspire.

From today’s Morning Drive interview with Robert Damron and Paige Mackenzie, as reported on by G.C. Digital:

"I don’t think it would be a big deal if it wasn’t Patrick Reed. It’s almost like, a lot of people within the game, it’s almost like a hobby to sort of kick him when he’s down," McIlroy said Monday on "Morning Drive".

Said McIlroy: "I think the live shot isn’t as incriminating as the slow-mo. It’s hard, because you try to give the player the benefit of the doubt, right? He’s in there, he’s trying to figure out what way to play the shot.

“It’s almost like it’s obliviousness to it rather than anything intentful, in terms of trying to get away with anything.”

However, added McIlroy, “It doesn’t make it right what he did.”

The full interview is better than the text given how uncomfortable McIlroy sounds having to address Reed’s nonsense:

Cam Smith: Hopes Presidents Cup Fans "Absolutely Give It" To Patrick Reed

/
Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 5.34.28 PM.png

Jacob Polychronis of Fox Sports shares the shockingly blunt assessment of International Presidents Cup team member Cameron Smith

Speaking after the final round of the Australian Open, Smith issued a forceful statement regarding Reeds’ lame blaming of camera angles.

“If you make a mistake maybe once you can maybe understand, but to give a bit of a bull***t response like the camera angle – I mean, that’s pretty up there,” Smith said.

“I hope the crowd absolutely gives it to not only him but everyone (from team America) next week.”

Marc Leishman issued a similar endorsement, though his tone was far less forceful.

If only we knew what was going on behind the scenes…in the PGA Tour fines department. Just wondering: are Smith and Leishman going to get fined for encouraging heckling of a peer, while lie-improver Reed goes unfined?

The policies of the PGA Tour will never let us know.

Either way, Thursday’s first session just got more interesting.

Reed Bunker Episode: Best Alternative GIF's Of The Hero World Challenge Violation

/

Some fun on Twitter in case you’d retired your account…

Oh wait, the last one was real…