Patrick Reed’s controversial move on the 10th hole at the Farmers Insurance Open to move his ball before consulting with a PGA Tour official had the sports world talking on Saturday.
Here is what Reed said to CBS Sports’ Amanda Balionis after his round:
REED: So the first thing we do is when we don’t see it bounce in the group doesn’t see a bounce, you ask the volunteer whoever’s closest to that golf ball where it was and you know the volunteer said no the ball did not bounce and therefore I, when that happened, I looked at my groups those guys she didn’t see a bounce either so I’m gonna mark this ball and you know see if it’s embedded and you know, once I marked it the first thing I wanted to do was make sure got the ball out of my hand because you know, if you don’t want to clean it or anything because you don’t know if it’s embedded yet and when I put my finger down there, and I felt like it has broken ground, first thing you do is you call rules official because you know, you want the rules official to come over to make sure that it is.
When the rules official came over said it yes, no this … this ball has broken the plane and with no one seeing the ball bounce and that’s what we all saw and so because of that, you know, the rules official’s like well since no one else is seen it bounce, of seven people, therefore you get free drop and free relief and at that point, you know, we just go with what the rules officials said and also with what the volunteers and what we see because that’s one of those things I will out there, we can’t see everything and when that happens, you know, you have to go by with what the volunteers say with what the rules officials say and, you know, when all comes push and shove we felt like we did the right thing and the rules officials said we did it absolutely perfectly and with that being said you know we moved on just continue playing.
Here’s the full Patrick Reed clip for people who haven’t seen it. Is this a fair ruling? 😳 pic.twitter.com/isvJ2umVvX
— GolfMagic.com (@GolfMagic) January 30, 2021
BALIONIS: Hindsight’s 20-20. If you had to go back do you pick up the ball before the rules official is there?
REED: Yes, because you sit there and when you have three players including yourself three caddies and a volunteer that’s within five yards of that golf ball and no one says it bounced, you’re gonna mark it in check see if the ball’s embedded, you know, that’s what every player does if the ball if no one sees a bounce they see that.
You know looks like it’s broken the plane, the ground you mark the ball and you pick it up first and then when you see that is embedded that’s when you always call rules official over no matter what you’re doing to take the drop to make sure you’re doing the drop correctly.
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