Patrick Reed (33, USA) is nicknamed ‘a bad boy on the field’. He is so talented that he won the Masters, a major tournament on the US Professional Golf (PGA) Tour in 2018, but he speaks harshly and commits cheating. In fact, in the Hero World Challenge in December 2019, he received a two-stroke penalty for removing sand from the back of the ball, but was criticized for not acknowledging it.
Such Reid was again embroiled in a cheating controversy in the third round of the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) Dubai Desert Classic held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the 30th. In the 17th hole (par 4), Reed’s tee shot went off the fairway and headed for a large palm tree. If the ball is not found and is treated as a ‘lost ball’, he gets a two-stroke penalty, but Reed declares ‘unplayable’ after confirming that his ball is resting on a branch with binoculars, receives a penalty of one stroke, and makes a third shot near the tree. I hit and holed out by bogey. 스포츠토토
After the game, however, allegations arose that Reed pretended to check his ball when he did not actually check it. This is because Reed’s tee shot seemed to be heading for a different tree than the tree where he said he found the ball in the game video released through social media. Golf Digest also reported that there were four or five more balls between the branches of the palm tree that Reed looked up through his binoculars. In response, Reed said, “Obviously he checked my ball. He protested, saying, “If I hadn’t confirmed 100% that it was my ball, he would have gone to the tee box.” The senior competition commissioner also sided with Reed, saying, “I identified the tree on which Reed’s ball landed and confirmed the ball marked by Reed with binoculars.” In fact, the US media is reporting the controversy as a ‘tree gate’.
Even before the opening of the tournament, Reid greeted Rory McIlroy (34, Northern Ireland), the world’s No. 1, and threw a wooden tee at McIlroy in anger when he was ignored. McIlroy is calling the players “traitors” who turned their backs on the PGA Tour and moved to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, which was launched by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Also, the DP World Tour, like the PGA Tour, insists that players from the LIV series be banned from participating. Reid moved to the LIV series last year. The American media is reporting the tree tee incident as a ‘tee gate’.