Patrick Reed on Farmers Insurance Open controversy: 'The rules officials said we did it absolutely perfectly' https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
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 group and said, 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 has seen it bounce, of seven people, therefore, you get a 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.
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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Later, Senior Tournament Director John Mutch was questioned by the media.
Q. John, when you went into the scoring truck to show him the video, what were you looking for, what were you trying to get out of that?
JOHN MUTCH: I wanted to know if he saw the ball bounce and neither he nor his fellow competitors saw the ball bounce. It’s pretty clear watching the video that he got to within 10 yards of the ball and asked the volunteer who was standing right there “did it bounce” and the volunteer said it did not bounce. So it was reasonable for him to conclude that that was his ball, it did not bounce and he was then entitled to see if it was embedded.
Q. Was there any concern that he might have cleaned his golf ball after he picked it up?
JOHN MUTCH: No, I didn’t see that. And once it was determined to be embedded, he would be allowed to clean it. And he also did mark it. He also let his fellow competitors know he was going to do that, so he operated the way the rules entitled him to operate.
Q. Would it be fair to say this happens almost every day on Tour in very similar situations?
JOHN MUTCH: Under soft conditions we do get a lot of rulings for embedded ball and we don’t always get called in on every one of them. It’s a fairly common ruling, yes.
Q. If he had not called a rules official in, that still would have been fine, correct?
JOHN MUTCH: Yeah, he operated the way the rules permit him to operate. It’s similar to virtual certainty, under embedded ball it’s called “reasonable to conclude,” but if you hit the ball into a penalty area and you’re playing with a couple of your buddies and you’re virtually certain that’s where the ball went and you operate under the penalty area rule and then later somebody in a group two groups behind you says, “Hey, I found your ball in the left rough,” well, you’re not under any penalty because you were virtually certain the ball’s in the penalty area and you proceeded according to the rules. So it’s similar in this regard. There was nothing under the rules that he did improperly.
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Reed spoke with other media members on the incident:
Q. Sorry to make you repeat this, I know you’ve done it three times already, but can you just run us through what happened on 10?
PATRICK REED: All right. First off, I get on 10 and the tee shot ends up just in that left bunker and didn’t have the greatest of lies, so I tried to kind of get steep on a 6 steep on an 8 iron to try to get basically contact. Caught a hair heavy, ball launched vertical and left and it was going just left of the cart path. No one saw the ball bounce. The guys in my group didn’t see the ball bounce and the volunteer who was almost on top of the golf ball when it landed literally went and marked it right then and there. When we got up there, first thing you do is you obviously ask, did you see the ball bounce, and if they say no, at that point I marked it to check to see if it was embedded. It definitely broke looked like it broke the plane.
So from that point, called the rules official over and the rules official comes over and he checks to make sure it’s broken the plane and he agreed. At that point we go and we take a, you know, embedded ball rule relief, which is one club length from the embedded ball and dropped the ball from there. At that point, when you have three players, three caddies and the volunteer’s really close to the golf ball not seeing the ball bounce, then you have to go by what everyone sees and what everyone saw. When no one has seen that, then the rules official basically say whether it’s free relief or not, and the rules official agreed that the ball has broken the plane and it was relief.
It’s an unfortunate situation obviously, but at the end of the day when you finish a round and the head rules official comes up to you and has the video and shows everything that went down to the whole group and says that you’ve done this perfectly, you did this the exact right way, the protocols you did were spot on, at that point, you know, I feel great about it.
Q. Would you have done anything differently?
PATRICK REED: The only thing I would have done differently, if we saw the ball bounce or if someone said the ball bounced, then I never would have marked the golf ball. You would have just played as it lies. You know when the ball bounces it’s almost impossible for it to break the plane and so therefore, when that happens, anytime you see the ball bounce you just play it as it lies. But since you have three players, three caddies and a volunteer that is probably from me to you that didn’t see the ball bounce, then you obviously are going to go off of that.
Q. Given how confident you are that you did the right thing and the officials have backed that up, are you at all surprised at sort of the reaction in the last 20, 30 minutes to what happened?
PATRICK REED: Well, I haven’t seen really the actual reaction, I’ve just been asked the question over and over again what happened on hole 10.
Q. Are you surprised we keep asking the question over and over again?
PATRICK REED: No, because different media outlets, you know. Really, no. I mean, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t have done anything differently when everyone has said that they did not see the ball bounce. Now, if you had 100 people around there, bunch of fans out there and one fan said they saw it bounce, I never would have had to put a tee down and even check to see if it was embedded.
That’s the one thing that, you know, when we don’t see it something happen and a volunteer doesn’t see something happen, you go by best judgment as well as that’s why you always call a rules official, because at the end of the day they’re going to have the best judgment over everybody. If they believe that it’s embedded as well, that’s then when you go by what they say.
Q. Patrick, do you feel like when you get in these situations that sometimes you have a little bit more scrutiny on you than other players maybe?
PATRICK REED: Oh, definitely. You know, it is you know, it is an unfortunate thing that happened today, but at the same time it’s exactly what I would have done every time, exactly what every player should do. You should ask your playing opponents if they’ve seen whether it’s a ball bounce or whether it crosses a hazard line, you always ask them first and then you ask the volunteer, and then from there you check to see and at that point you call a rules official.
It’s unfortunate, but at the same time when you have the rules officials and everybody come up and said that you did it textbook and did it exactly how you’re supposed to do, then that’s all you can do. I mean, when we’re out there and we’re playing, we can’t see everything. That’s why you rely on the other players, other opponents, you rely on the volunteers as well as rely on the rules officials. When they all say what we’ve done is the right thing, then you move on and you go on.
You know, the great thing is I still have a chance to win a golf tournament. Now have to go out tomorrow and put the foot down and try to make as many birdies as possible.
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