Only thing I could contribute to that is we had a ton of rain, almost a solid week leading into the tourney. So it's either especially possible or enough of a factor to leave that kind of call with little question. I don't know how well that course drains and I particularly do not know what I am talking about otherwise. Just eating beef jerky and chiming in.
Interesting article. https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/30813245/even-win-patrick-reed-escape-own-history
OK, now I had to go find the clip. I get what you're saying about the ball not being embedded because it bounced, and also the commentary after the next shot where they said he should have called the official before moving the ball in the first place. But I also note that when Reed comes to the ball, the announcers said that lift, clean and place was in effect. So to me, the question becomes, does the embedded ball rule supercede a lift, clean and place rule? If not, he had the right to pick up the ball, clean it and set it down, without any of the rigamarole with the official that followed. Just looking at both sides; I don't know how the rule should be applied in this case. I would think the rules official could have told him on the spot that he incurred a penalty if he had done it wrong. ETA: Thinking further, I'm guessing now the difference is in from where will he play the next shot? In lift, clean and place he would have to put the ball down right next to the cart path where it originally stopped, and probably his stance has a foot on the path. The imbed rule gave him a drop, which gave him a more favorable stance away from the cart path. If that's how it went down, then yep, we've got some dirty pool going on here.
Gotcha. Announcers didn't say that. Here's another video from The Golf Channel. Its 13 minutes so I'll summarize. The first half shows the events as they happened, including the observer at the spot saying the ball didn't bounce. You also clearly hear Reed tell his playing partners what he's doing. You also hear that, after the tournament, Reed and the officials were shown the video that proved the ball did, in fact, bounce, but the officials still say Reed did everything right. The second half of the video has the commentators basically saying, we don't care what the officials say, we're talking about Patrick Reed; therefore, he's wrong.
I watched the video. Thanks for posting the link. Technically, based on the "evidence" available to the rules officials, Reed didn't violate a rule. But give his past history, he SHOULD have handled the situation differently. Hell, during the video where he was in the bunker the video clearly shows him brushing the sand. He was kicked off the golf team at UGA for being "labeled" a cheater. What I really don't like from watching the video, is while waiting for Brad Fabel to arrive he appears to be doing a lot of probing with his finger in the spot where his ball was. Bottom line, I think he handled the "situation" extremely poorly and is taking a major beating in the golf world for it.
I saw that too (the finger probing). Its also kind of fishy the way he's palming the ball before he sets it to the side. What upsets the whole situation for me is the news that the officials even went over the video with Reed afterward to prove the ball bounced. Presumably they also saw the probing and palming as well, but despite that we know the PGA will penalize players after the fact based on video evidence, they still say he did nothing wrong. I agree with you, the optics are bad, and when you have the rep, you need to do things better than just "right." But if the guys in charge had two chances to penalize him and didn't, maybe we just need to let it go.
The video evidence with Stadler & the towel was clear cut, thus the DQ. IMO, the video wasn't definitive enough to say Reed committed a rules violation. I think the only way Reed would have been penalized was if he had admitted afterwards that he had violated the rule. The linked article provides guidance on TV "evidence". https://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-golf-video-review-20170425-story.html
Late to the party but I did hear about it earlier just didn't see it. After watching the first video my first thought is why did Reed hit such a shitty shot out of the bunker. That was so far left, he gets what he deserves for hitting that bullshit in the first place. 2nd The shot didn't go that far, can't tell me that Reed didn't see the damn thing bounce. I'm probably close to legally blind and I would have been able to see it bounce from that distance. 3rd All that digging around was surely suspect. Can't see what he was doing, didn't watch it twice but did see the ball in his palm but at what point? Is it there the whole time or is he pushing it into the ground at the beginning and then he palms it? I love Pat Reed but he needs to be better. Moxy is one thing, being a cheater is a whole different story
Reed's playing partners said they didn't see the ball bounce either. As far as your 3rd point, I totally agree. If he simply would have put a tee in the ground and called over the player keeping his score for his opinion. If there was doubt, then call for the rules official. The fact that he didn't do that is why he's catching all the heat IMO.
