Swango1980
Well-known member
I've not seen that view, and perhaps it may clarify Reed's argument? Not even sure it exists, I think it was just that Reed suggested that if the view DID exist, it would back up his claim that he felt it was far enough away from the ball.
However, I'm picturing myself taking my normal stance at a ball, like he did, and then having a few waggles. I cannot see how my club can touch the sand so far away from the ball as to not make me feel like I'm uncomfortably stretching out well behind the ball? It would also seem an unusual thing for him to do when getting into his routine. The sand pretty much moved as soon as he started bringing the club head back, so his starting point would have had to be well behind the ball which I just don't see as a credible argument.
The 2 shot penalty was given for improving his lie. That doesn't mean that he didn't intentionally do it (and therefore cheat), it just means that they can't prove and were reluctant to judge that he intentionally cheated. However, if I had to choose 1 incident over the last 10-15 years (that I've watched golf) in which I had to decide a professional golfer cheated, I'd choose this one as the most likely and I think others would be in the same boat. Of course, I've not seen them all, I know Dyson got a suspended ban for touching line of the putt, even though he denied he was flattening a spike mark. Maybe this was given because he still should have known, at the time, he couldn't press down on his line of putt. Although, I seem to remember McIlroy brushing away sand from the fringe and just getting the standard penalty (even though you'd think he ought to have known he couldn't do that either, although he did admit to having an unforgivable moment of forgetfulness).
Ultimately, I guess it depends on who is on the Committee for that event and perhaps what Tour it is. I also think others have a point that, officials will be more reluctant to implement strong sanctions on higher profile players given the importance of sponsorship at each event (although, some sponsors may be reluctant to put too much money into an event that includes cheats and slow players?).
We'll never know, but what if a player like Simon Dyson did what Patrick Reed did at that event, Would he have been treated the same? Or, what if Reed did what he did on the European Tour? Harder to know that one especially. On one hand we like to think of the European Tour as stricter on players (maybe), but on the other hand they get a lot of good publicity when high profile PGA Tour players come over and play European Tour events.
