Patrick Reed has spoken out about his Hero Dubai Desert Classic rules controversy, which he says is a “non-issue.”
Reed, who finished one shot behind winner Rory McIlroy, hit a tee shot on the par-4 17th hole during his third round that lodged in a palm tree. According to the Rules of Golf, if a ball becomes stuck in a tree a player may take an unplayable drop—costing him one shot—rather than go back to the tee box as a result of a “lost ball,” if the golfer can identify his ball with 100% certainty.
As the ruling unfolded, Reed was assisted by DP World Tour Chief Referee Kevin Feeney. According to Reed’s initial comments after the final round, he could “see and identify” his personal marking on the golf ball—a black line with an arrow on the end—through binoculars.
“I got lucky that we were able to look through the binoculars,” Reed said. “You have to make sure it’s your ball. How I mark my golf balls is I always put an arrow on the end of my line, because on the Pro V1, the arrow on the end stops before it, so you can see the arrow. You could definitely see and identify the line with the arrow on the end. The rules official luckily was there to reconfirm and check it to make sure it was mine as well.”
The DP World Tour released a statement confirming the ruling. According to the Tour, two on-course referees and several marshals identified the tree that Reed hit his ball into, but Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee later questioned their identification with a slow-motion playback.
In Reed’s most recent statement, he wrote that he was not asked to pick out which tree caught his ball, but rather to describe the markings that could be used to identify his ball.
“Some people love controversy,” Reed wrote in a statement that appeared to be a screenshot of a text message. “But what happened on the 17th hole at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic was a non-issue. As the DP World Tour confirmed, I was not asked to identify the tree my ball struck (that was done by the ShotLink volunteers and several marshals), I was asked to describe the distinctive markings on the ball I was playing.”
Reed has been involved in rules controversies in the past. McIlroy, who stood by Reed’s ruling in Dubai prior to his most recent statement, made note of that in his comments.
“Had it been anyone else in the field it would have been a non-issue, but because of certain things in the past, people brought some stuff up, which is maybe unfair in some ways,” McIlroy said.
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