Patrick Reed (USA), who participated in the DP World Tour (formerly the European Professional Golf Tour) Dubai Desert Classic, was accused of cheating and breaking the rules.
In the 17th hole (par 4) of the 3rd round of the tournament held in Dubai, UAE on the 30th (Korean time), Reed’s tee shot went off the fairway and headed for a large palm tree.
The ball landed between the branches of a palm tree and did not fall.
Reed declared unplayable after noticing through his binoculars that his ball was resting in the crack of a branch, and hit his third shot near the tree with a one-stroke penalty.
He didn’t get the ball on the green, but he holed out bogey.
After the game, however, allegations arose that Reid pretended to check his ball when he could not.
In the video of the game released on social media, Reed’s tee shot seemed to be headed for a different tree than the tree Reed said he had found.
However, it could not be clearly confirmed in the video.
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.
It means that Reed didn’t find his ball, but he pretended to find it and hit his third shot near the tree.
If Reed couldn’t see where his tee shot was, he had to go back to the tee box and hit the third shot. I mean he was hard to block by bogey.
Reed jumped up.안전놀이터
“Obviously I checked my ball. If I hadn’t checked that it was 100 percent mine, it would have gone to the tee box,” he said.
The DP World Tour match committee sided with Reed, saying Reed had the right ball.
The senior race commissioner said he identified the tree Reed’s ball landed on the spot and identified Reed’s marked ball through binoculars.
However, the suspicions did not go away, as Reid had been suspected of breaking the rules by cheating several times before.
In 2020, US CBS broadcast course commentator Peter Costis said that he witnessed at least four rules violation scenes in which Reed improved his lie while playing in PGA Tour tournaments.
Prior to the opening of the tournament, Reed caused a disturbance by throwing a wooden tee at Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), who was displeased with his joining LIV Golf.
The American media, which called this incident ‘T-Gate’, wrote ‘Tri-Gate’ for what happened at the 17th hole in the third round.
Meanwhile, World No. 1 McIlroy tied 8 birdies and 1 bogey in the third round and shot a 7-under 65 to take the lead with 15-under 201 strokes.
McIlroy, who beat his joint second place Callum Sheenquin and Dan Bradbury (above England) by three strokes, was looking forward to his first win in the new year and his 15th career DP World Tour victory.
The Dubai Desert Classic was McIlroy’s first professional win in 2009 when he was 19 years old.
Reed cut 3 strokes that day to rank in a tie for 4th place (11 under par 205 strokes), 4 strokes behind McIlroy.
Wang Jeong-hoon (28), who shot 2 under par 70, will enter the final round with a tie for 30th place (7 under par 209 strokes).
The event ended late at night on the 30th, five days later, after being postponed due to disruptions such as the course being submerged due to heavy rain.