The caddie for Patrick Reed will not be on the bag for the final session of the Presidents Cup after shoving a spectator who he felt was encroaching too close to Reed while cursing him.
The tour announced the decision after yesterday’s dual session, which ended with the International team holding a 10-8 lead.
Reed said in a statement that he respected the decision and that everyone was focused on winning.
Photo: AFP
Kessler Karain, Reed’s brother-in-law, said that he heard heckling for three days at Royal Melbourne, some had taken it too far and he could not take it anymore.
Reed was a singular target of the US team this year because of a rules violation last week in the Bahamas. He twice removed a clump of sand from behind his ball in a waste area at the Hero World Challenge. When he was shown the incident on video, Reed accepted the two-shot penalty.
Yesterday morning, Reed failed to make a birdie in fourballs, as he and Webb Simpson lost for the third straight time.
“Riding on the cart, guy was about 3 feet [91cm] from Patrick and said: ‘You [expletive] suck.’ I got off the cart and shoved him, said a couple things, probably a few expletives,” Karain said in a statement to Fore Play, a podcast operated by Barstool Sports.
Karrain said security arrived and he left in the cart.
“I don’t think there’s one caddie I know that could blame me,” Karain said. “Unless his bones break like Mr Glass, the most harm done was a little spilled beer, which I’m more than happy to reimburse him for.”
Among the possibilities to replace him as Reed’s caddie is Kevin Kirk, his swing coach.
US captain Tiger Woods said that the situation involving Reed, one of his four picks, was not a distraction.
“We came here as a team. We rallied around our teammate and we’re excited about tomorrow,” Woods said.
He placed Reed in the No. 3 spot in the lineup, after Els had gone first and put Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-tsung in that spot. That avoided the chance of Reed facing one of the three Australians on the team.
Fans this week have called the former Masters champion such things as “Patrick Cheat” and poked fun at him, with one fan introducing him as “The Excavator” when he teed off for a practice round Tuesday.
Reed did not help his cause on Friday when he made a birdie putt, cupped his ear and then pretended to use his putter as a shovel. He enjoys mixing it up with the gallery in these team competitions, but the rules violation in the Bahamas was blatant on the video and sensitive to players who hold the rules in high regard.
Reed claimed that his club was about 20cm behind the ball, but the video did not indicate that.
Els said that he felt bad for the caddie and the fan, and he made a point of saying that the gallery was not nearly as bad as what the International team faced two years ago in New Jersey.
“The caddie must have been very hot, obviously fed up with what he heard, probably,” Els said. “I feel for the fan. He came to watch golf, and that’s probably the last thing he thought was going to happen. So I feel for both of them.”
Reed created the wrong kind of memories at the Ryder Cup last year when he did an interview with the New York Times right after the US loss, criticizing Jim Furyk for sitting him out two matches and Jordan Spieth for ending their partnership.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum on Sunday combined for 27 points as Shaquille O’Neal’s “Team Shaq” cruised to victory in the new-look NBA All-Star game in San Francisco. Curry, playing on his home court at Golden State’s Chase Center, reeled off a string of trademark three-pointers to help his star-studded lineup coast to a 41-25 victory over Charles Barkley’s “Team Chuck.” Boston Celtics star Tatum finished with 15 points after delivering a dominant performance in a starting lineup that also included Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and James Harden. Team Shaq’s preparations for the game had been dealt a blow shortly before tip-off when