Patrick Reed broke the rules at the Hero World Challenge and didn’t even tell a convincing story

Patrick Reed was caught moving sand in a bunker at the Hero World Challenge, which is bad. His storytelling afterward was even worse.

Patrick Reed is a polarizing figure in the world of golf, and that’s putting it incredibly mildly. He’s kind of a love-him-or-hate-him type, with many leaning towards the latter. Hey, it goes with the territory a bit, especially when you’ve got a big enough personality to call yourself a top-five player in the world when your most recent win shot you from 44th in the world to 20th.

Still, the man didn’t do himself any favors on Friday at the Hero World Challenge, getting caught in a rule-breaking scenario, then making a pretty weak “acceptance” of the ensuing penalty in which he pretty much said he didn’t think he broke the rule, or at least didn’t “intend” to. More on that in a minute.

The Hero, as you likely know, is essentially an all-star, invitation-only exhibition match, with the bonus being a fat prize pool and a healthy stack of world ranking points. It’s also a direct lead-in to this year’s Presidents Cup matches, with much of Team USA in the field invited by playing captain Tiger Woods. So, needless to say, everyone is looking for a bit of an edge.

That brings us to Reed. A captain’s pick for the team, Reed has been playing really well this week in the Bahamas, and he held the solo lead at -12 through two rounds. However, he was meandering along at level par through ten holes in the third round when he found himself in a waste bunker on the par-5 11th.

Simple enough, right? Punch out, take your medicine, basic stuff. Well, that’s not exactly how it went. Here, have a look for yourself.

In his setup process, he clearly took sand away with his wedge, not once but twice. While a player may ground their club in a waste bunker, they can never remove sand in this way – a clear rules violation, and one that he should have owned up to instantly.

Oh, but it gets worse, because of course it does. I could have a lot of respect for him standing up after he was called out for it and saying “I didn’t mean to, but I definitely broke a rule”, and leaving it at that. And that’s basically what the video above – direct from the PGA TOUR – shows. But it’s not the whole story that he chose to give.

To hear Patrick Reed tell it, it’s – wait for it – the camera’s fault.

"“I wish [the cameras] were actually directly on the side of me,” Reed said afterward, “because it was in a pretty good footprint … and I felt like my club was that far behind the ball when I was actually taking the practice stroke, which I felt like I was taking it up. And it was … obviously, it was hitting a little sand. I didn’t feel it drag.”"

That’s a good move! Not only was my club far from the ball (still breaking the rules…) but I didn’t feel it drag! Surely it can’t get better, can it?

"“I didn’t feel like it really would have affected my lie. I mean every time I get in the bunker, I’m scared to even get my club close to it. It was that far away, but whenever you do that if it does hit the sand, just like if you’re in a hazard area and you take a practice swing and it brushes grass and the grass breaks, it’s a penalty. So because of that and after seeing the video, I accept that, and it wasn’t because of any intent, I thought I was far enough away.”"

Wow. Just…wow. I’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but between blaming the camera angle and then saying it wasn’t improving his lie…I mean, come on. Reed went on to say that he had to let this “roll off [his] shoulders” because “at the end of the day, it’s my word versus their word, and they weren’t standing there, they had a camera angle.”

First things first – of course they had a camera angle! There are less than 20 players, all with outstanding records, at an event hosted by Tiger Woods. What did you think was going to happen? This isn’t a 7:30 AM tee time in an alternate-field event with a couple guys who haven’t gotten a break yet. And you’re a Masters champion!

And second, this isn’t the first time Reed has done this. Four years ago AT THE SAME COURSE, he did the exact same thing, except he wasn’t penalized for it then. He went on to finish as the runner-up to Bubba Watson in 2015. This year, he’ll face a three-shot deficit to 54-hole leader (and fan favorite) Gary Woodland.

There’s an old joke that says “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”. Unfortunately, it looks like Patrick Reed was doing one of those things very clearly, but not really the other. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s certainly not a good look, either.