Reed hit by two-shot penalty as Woodland takes over HWC lead

By Rahul Banerji

Overnight leader Patrick Reed found himself in a boatload of trouble for a rule infringement midway through round three of the $3.5 million Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas and was penalised a critical two shots on Friday.

Reed was away and running in the third round at the Albany Golf Club when he found the waste area on the par-5 11^th hole. With the ball seemingly in a footmark, he grounded his club twice while taking a practice swing that brushed away some sand from behind the ball.

Reed was caught on camera by the NBC Golf Channel, which played out the player’s actions from a viewpoint that was seemingly directly behind him and appeared to improve his line of play.

The infringement, it’s almost instant distribution worldwide over television and social media, and the consequent penalty all but overshadowed some fine golf behind the overnight leader.

New leader

Presidents Cup debutant and US Open winner Gary Woodland fired two late birdies to move into sole top spot on 13-under par 203 (66-69-68), one shot ahead of Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (69-67-68).

A further shot behind on 11-under 205 was a group of three, defending champion Jon Rahm (70-66-69), Justin Thomas (69-69-67) and tournament host Tiger Woods (72-66-67), himself a five-time winner of the event.

The focus however, lay elsewhere.

“It was in a full footprint and I felt my club was that far behind the ball when I was taking a practice swing,” Reed said later.

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“It was obviously hitting a bit of sand, though I didn’t feel any drag. But when they brought it up for me (while reviewing the incident with rules officials) I definitely saw it drag and, because of that, it is a two-shot penalty even though I didn’t feel like it would have affected my lie.

Moving on

“Every time I get in one of those bunkers I am scared to get my club close to the ball. I accept the two-shot penalty, even though there was not any intent as I was far enough away.

“I think with a different camera angle they would have seen it was not improving the lie as I was far enough away from the golf ball.

“I don’t ever put the club directly behind the ball in a situation like that as I am scared of it moving. Intent is a big part but with only one camera angle it is a 50-50 battle when you are being assessed for anything like that.

“I told them there was no intent and it was far enough away from the ball, but they didn’t have another camera angle to show that and they felt it might have been improving the lie.”

Bottom line

“You cannot remove or press down loose soil or sand, that’s the bottom line,” said PGA Tour vice-president of Rules and Competitions Slugger White. 

“I don’t know if he could have seen it as clearly as we did but he could not have been a better gentleman. Intent would not matter here, that’s not in the mix.”

Reed birdied three of the final five holes for an even-par 72 before being told he would be penalized. With two strokes added to his score, it became a 74 as he went from 12 under and a shot off the lead to 10 under and three behind Woodland. 

Woods last won his event in 2011 in California, and his is far from done at Albany.

“I just have to focus on going out there and making birdies,” he said. “And then I have 23 hours on a plan to recover.”

Aditi Ashok takes big strides

In Mombasa, Aditi Ashok was living up to the Moving Day motto with a personal charge up the leader-board at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open.

With a day to go, Aditi was on 6-under par overall and 5-under for the day nine shots behind overnight leader Julia Engstrom of Sweden, who still had two holes to play.

Germany’s Esther Henseleit was in second place on 7-under and a hole to play while Aditi (73-70-67) was tied third alongside 2018 Hero Women’s Indian Open champion Christine Wolf of Austria and two others.

Tvesa Malik, tied eight overnight, however slipped back on the way and was in a share of 16^th place on level par 216 (72-71-73) while Diksha Dagar made good ground, climbing to T35 on 4-over 220 (77-73-70).

Astha Madan was some way behind in tied 66^th on 10-over 226 (740-76-76).

Also read: Stage set for Hero World Challenge; Tiger warms up in style