Cameron Smith isn’t here for Patrick Reed’s cheating, ‘bulls--t’ excuses ahead of Presidents Cup
Several members of the international team aren’t happy with Patrick Reed in the wake of his latest rules infraction on Friday, and they aren’t holding back ahead of the Presidents Cup this week.
Reed was hit with a two-stroke penalty in the third round of the Hero World Challenge on Friday after deliberately hitting the sand with his club twice while taking practice swings inside a bunker — a clear and obvious violation.
The seven-time Tour winner wasn’t very apologetic about the incident, either, and actually blamed the penalty on the Golf Channel cameras that were filming the tournament.
“I think with a different camera angle they would have realized that, if it was from the side you would have seen that with the backswing it was not improving the lie because it was far enough away from the golf ball,” Reed said after the round.
Smith — who finished T27 at the Australian Open on Sunday, 13 shots back from winner Matt Jones — wasn’t having Reed’s “bulls--t” excuse.
“If you make a mistake maybe once, you could maybe understand, but to give a bit of a bulls--t response like [blaming] the camera angle … that’s pretty up there,” Smith said, via the Australian Associated Press.
Smith was quick to defend Reed in general, however, saying he’s never had a bad interaction with his fellow Tour pro.
Cheating, though, is where he draws the line.
“I know Pat pretty good and he’s always been nice to me, so I don’t want to say anything bad about him,” Smith said, via the AAP. “But anyone’s cheating the rules, I’m not up for that.”
Smith urges Australian crowd to ‘give it’ to Reed during Presidents Cup
Reed will join the rest of the U.S. team at the Presidents Cup this week at Royal Melbourne in the biennial competition, one the Americans have dominated since it first started in 1994.
Smith, who is playing in his first Presidents Cup, hopes his fellow Australians take full advantage of Reed’s latest blunder when watching him on the course.
“I hope so,” Smith said, via the AAP. “I don’t have any sympathy for anyone that cheats. I hope the crowd absolutely gives it to not only him, but everyone [on the U.S. team] next week.”
Smith isn’t alone, either.
Marc Leishman — who finished T10 at the Australian Open and is back for his fourth Presidents Cup appearance — was right there with him.
“There’s opportunities there [for fans], put it that way,” Leishman said, via Golf Australia. “He’s definitely opened the door there. He’s brought it on himself.”
Reed, though, isn’t worried about anything that comes his way in Melbourne.
“There’s not really anything that’s going to be said or done that’s going to really derail me at the end of the day when I go out there to play golf, especially next week,” Reed said, via the Golf Channel. “I’m playing with my team and for the whole country, and at the end of the day, nothing’s going to get in my way.”
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