Crowd jeers Reed over rules violation in Bahamas | Golf | Journal Gazette – Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

MELBOURNE, Australia It seemed as if Patrick Reed wanted to hear it from the hecklers sooner than later.

Playing in his first match at the Presidents Cup since last week's sand rule violation in the Bahamas, Reed teed off with teammate Webb Simpson on Thursday to a few barbs and boos in the gallery on the first tee at Royal Melbourne.

Hey Patrick, does your caddie have 14 clubs and a shovel? joked one fan just before Reed teed off against International players Hideki Matsuyama and C.T. Pan in the fourball competition.

Moments after he drove his ball, another yelled: Get in the bunker! And sure enough, it did, sliding into the green-side bunker to loud cheers from the gallery.

Reed then hit his approach into the bunker on the second hole and his tee shot on the par-3 third again found the sand.

By then, the sand and bunker jokes from the gallery were all becoming a bit repetitive and tired.

When asked whether he felt the Australian crowd was respectful, Reed replied: It's exactly what I expected.

Matt Kuchar, who did not play Thursday, said he heard the boos on the first tee.

My reaction was it's going to fire Patrick up, Kuchar said. I think he really enjoys that. I saw that as being a thing where, man, this is going to get Patrick in the state he wants to be in. This is his element.

Pan said he didn't notice any untoward comments toward Reed: Sorry, I was focusing on my game. Didn't pay attention.

Matsuyama and Pan were 3-up after nine holes and hung on for a 1-up win to help give the Internationals a 4-1 lead after Thursday's fourball matches. U.S. captain Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas were the only American winners, defeating Joaquin Niemann and Mark Leishman 4 and 3.

Reed is dealing with the fallout of his actions at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

From a sandy waste area left of the 11th fairway in the third round, video clearly showed his ball in a rumpled foot print. Reed set his club behind the ball, drew it back and scraped back some of the sand behind his ball. Then, he did it again, swiping away more sand.

Reed said then he wasn't cheating.

If you're intentionally trying to do something, that would be considered cheating, he said. But I wasn't intentionally trying to improve a lie or anything like that. Because if it was, it would have been a really good lie and I would have hit it really close.

What bothered Reed more than the crowd comments most was the score.

I think we're pretty upset with how the day went on as a whole and as a group, Reed said.

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Crowd jeers Reed over rules violation in Bahamas | Golf | Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette