In his weekly look at the world of golf, Alex Dimond casts his eye over a past seven days that have seen Patrick Reed withdraw from a European Tour competition once again and Rory McIlroy’s status as golf’s latest Periscope enthusiast.
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Reed-ing between the lines
Patrick Reed’s love-hate relationship with European golf took another unpredictable turn this week, after the American announced his withdrawal from the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Reed, 25, was due to play the European Tour event this week and then in Ireland a week later, taking advantage of the tour card he received at the start of the year. Considering how poorly American players tend to travel around the globe (remember Bubba Watson’s ill-fated trip to Paris?!), Reed’s decision to split his time between the two tours had earned him a great deal of praise among the British and European media—even if his antics at last year’s Ryder Cup guaranteed he would receive a lively reception from spectators.
Reed’s withdrawal would be unremarkable—players withdraw from events all the time, especially American players traveling long distances—except for the fact Reed is now playing in this week’s PGA Tour event in Colonial, instead.
“We will not be able to travel overseas at this time,” Reed said in a statement. “My sincere apologies go to the organizers of both events, and to the fans. I am really looking forward to playing on the European Tour this year which makes me even more disappointed to withdraw from [the BMW PGA Championship at] Wentworth and the Irish Open.”
Reed only withdrew from the PGA Championship on Monday, despite the fact that he must have entered the Crowne Plaza Invitational last Friday (that being the deadline for entry confirmations). Considering Reed’s reputation, the instinctive reaction among many was that something fishy was going on.
Had Reed had a change of heart? Had the PGA Tour pressured him to stay in the US? After finishing way down the field at the Wells Fargo Championship, did the 24-year-old decide he needed to stay on home soil to sharpen his game ahead of June’s US Open? More perniciously, maybe the famously single-minded Texan simply decided he didn’t want to travel any more, and performed a remarkable U-turn?
All were theories floated out, with it hard to avoid the sense that Reed was being given less benefit of the doubt than another player who did not have his reputation would in the same situation.
Clearly some clarification was needed, and it duly arrived on Tuesday evening—Reed revealing to Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte that a family emergency required him to stay nearby.
“We have a family member who has been battling cancer and is now in hospice, and they say only has a few days if that left,” Reed said to Rosaforte in a text. “So we don’t feel comfortable leaving the country at this time, and wanted to be able to go down and see him before he passes to say our goodbyes.”
A tweet in the late hours of Tuesday night seemed to confirm that.
“We feel like we need to be close to home and family at this time,” Reed added (again, to Rosaforte). “We plan on going to Europe and play (sic) overseas this year, just we needed to be within reach this week. And we hope that everyone would respect our privacy during this tough time.”
We will cherish all of our memories. We love you Greg. May you rest in peace. Hearts and Minds. #John11:25 pic.twitter.com/2zdSlH20d6
— Patrick Reed (@PReedGolf) May 20, 2015
Suddenly, Reed’s decisions make much more sense. One presumes he would not even be playing this week at all if the Crowne Plaza did not happen to be in Texas, (relatively) close to where his family is based.
Reed’s European adventure understandably delayed, it remains to be seen exactly how long it is until a European Tour event sees him in action again. Reed needs to play a certain number of minimum events to retain his card (although majors and WGC events count towards that total), meaning he will likely have to replace the two he has missed out on this month with two more later in the season.
With the FedEx Cup to play for late in the year on the PGA Tour, however, it might be difficult to add those extra events without harming his chances of finishing the season strongly in the US.
“We are just trying to take it one day at a time,” he added. “(I) would love to pick up two more (events) later on in the season.”
The BMW PGA Championship will miss Reed’s presence, although as the European Tour’s flagship event it will undoubtedly survive (when you have Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald among the recent past champions, you are certainly an event that can survive a few late withdrawals).
Nevertheless, Europeans have had a long tradition of playing on the PGA Tour (the best players are going to go where the money is) but the reverse has never been quite true; hopefully Reed’s unfortunate situation will just prove to be an unavoidable delay and, either later this season or next season, we will see him back on European soil, serving as an ambassador for those other young American players thinking of doing the same.
It would be good for the game, just as it would be good for him. In the meantime, perhaps this serves as a reminder not to judge players on their decisions before we are aware of the full facts.
Just received my 2015 European Tour Card! Exciting Times! #pgatour#europeantour#worldtraveler pic.twitter.com/B6YdjaAapv
— Patrick Reed (@PReedGolf) December 26, 2014
Team Europe took a pretty perfect photo with Patrick Reed this week at the World Match Play. #PGATOUR pic.twitter.com/qHFZNYQnYT
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 15, 2014
McIlroy out-scopes the competition
Periscope seems to be the new hot app out these days, and golf seems to have picked up surprisingly quickly on its potential. For those unaware, Periscope is an app (currently iPhone only) that allows users to broadcast live video using their mobile phone camera.
After a few growing pains—one golf writer on the PGA Tour was banned for the rest of the season for Periscoping (it’s a verb now) during practice rounds at the recent WGC-Match Play, only for the Tour itself to start using the service the very next week—the app seems to be gaining something of a foothold among the golf community, with journalists and players alike using it to get fans closer to the action.
The possibilities were underlined on Sunday, when McIlroy decided to broadcast a 15-minute Periscope session from his private jet, as he celebrated his win at the Wells Fargo Championship while flying back to London. The session was light on revelations—McIlroy’s favourite colour is red, for those wondering—but high on intimacy, with the Northern Irishman offering a rare insight into his world, as he and his buddies laughed and joked (mostly at the expense of McIlroy’s caddie) and let the world in on their party.
Periscope broadcasts are only archived for 24 hours before disappearing forever, so it is too late to catch up McIlroy’s first television show now. In future, though, it would be great to see he and a few other top pros keep up the practice.
Expecting Tiger Woods to Periscope any time soon might be pushing it, however.
The world got a peek into Rory’s world when he launched a Periscope session from private jet: http://t.co/OpqhArHOM5 pic.twitter.com/koBM7U2QoI
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) May 19, 2015
And now for something a little different (and apropos of absolutely nothing at all). Every consider how ridiculous the game of golf really is? Legendary comedian Robin Williams (RIP) evidently did…
Michael Parkinson can barely contain himself.
