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[Orlando Penguin]

whats the take on the patrick reed penalty? intentional or unintentional? im inclined to believe his comments that he didnt do it intentionally and understands why its a penalty when watching the video but understand the skepticism

the camera was literally right behind him so I'm leaning towards unintentional

Nevermind I have a new take. Even if he unintentionally moved the sand he sure as sht knew he did it and should have called the penalty immediately

If you read up on PReed's history, you'll find that his teammates practically ran him out of the University of Georgia because of his attitude and accusations of cheating on the course. Judging by the DZ Golf tweet posted above, he knew exactly what he was doing when he got dinged this time around. He can play it off as much as he wants and says that there was 'no intent' (the cop out phrase for all rules snafus now) but deep down, I think he knew what was up and someone caught him. Oh, and by the way, he should have gotten a 4-shot penalty because he improved his lie twice.

As for the takes in the golf world, it seemed to be a joking matter on the course today. On the 8th hole today, I watched Haotong Li announce to his 3 practice partners and everyone else that was around to 'watch this'. He tossed a ball in a bunker and then scraped away the sand like Reed did and asked Cameron Smith (he of the quotes from the weekend and who was also in that practice pod) if that was legal. Got plenty of laughs...wish we had gotten it on camera. On the US side, Justin Thomas and Reed each hit their ball in a bunker on a hole. Reed went to what he thought was his, realized it was JT's, and then stepped on the ball. Thomas got to his ball, looked at Reed, and started to scrape away the sand and asked Reed jokingly if that was the way it was done. So it doesn't look or sound like there's many hard feelings about it on the US side but in the name of team unity this week, they have to say that. It would be interesting to inject some truth serum into these guys at the Wells Fargo Championship and ask them the same question.

[shafnutz05]

OP, I would be curious if you've ever had any run-ins with Mrs. Patrick Reed; from everything I read she seems to be like Emperor Palpatine behind the scenes.

[Dickie Dunn]

She bears a striking resemblance to ole Sheev as well.

[Orlando Penguin]

OP, I would be curious if you've ever had any run-ins with Mrs. Patrick Reed; from everything I read she seems to be like Emperor Palpatine behind the scenes.

Only experience I had with her was at the Travelers a couple of years ago. The Tour had just passed some sort of rule change, not sure what it was, but we needed to get some quotes from a few different players. I saw Patrick walking from the range to the short game area and that's usually the best time to grab a guy -- when they're walking to another practice spot. I stopped him and asked him if I could get a couple of quick questions with him and he immediately turned to his wife and asked if they had time for it. She approved and off we went. But afterwards, I looked at my cameraman and was like, 'were they serious with that?'. I know that we as a show have tried to do interviews with Reed, most notably a formal interview prior to his Masters title defense and she wanted to dictate the questions beforehand. We wouldn't allow that. It's also a likely fact that she's the reason for the estrangement Patrick has with his family and she was a driving force in getting his family ejected from Pinehurst during the 2014 US Open. She's a real gem.

[Orlando Penguin]

Day 1 Presidents Cup matchups (fourball)

Thomas-Tiger vs. Leishman-Niemann
Schauffele-Cantlay vs. Hadwin-Im
Dechambeau-Finau vs. Scott-An
Simpson-Reed vs. Pan-Matsuyama
DJ-Woodland vs. Ancer-Oosthuizen

[shafnutz05]

Day 1 Presidents Cup matchups (fourball)

Thomas-Tiger vs. Leishman-Niemann
Schauffele-Cantlay vs. Hadwin-Im
Dechambeau-Finau vs. Scott-An
Simpson-Reed vs. Pan-Matsuyama
DJ-Woodland vs. Ancer-Oosthuizen

Let's get this started! I feel like the President's Cup always exposes me to several golfers from the other tours that I never heard of before, and this year is no exception.

[willeyeam]

A little surprised at no Aussies paired together

[MR25]

Wonder if they're spacing out the Aussies because they know the course and want to spread the knowledge.

[Orlando Penguin]

Day 1 Presidents Cup matchups (fourball)

Thomas-Tiger vs. Leishman-Niemann
Schauffele-Cantlay vs. Hadwin-Im
Dechambeau-Finau vs. Scott-An
Simpson-Reed vs. Pan-Matsuyama
DJ-Woodland vs. Ancer-Oosthuizen

Let's get this started! I feel like the President's Cup always exposes me to several golfers from the other tours that I never heard of before, and this year is no exception.

All 10 International players in action today are PGA Tour members. 7 of them have won Tour events.

Els only has 3 Aussies on the team and he sat one of them. Leishman going out first was by design to get the fans revved up early. Won’t need much to juice them with Tiger as the opponent. Both teams have 5 rookies (though 2 of US’s played in Ryder Cup so they ain’t rookies) and Int’l is sitting 2 of theirs because they feel like they need to get a jump ASAP.

[willeyeam]

Forgot they got rid of halved and all square verbage and just say tied now. Hate it. Get off my lawn

[Orlando Penguin]

4-1 Internationals after 1. Internationals played really well and didn't make any mistakes on Day 1. They seem to have the greens better read than the US does so far. And they definitely did their homework on them. For instance, I spent a lot of time on the 3rd hole Tuesday & Wednesday watching the Internationals there and they seemed to grasp all the humps and bumps of that tricky spot. Today, they went 4-0-1 on that hole. The only Reed stuff that I heard about was when he hit into the bunker at 2, a gallery member had a little plastic shovel and asked Reed if he wanted to use it. Then as Reed was walking to 18 green, a group of 5 or 6 gallery members (sounded Euro, may have been Aussie) started singing 'Reed's a cheat, he'll always be a cheat, he'll cheat ya all the way to the 18th green'. That got booed down a bit by the crowd. I'll say this for the Aussie crowds -- they're way to subdued and polite. If this was a Euro crowd and it was 4-1 home team, the place would be bonkers. Hopefully they amp it up a bit tomorrow because right now, it feels like a Thursday at Wells Fargo.

Day 2 matchups (alternate shot):
1 - Scott/Oosthuizen vs. DJ/Kuchar
2 - Hadwin/Niemann vs Schauffele/Cantlay
3 - Leishman/Ancer vs Simpson/Reed
4 - An/Matsuyama vs Thomas/Tiger
5 - Smith/Im vs Woodland/Fowler

Tiger keeps 3 of his pairings fully intact. Ernie switches them all up. Some people may make a big deal of that but on Tuesday, those are the exact pairings that the Internationals practiced with. Haotong Li sits both Thursday and Friday so I guess he'll be rarin' to go on Saturday. US has traditionally had a big edge on the Internationals in alternate shot but they're gonna have to do a lot better job on the greens on Day 2 than they did today.

[shafnutz05]

Definitely did not anticipate Tiger being the strongest golfer out of all of them yesterday. Huh.

[shafnutz05]

Forgot they got rid of halved and all square verbage and just say tied now. Hate it. Get off my lawn

I could not agree more. Golf is one game where I love the tradition.

[Kovyfalcon27]

Big ups to the golf channel for allowing me to watch this entire tournament in a box 1/6 the size of my tv!

[Orlando Penguin]

Would you rather watch commercials full screen?

[willeyeam]

One thing I don't miss about Australia - kookaburras

[willeyeam]

We can't putt

[willeyeam]

Cantlay with some stones. Okay

[willeyeam]

Ooh JT too! Let's go

[Orlando Penguin]

6 1/2-3 1/2 Internationals after 2. Pretty much more of the same today but the US was saved by Cantlay and JT on 18 green. Miss those putts and it's 7 1/2-2 1/2 and Saturday takes on even greater significance. As it is, the spin in the US team room is that they had the better day and they have the momentum now. Ummmm, no they don't. It was an even day on the scoreboard and the Internationals could have really put a cleat in the US's throat. Gotta love that ******, Patrick Reed, going thru his BS on the 11th hole after he made his birdie and he put his hand to his ear and then started doing a shoveling routine for the fans. Um, dumbass, your opponent has a chance to match you. Leishman did and Reed's side got bounced. Perhaps if he goes 0-fer this week, he'll keep his damn mouth shut.

On to Saturday, where I get to leave the hotel for the golf course at 4am. Two sessions of four matches apiece...fourball starts the day:

1 - Leishman/Li vs Thomas/Fowler
2 - Im/Ancer vs Schauffele/Cantlay
3 - Matsuyama/Pan vs Reed/Simpson
4 - Scott/An vs Kuchar/Finau

Tiger decides to sit this session out and I think the reason is two-fold -- he doesn't want to go 36 and test that back/play all 5 sessions and he has to do the pairings for the afternoon session at some point before the morning matches end. He can't do that from the 14th hole nor does he want to totally trust Stricker to do it. So this is where being a playing captain while playing pretty well is a hindrance to the team. See how it plays out. If the Internationals can get a tie out of this session, they'll continue to be in great shape.

[Kovyfalcon27]

Any reason why USA keeps trotting out this Simpson/Reed pair to get their nuts chopped off??

[willeyeam]

Any reason why USA keeps trotting out this Simpson/Reed pair to get their nuts chopped off??

Nope

[Orlando Penguin]

Tony Finau keeps the US from getting trounced again in AM session. As it is, Internationals up 9-5 going to the afternoon. Tiger decides to sit all day. Dechambeau sits for the 3rd straight session. Simpson and Reed on the bench finally. JT is 3-0 thus far and has taken over the Captain America title. If Internationals hold serve in the foursomes, that’s gonna be a tough lead to overcome in singles.

[shafnutz05]

Tony Finau keeps the US from getting trounced again in AM session. As it is, Internationals up 9-5 going to the afternoon. Tiger decides to sit all day. Dechambeau sits for the 3rd straight session. Simpson and Reed on the bench finally. JT is 3-0 thus far and has taken over the Captain America title. If Internationals hold serve in the foursomes, that’s gonna be a tough lead to overcome in singles.

I just read about Reed's caddy (who I didn't realize was his wife's brother, although that makes total sense) getting kicked out of the tournament for punching a fan. What a clown show.

[Orlando Penguin]

10-8 Internationals as we go to bed on this Saturday night. Really should be 9-9 with JT/Fowler coughing up a 5-up lead with 8 to play to halve their match and Kuchar/Finau spitting up a 2-up lead with 5 to play for a half. Reed’s caddy gets into it with a fan and gets booted from the tourney. There was talk that Reed could have been axed too but the Tour decided against it (there’s a provision in the Tour handbook that if a caddie commits an egregious act, the player can be penalized as well). Sooooo, just a normal Saturday in golf.

Singles matchups:
Ancer vs Tiger
Matsuyama vs Finau
Pan vs Reed
Li vs DJ
Hadwin vs DeChambeau
Im vs Woodland
Niemann vs Cantlay
Scott vs Schauffele
An vs Simpson
Smith vs Thomas
Oosthuizen vs Kuchar
Leishman vs Fowler

Interesting that Tiger leads off but part of that is he wants to go captain the later matches and part of it is Ancer having said last month that he’d like to take on Tiger. Ernie threw Ancer out first and it didn’t take Tiger long to put his name out there as a counter. It may not be a Stephen Ames 9 & 8 situation but Abe had better watch what he asks for. Overall, I think the Internationals can get 5 1/2 points out of these matchups. Either way it goes, I think this week put some necessary juice back into the Pres Cup.