Patrick Reed is already ruffling European feathers and the Ryder Cup is still two months away. Sitting in second place in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, Reed is in the field at this week’s Porsche European Open in Hamburg, Germany.
During his first round, Reed was preparing to play his third shot on the par-4 10th hole while his caddie and brother-in-law Kessler Karain started gesticulating at an off-camera member of the camera crew. Despite Karain’s muted protests, Reed seemed poised to play his shot until he stepped off and began berating the camera crew.
“You’re rattling change in your pocket,” Karain said after Reed stepped off. “That’s what I’m pointing at you for.”
That’s when Reed stepped in.
“Well thank you, stop,” Reed added. “I need y’all to go over there on that side of the green. Go. Camera guy too since he’s part of ya. He lost privileges by going like that with change. Keep going. I’m not hitting until y’all get the heck out of here, like completely out of here. Ridiculous.”
Reed did manage to get up and down for par, shooting an opening round 2-under par 70, but after the round he attempted to make light of the exchange.
“That camera guys were just getting a little too close, and one of them had a lot of change in his pocket, so I should have asked him for a couple of it to get a cold drink at the turn,” Reed said. “But, it happens. There’s going to be distractions out there when you play. You have to be able to handle it and bounce through it.
“I was able to get up and down on 10, but unfortunately the 11th bit me. It was right back to the way I was kind of hitting the ball all day. … I was just hitting the ball unsolidly and a little too crooked.”
Reed was able to overcome the distractions on Friday morning, shooting a second-round 6-under par 66 to take the solo lead midway through the day.
