19th Hole
‘This guy does not stop’ – Tour pros take aim at Patrick Reed over latest rules controversy

The words Patrick Reed and controversy seem to go hand in hand these days, and it continued at the weekend.
During the third round of the delayed Dubai Desert Classic, Reed took a penalty drop after identifying his ball lodged in one of a group of trees. Trouble is, the ball is only identifiable by a specific arrow marking in what appears to be a palm full of golf balls. And, in this case, by binoculars.
Here are two VERY close looks (per the wizards at Getty) of the markings on Patrick Reed's golf ball that allowed him to identify it in the palm tree in Dubai.
Spot the black "arrow" that Reed talked about in his post-round presser and the red dot. Both images are from today. pic.twitter.com/40UhXOq0rX
— James Colgan (@jamescolgan26) January 29, 2023
If unable to identify his ball, Reed would have needed to go back to the 17th tee to re-load, more than likely causing to him to score double-bogey instead of just the one dropped shot.
The former Masters champion had already found himself embroiled in a debate surrounding his apparel daubed with ‘LIV Golf’, and in a spat with the world number one in Dubai.
Pre-event, video footage showed McIlroy apparently ignoring his greeting when on the practise ground, resulting in a bit of tee-throwing, leading social media to comment we have moved from ‘Tee Gate’ to ‘Tree Gate’ in the space of a few days.
In a statement issued by tournament officials, the DP World Tour confirmed that “two on course referees and several marshals” identified that Reed’s ball had been caught up in the tree.
As shown by the Golf Channel, this is the alleged offending tree, shown with a heap of golf-balls never to be seen again:
The full statement issued reads:
Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, a couple of DP World Tour pros seemed not best pleased with the incident, with some footage appearing to show Reed’s ball entering a different tree than where he eventually found his ball.
French Tour pro Matthieu Pavon responded to the video of the incident saying: “Wow wrong tree ?! Maybe optical illusion” followed by a laughing emoji. While his compatriot Mike Lorenzo-Vera went a little further stating: “This guy does not stop.”
Le mec ne s’arrête pas !???
— Mike Lorenzo-Vera (@MikeLorenzoVer1) January 29, 2023
According to Reed himself, he would have gone back to the tee had he not been 100 percent sure the ball was his.
Here Patrick reed comments on the ball on tree here @DubaiDCGolf https://t.co/JxDvKY0KQK pic.twitter.com/t2GPKtu68E
— Golf & Science News (@TOURMISS) January 29, 2023
Ironically, almost a year to the day after being involved in a rule dispute at Torrey Pines, Reed again finds himself as the focus of attention over a drop.
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.