The PGA Tour started Thursday under the guise that the 2020 Players Championship would be played as scheduled, including with fans attending at TPC Sawgrass. However, by lunch time, the Tour had announced it was intending to play the final three days of their biggest championship without fans.
Perhaps with a sense of YOLO (You Only Live Once) and knowing he certainly wouldn't be attending the next day, an attending fan decided to shoot his shot in heckling Patrick Reed.
As Reed was walking from the tee box of one hole down toward the fairway, a fair in a bucket hat casually turned to Reed after he walked by and said in a conversational voice, "Hey Pat, sign my shovel?"
https://t.co/rHuCDLJAL1 pic.twitter.com/A5QXAMJUqW
— patrick reed didnt sign my shovel (@mac_bellovich) March 12, 2020
Someone working inside the ropes immediately doubled back toward the fan and advised them they would be thrown off the grounds for that comment.
"I'm gone?" the fan asked.
Another official came over to take the fan away from the ropeline and start the process of removing him from the tournament. For his part, Reed didn't seem to react in any fashion to the comment.
The fan was from Ohio, and he was there with a group of his buddies to watch the action. The fan in question was mocking Reed for his response to hecklers during the 2019 Presidents Cup when he started making a shoveling motion after making a putt during the match-play competition. Fans were heckling Reed for his rules violation during the 2019 Hero World Challenge the prior week, when he moved sand away from his ball while it was in a waste bunker, prompting a two-shot penalty from officials and charges from fans and some players that he intentionally cheated.
The Tour promoted Reed's mock shoveling as "having some fun with the crowd."
Patrick Reed having some fun with the crowd. #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/RFEz6kgaUQ
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 13, 2019
