Reed's Caddy in an "altercation"

[Bushwood Country Club]

And yet, Reed won 5 of the first 6 holes and COASTED. So much for this prediction aging well...

[Bloom]

How many of you here could shove, or hit someone in your line of work and have it be ok because the client told you to F off first?

 

Reed and the caddy were working. They are professionals and held at another level. The spectator was not threatening him, or encroaching on his personal space. The caddy was the first to make physical contact.

[MtlJeff]

Any company can refuse service to someone for that type of behavior (if they fit a certain demographic you might risk a boycott, but this instance that wouldn't be a factor). So I dont think we can just brush aside the spectator behavior as "they are professionals" . Any reasonable company would also see the client is a jack***

Both sides were wrong.

I actually have seen a similar situation in an office, and the client was told he was no longer welcome, and the person who worked for the company was disciplined but not fired

 

 

[Bloom]

I agree with everything you're saying. The employee/professional though is always held to a higher standard and has greater expectations for their behaviour. Yes, spectator should be banned from course, totally out of line. Caddy though should likely face lengthy suspension or loss of employment. Putting your hands on a spectator/client is way above someone telling you to F off.

[lowheel]

try it at your local muni and come back here and tell us how it goes... the guy was following him and spewing trash non stop. Bet you he wont do it again... you can boo and cheer all you want, when you personally go after a guy non stop expect some pushback pun intended. guy showed his true mettle by doing nothing after that. it shut him up real quick

[oikos1]

Not a "similar situation" at all.

[oikos1]

You're right. If only he would've escalated the situation.

[lowheel]

thats the point. dont talk like a tough guy if youre not ready to back it up.he realized quick he fell on the wrong guy, he thought hed be able to spew that garbage all day and quickly realized he wouldnt be able to. problem solved. reed will gladly pay whatever fine if any as his man had his back.

[MtlJeff]

Someone asked about this potentially happening in a normal work environment and I said yes I'd seen a similar thing happen. Your definition of similar may be different than mine

[oikos1]

Fair enough. My position is that making comparisons to other work environments, drunks at concerts or other personal interactions with rude people are completely unrelated to this incident and further cloud peoples judgement. As far as we know, the patron did not break any rules or laws (as much as we may detest his behavior). Reed's caddie, however, not only violated the PGA's "conduct unbecoming a professional" policy, he stepped out of a golf cart to initiate contact. He was wrong. The PGA may or may not issue further punishment. End of story. Except, for some odd reason many here still seem to think it's ok for Caddies to initiate physical confrontations with patrons while working at PGA Tour events. Bizarre.

[Soloman1]

Maybe he became enraged because he was riding in a cart, which prompted the American Road Rage Reflex?

[bladehunter]

I would. I love the guy that makes the other heads explode.

[driveandputtmachine]

There was stuff as bad as this and worse said to the visiting Cup folks in the NYC at Brookline by all accounts. I was not there, nor do I have any direct quotes, but I remember some of the American players saying that the fans needed to tone it down that it was getting disrespectful. I did not hear of any player or caddies from the Int'l team shoving or yelling back or anything of the sort.

Listen, if someone calls my (insert family member here) a word or says something derogatory and I have to have a physical altercation with them, then they won. Even if I pummel them I have proven them right, that my family is (insert adjective here) or I feel that they could be or it wouldn't have bothered me so much. Why anyone would care even a little bit about what someone else thinks of them is absolutely mind blowing to me, but it happens every day.

[bscinstnct]

Lol, ok, since there are so many golfers out here, I gotta ask....

 

Has anyone ever been part of or witnessed a "road rage" incident on the golf course?

[Dpavs]

Granted that some states refer to Assault and/or Battery with different nomenclature but the crimes and what constitutes them are generally pretty similar.

Provocation whether by statute or common law is either a defense or mitigating factor I believe.

[Philomathesq]

@driveandputtmachine said: "I remember some of the American players saying the fans needed to tone it down that it was getting disrespectful."
I'm not defending Patrick Reed (or his caddie) by any means, but your above statement shows a very big difference between whatever may have happened at Brookline and whatever happened at Royal Melbourne. There is no evidence that any of the International team members told the fans to stand down or cool it... in fact, there evidence is the opposite: many of the International players were asking the crowds to get more involved.

[Nixhex524]

I am sure it has been mentioned, but it's funny how as Americans we think we can say whatever we want in certain arenas but have far less patience when it happens back to us... what should we expect?? Didn't someone yell "suck my d---k" at Rory when he was playing Reed during the Ryder Cup a couple years ago? Rory, from my recollection, while he didn't put his hands on the fan he definitely went towards him for some words... It's a shame any of this happens in ANY sport but it's getting out of control in golf IMO and Americans have kind of set the bar for behavior at these events... Reed's caddy, while I am sure feeling disrespected, has to be better and it would be nice if tournament staff could have more freedom to remove people being this disruptive going forward.

[bladehunter]

The disconnect seems to be whom initiated the confrontation. You say reeds caddie did. I seem to believe the double fisted fan did.

 

Now sure. The caddie touched him first. But you can’t really claim the altercation started with the caddie. He was riding by in a cart.

 

This os one of those morals vs law questions. My morals tell me that it’s ok to meet someone who has initiated an altercation where they live and respond in a way that gets the point across. The law unfortunately defends the aggressor many times.

[lowheel]

people who grew up in smaller towns know this. if you open your mouth there are consequences and the law cant help you when everybody says i didnt see anything because they know the guy had it coming but as you said its a softer era of participation trophies and hurt feelings so here we are. people start thinking life is like twitter and you can go around saying whatever you want and think people wont respond. you get into someones face and hurl insults expect consequences

[Soloman1]

What, y'all have forgotten how to laugh? Life also isn't a Clint Eastwood movie. The strongest reaction is to laugh at a fool.

[bladehunter]

Bingo. True story.

 

i have a long driveway off the road. No visible neighbors. 3 am a pair of headlights come up my drive. I watch and look out to see a scraggly guy try to break in my garage. My German Shepherd at the time gets out of the fence and goes at the guy. About then I’m coming out of the front door with a full choke trap gun. He hops in the car and speeds away. I jump in the truck , dog jumps in and we give chase down the drive. I lost him at the stop sign at the end of the road. I turn around and call the sheriffs office. They come and do a report.

 

5 days later around noon the same guy tries again , this time on a motorcycle. ( guy had a blonde perm mullet ). I was in my shop working. Dog goes ape shat. I look out and see him at my house. I took off across the yard with a 1/2 inch drive pull handle wrench. He hops on his bike and leaves quick. I threw the wrench and missed. Pullled out the cops card and called. He came and did another report. I had license plate number. Was expired from Florida.

 

Cop pulls me aside and says “. I didn’t say this. But. If he comes back and you shoot him. Shoot him in the front and don’t leave any one to witness it. Then call and we’ll clean it up “. If im lyin I’m dyin.

 

Now thats not something i want to do. But I didn’t leave my wife at home for a month until I got the call that they caught that guy and he was a tweaker of some sort looking for things to steal for dope money.

Point is yes. In the gentler parts of this world people are kind , or else. They mind their own business. And expect you to do the same. These laws are written by weak people who want to be able to run off at the mouth and not fear confrontation.

[Pepperturbo]

Takes a lot of self-control, maybe too much to tolerate what PR's caddie had to put up with. Not sure I wouldn't have reacted the same way. Sometimes jerks and bullies need to chew on some dirt.

[third-times-a-charm]

I'm not gonna read all 9 pages of this thread - but good for Kessler.

 

The amount of crap the Reed family takes from the clowns on instagram and memes just for clicks and likes and etc is monumental. We get it, Reed is a douche sometimes, a debated cheater, has enemies, and his wife isnt the hottest one in the FEDEX TOP 100....but some of the crass words people give him and his camp is rediculous.

 

Sometimes people forget that real life isnt like the internet and you cant hide from your comments when you're 3 feet from the person you're messing with.

 

Even when his foundation does something good or gives back to the community, people still comment like idiots and make fun of him and his family/choices.

 

So...good for Kessler, he finally did what many pros and caddies have wanted to do for a long time.

[lowheel]

amen brother! im glad nothing worse happened and your family is safe! I traveled a bunch by car playing mini tours over the years and some of these places have 20-25 minute police response times so best believe people are armed and prepared to defend their families. That cop knows the realities, hes seen plenty of the crap you described. He was simply honest. not enough of that today

[bladehunter]

Oh yea. Each time I called it was between 14 and 30 minutes response. The first one was called in as BanE in progress and took near 30 min. And they ran by my driveway sirens blasting. Lol. Has to waive them down on the way back by.

[bladehunter]

id love to shake your hand. The internet. Worst thing al gore ever did. Lol

[pga43]

My guess is the guy was moving closer to Patrick than Kessler felt he should have and the shove happened to get the guy a little further away from Patrick.

 

Greg

[getair23]

If that linebacker Brooks would have made the trip the crowd would be too scarred to heckle the American team.

[bscinstnct]

 

"( guy had a blonde perm mullet )."

 

You sure it wasn't John Daly trying to steal your collection of blades?

 

Lol! Just kidding cause it sounds like nothing bad happened and it was a while ago. ; ) That's nuts, good you are on the ball.

[Sean2]

Those laws are also written by people who live in gated communities, have security, and what not.