Bad boy Reed

MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Patrick Reed went some way to silencing his critics with an emphatic win at the Presidents Cup Sunday, saying he was determined not to let the knockers get to him.

The former Masters champion was taunted by sections of the crowd all week after being branded a cheat by International opponent Cameron Smith for improving his lie in sand at the Bahamas last week.

Tensions boiled over on Saturday when his caddie and brother-in-law Kessler Karain shoved a fan for swearing at Reed and was banned from carrying his bags in the crunch singles matches on Sunday.

Reed turned to his swing coach Kevin Kirk and it worked well as he crushed Taiwan’s CT Pan 4 and 2 to give the United States momentum on their way to a 16-14 win over Ernie Els’ Internationals.

“You make birdies, you don’t hear much. The biggest thing today, which I felt like I didn’t do early on this week, was we didn’t get up in our matches,” Reed said.

“When you’re not up on your matches, the other team, the crowd will get more vocal. If you get up in your match, the crowd will be pretty quiet. I was able to do that and silence a couple.”

Last week in the Bahamas Reed’s practice swings had twice moved sand from behind his ball in a waste bunker.

He insisted he had not deliberately improved his lie, despite being penalized, but fans in Melbourne gave him grief, with one group following him dressed in white overalls with “Reed Excavations” written on the back.

Reed said his family and teammates told him the only way to respond was play great golf, and that’s what he did.

“I think it’s a team effort. With family back home, and then also with captain (Tiger Woods) and teammates, they said, ‘Hey, the only thing we can do is go out and play the best golf we can. Play your match and try to win a point,’” he said.