Patrick Reed upset world No 1 Rory McIlroy by lobbing a tee at him during practice for the Dubai Desert Classic.
Reed and McIlroy were practising on the range near each other when the former went over to say hello.
After shaking hands with Harry Diamond, Rory’s caddie, Reed tried to get McIlroy’s attention but failed as he was focused on looking for something in his bag.
Instead of awkwardly hanging around, the American turned to walk away and lobbed the tee he was carrying in McIlroy’s direction and later commented that he felt the world No 1 had been “immature little child” for ignoring him.
Apparent footage of the Rory Reed tee ‘throwing’ incident. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/r35kjE6hO8
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McIlroy acknowledged the incident and admits he knew Reed was there but “didn’t really feel the need to acknowledge him”, going on to say, “if roles were reversed and I’d have thrown that tee at him, I’d be expecting a lawsuit.”
While some thought McIlroy was just still annoyed by Reed’s decision to join LIV Golf, the Northern Irishman revealed he was irked by a subpoena he received from the American golfer’s lawyer on Christman Eve of all days.
‘I mean, I got a subpoena on Christmas Eve. You can’t pretend like nothing’s happening, right? I think that’s the thing. We are living in reality here,” McIlroy said.
For his part, Reed denies the subpoena had anything to do with him.
