Matsuyama apologizes to Poulter
Print Edition
Hideki Matsuyama of Japan apologized to Ian Poulter and two others on Saturday for damaging the 13th green at the Cadillac Championship with his putter and walking off the green without repairing it.
Poulter brought the matter to light with tweets in which he called Matsuyama an “idiot.”
On Saturday, Matsuyama walked down the practice range when he saw Poulter.
“I heard about it this morning, I felt really bad,” Matsuyama said. “All I can do is apologize for what happened. ... I feel badly that he even had to write about something I had done.”
Matsuyama missed a 7-foot par putt in the second round on Friday and slammed his putter into the green, leaving what one caddie described as a 2-centimeter gash.
The gash in the turf was directly in the line of Charl Schwartzel’s 12-foot par putt, and a rules official was called out to repair the damage before Schwartzel could putt. He missed and made bogey.
“Playing with Matsuyama tomo. He buried his putter in the 13th green 5 ft from the hole, Referee had to repair the crater. Because he didn’t,” the first tweet said.
Poulter followed with two more tweets: “Why should Matsuyama leave a crater in the green for others to putt over, or have to call a referee to repair the damage. Idiot.”
“Im no saint & first to say. But that was disgusting. I wouldn’t bury a putter in a green 5 ft from a hole & have players behind deal with it.”
“I made loads of mistakes,” Poulter told him. “If you’re going to do it, repair it.”
Matsuyama then sought out Schwartzel and Jason Dufner to apologize.
“I felt a responsibility to seek them out and apologize to them directly,” Matsuyama said. “They were in the threesome directly behind us. It didn’t affect my preparation today. I felt like it was something I should do. Hopefully, I learned I need to be more patient.”
Meanwhile, Patrick Reed had a 3-under 69 to take a two-shot lead. Reed rolled in a 40-foot eagle putt on No. 8, and started the back nine with consecutive birdies. He drove the green on the par-4 16th for a two-putt birdie and wound up with a two-shot lead over Dufner (68) and Hunter Mahan, who bogeyed his last hole for a 71.
Woods delivered his best round of the year.
He made three birdie putts of about 15 feet or longer on the back nine, including a 35-footer down the slope on the par-5 15th, and had a 6-under 66.
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