The controversial Patrick Reed two-stroke penalty from December resurfaced this week thanks to a pair of interviews, one given by Brooks Koepka and one given by former CBS analyst Peter Kostis.
Both Koepka and Kostis were unflattering in their critiques of Reed with Koepka flat-out saying he thought Reed cheated, while Kostis gave a more nuanced answer, but described Reed as a player who has a penchant for improving his lie.
“Yeah, (I think he cheated)” Koepka said in a SiriusXM Town Hall interview. “You know where your club is. I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touched sand. If you look at the video, obviously he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.”
“I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now,” Kostis told the No Laying Up podcast.
With Reed in the field this week at the WGC-Mexico Championship, it was only a matter of time before he was asked about the latest opinions on his conduct in the Bahamas.
Patrick Reed responds to Brooks Koepka and Peter Kostis comments about Bahamas incident that continues to follow Reed https://t.co/dEniDx4ph9
— Brian Wacker (@brianwacker1) February 21, 2020
Asked on Thursday after a 2-under par round of 69 if he had heard what Koepka said earlier this week, Reed responded, “Of course.”
Any response?
“Not really,” Reed said. “I mean, I said what I have to say about what happened in the Bahamas, and at the end of the day, all I’m trying to do is go out and play good golf and trying to win a golf championship and hopefully run Rory down.”
A follow-up question was asked, according to GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker — if Reed was at all bothered that the topic of what happened in the Bahamas keeps coming up and following him — but a PGA Tour media official ended Reed’s availability, saying he was only there to talk about golf.
While Reed seems perfectly fine to move on from the incident, others aren’t so keen to do the same, and Reed will likely have to answer these questions for a long time to come.
