In the months ahead, a judge will determine the merit of Patrick Reed’s $750 million extraordinary defamation lawsuit against Golf Channel and analyst Brandel Chamblee.
Reed believes the PGA Tour and American media conspired to turn him into a villain, falsifying his past actions and building a narrative that has hurt the golfer and his family.
Reed told the London Times in a recent interview that fellow nursery school students bullied his then four-year-old daughter four years ago and gallery members at PGA Tour events made derogatory comments toward his wife, Justine.
The 32-year-old American, who joined the LIV Golf Tour this summer, portrayed himself as a victim during the extensive two-hour interview with the Times and despite multiple on-course incidents dating to his college days at the University of Georgia said he’s never intentionally broken a rule on the course.
“I have never ever intentionally tried to break any rule of golf to gain an advantage on anyone,” he said. “I take too much pride in the hard work I do each and every day to try and gain an advantage in such a petty and deceitful way.”
Exclusive interview with Patrick Reed on the PGA Tour’s ‘hostile environment’, cheating accusations, regrets, lawsuits, and why the idea he shouldn’t be at Wentworth this week is ‘insulting’https://t.co/WyY97l8rYq
— Tom Kershaw (@trlkershaw) September 10, 2022
The premise of Reed’s lawsuit states the Golf Channel profited from the depiction he calls inaccurate. While proving such in a courtroom may be difficult, Reed used the interview to attempt to clear the air and restore his reputation.
Once called “Captain America” for his inspired play in the Ryder Cup representing the U.S., Reed has often been at the center of controversy and is arguably the least popular Masters champion in recent years.
“The narrative is ‘he’s a horrendous person, he’s a cheater, a liar and a thief’,” Reed said to the Times. “Now, I’m a murderer and everything else on God’s green earth and that’s not OK, because it’s not who I am.”
He used the interview to point out rules incidents involving other top players, emphasizing the difference in perception, which he blames on the media.
“Cam Smith took an improper drop at the FedEx Cup Playoffs, there’s a two-stroke penalty. Tiger Woods [took] an improper drop at Augusta after he hit the flagstick and it goes back in the water [in 2013]… Jon Rahm at Memorial [in 2020] setting up at a chip and his ball moves and he hits it and he plays, there’s a two-stroke penalty. None of these guys are called cheaters. My first infraction ever is what happened in the Bahamas, yet I’m labeled as a cheater. It went overboard, going on and on and on.”
The Bahamas incident Reed referred to occurred during the 2019 Hero World Challenge. Television replays revealed Reed twice illegally grounded his club in a waste bunker, clearing out sand from behind the ball, which would help a golfer make a clean strike.
His peers, such as Justin Thomas, poked fun at him about the incident the following week at the Presidents Cup in Australia, where his caddie, brother-in-law Kessler Karain was involved in a physical altercation with a fan.
Reed received a two-shot penalty for the infraction. Rules officials accepted he had touched the sand unintentionally.
