Golfer sues broadcaster for $750 million
The 2018 Masters champion, Patrick Reed, is seeking a whopping $750 million in damages after filing a defamation lawsuit against the Golf Channel and its commentator Brandel Chamblee this week.
In his complaint, Reed, 32, claims that Chamblee and the Golf Channel conspired with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to defame him "since he was 23 years old."
According to the complaint, this was done by "misreporting information with falsity and/or reckless disregard of the truth, that is with actual and constitutional malice, purposely omitting pertinent key material facts to mislead the public, and actively targeting [Reed] to destroy his reputation, create hate, and a hostile work environment for him."
Reed and Chamblee have disputes stretching back to 2019, when Chamblee accused Reed of cheating at the Hero World Challenge for improving his lie in a bunker for which he was penalized two strokes.
Chamblee has continued to grill Reed not just for the cheating allegations, which he was sent a cease-and-desist letter by Reed's lawyers in January 2020, but also Reed's decision to join the breakaway Saudi-backed LIV Golf league earlier this year.
Reed is adamant that Chamblee's opinions have triggered fans heckling him with insults such as "You f..... ing suck!”, "You jackass!", and "You coward!", plus also calling him a cheat and goading him about his frayed relationship with his parents.
Despite winning the Masters and nine tournaments in total on the PGA Tour, Reed feels that the lead organization and its commissioner Monahan have had it in for him too, which prompted him to join the LIV.
"Despite his exceptional world-class golfing achievements, in June of 2022, Mr. Reed was constructively terminated as a member of the PGA Tour, as a result of threats made and action taken by its Commissioner Jay Monahan and his PGA Tour, and signed with LIV Golf," the lawsuit alleges, with the complaint filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, which is Reed's hometown.
Reed's lawsuit was filed by Larry Klayman, who is perhaps best known for failing in his attempt to successfully sue comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for defamation on the behalf of former US Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Though the PGA indefinitely suspended members who played the LIV's first event in June, Reed didn't join the breakaway competition until a second competition held in Oregon last month but has likewise been kicked off the Tour.
As Reed is suing the Golf Channel and Chamblee, a group of 11 LIV Golf tour 'rebels', as the likes of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau are known, are suing the PGA Tour for the sanctions which they feel are detrimental to their careers.
