What would Jackie Chiles say?
He was Cosmo Kramer’s lawyer in “Seinfeld” who liked to call every potential injustice “lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous.” Chiles apparently was unavailable when the aggrieved Patrick Reed went shopping for a barrister to champion his $750 million defamation lawsuit against Golf Channel and analyst Brandel Chamblee.
Instead, Reed selected Larry Klayman, who has sued everyone from the Clintons to Barack Obama to his own mother with what can generously be described as limited success.
“Crazy” is how one PGA Tour player responded to news of the suit.
Professional golf has landed in crazy land.
It was news Tuesday – the kind social media goes at like most of us go at an open bag of potato chips – that Tiger Woods, with Rickie Fowler in tow, hopped into his jet and flew north to meet with a collection of the PGA Tour’s most influential players in Delaware to discuss the ongoing threat from LIV Golf.
It was noteworthy, for sure, perhaps as much for the fact that Fowler, long rumored to be considering a jump to golf’s new world, was riding shotgun with Woods, who came jetting in like Maverick to rally the tour’s troops.
This is the Patrick Reed who said one of the reasons he opted for LIV’s money was to spend more time with family and play fewer tournaments, then immediately flew off to Singapore and Korea for back-to-back events this month on the Asian Tour, in which LIV Golf invests.
Meanwhile, a bill was introduced in the New Jersey Legislature that would prohibit LIV Golf from returning to the Garden State, where it recently held a tournament/political rally at Trump Bedminster.
This is the tour’s playoff season, something it has worked very hard to sell to the public, but it has turned into lawsuit season.
Remember, fellas to sign your scorecards and your affidavits.
There was already a brush fire of conjecture about what might come out of the Woods player meeting, which came on the same night the tour’s Player Advisory Council was meeting and a day before commissioner Jay Monahan was scheduled to attend a player meeting for a question-and-answer session.
Then came Reed’s news, which landed like a water balloon. It’s no secret that Reed’s reputation isn’t squeaky clean and his recent signing with LIV Golf was met with a good-riddance reaction from more than a few golf fans and others.
This is the Patrick Reed who said one of the reasons he opted for LIV’s money was to spend more time with family and play fewer tournaments, then immediately flew off to Singapore and Korea for back-to-back events this month on the Asian Tour, in which LIV Golf invests. Reed has averaged more than 29 tournaments per year during the previous nine years, and he’s on pace to play about 25 this year, so he’s not exactly hitting the brakes, though his options are more limited going forward since his suspension by the PGA Tour.
The Reed lawsuit reads like something Quentin Tarantino might dream up. It’s over the top – he’s asking for five times Woods’ career on-course earnings – but that probably was intentional. By filing the suit, Reed likely has opened himself up to discovery, which could lead to some players telling their side of the story, which may not flatter the plaintiff.
It’s true that Chamblee has taken his shots at Reed. That’s his job. When Chamblee gets his teeth into something, he’s a wolverine.
Has Chamblee pushed the limits at times? Maybe, but Reed has opened himself up to criticism. The murky college stories. The bunker issue in the Bahamas. His post-Ryder Cup bashing of 2018 Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk, to name a few.
Here are a few highlights from Reed’s suit, which suggests the defamation began nine years ago and that Chamblee and Golf Channel have:
“engage(d) in a pattern and practice of defaming Mr. Reed, 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 Mr. Reed since he was 23 years old, to destroy his reputation, create hate, and a hostile work environment for him, and with the intention to discredit his name and accomplishments as a young, elite, world-class golfer, and the good and caring person, husband and father of two children, he is.
There are also some salty examples of things fans have said to Reed at tournaments around the world. Hint: They weren’t yelling “mashed potatoes” at Reed.
“It is well-known on tour that Mr. Reed has been abused and endured more than any other golfer from fans or spectators who have been allowed to scream obscenities only to be glorified by NBC’s Golf Channel for doing so, because it gets Defendants Chamblee and Golf Channel ‘clicks’, viewership, ratings and increased revenue. For Defendants it does not matter how badly they destroy someone’s name and life, so long as they rake in more dollars and profit.”
This was filed by the same Larry Klayman who six months ago decried LIV Golf’s intrusion into the game on his Twitter account.
There are also some salty examples of things fans have said to Reed at tournaments around the world. Hint: They weren’t yelling “mashed potatoes” at Reed.
In the grand scheme of things, Reed’s suit pales in comparison to the courtroom battle that has begun between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but it may crystallize this strange and unsettling time for professional golf.
Welcome to crazy land.