Patrick Reed, who was already one of the most polarizing players in the world, faces a long year of heckling on the PGA Tour after he was caught improving his lie in a bunker during the Hero World Challenge earlier this year. Reed earned a two-stroke penalty for the gaffe, but denied that he cheated, claiming the violation was an accident.
According to longtime CBS broadcaster Peter Kostis, however, the incident in the Bahamas was not the first, second, or third time that Reed used his club to improve his lie.
Kostis, who was dropped by CBS along with Gary McCord for 2020, revealed during an appearance on the No Laying Up podcast that while he wasn’t in a position to out Reed for cheating on air per his guidelines as a broadcaster, he witnessed Reed take action to improve his lie on four separate occasions.
“This is kind of the unwritten rule, that we are there to report the story, not to be part of the story…. We could never call a penalty on a player, but we could comment if a penalty was called on a player. That’s the difference between reporting on a story and being a part of a story, right?
I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie up close and personal four times now. But putting…. You can go on YouTube. It’s the only time I’ve ever shut McCord up, he didn’t know what to say when I said ‘the lie that I saw originally wouldn’t have allowed for this shot.’ Because put four, five clubs behind the ball, kind of faking whether he’s going to hit this shot or hit that shot – and by the time he was done, he hit a freaking 3 wood out of there. Which, when I saw it, it was a sand wedge layup originally, right?
I saw him, I was in the tower at 16 at San Diego on the par-3 during a golf channel telecast and he hit it over the green, and he did the same thing. Put three or four clubs behind…. and it was really a treacherous shot, nobody had gotten it close all day long from over there. And by the time he was done, I could read ‘Callaway’ on the golf ball from the tower.”
Kostis said that he isn’t sure if Reed was placing his club behind the ball to intentionally gain an advantage, but that he did not see other players use the same sort of tactics.
“But I can’t say anything. I can’t be the story, right? Now I’m done, I don’t really care. There was another incident at Hartford and another incident at San Diego. I was there and I saw them all…. I’m not even sure he knows that he’s doing it, sometimes. Maybe he does, I don’t know. I’m not going to assign intent.”
During a recent appearance on SiriusXM Radio, Brooks Koepka said he believed Reed was cheating and compared the situation to the Astros scandal.
“I think, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don’t know what he was doing, building sandcastles in the sand, but you know where your club is.”
