Golfers who have chosen to ditch the PGA Tour for LIV Golf have been in for their fair share of criticism for chasing money and becoming pawns of the Saudi Arabian government in a sportswashing quest to cover up their questionable human rights record. To this point, only one of them decided to go a litigious route to hit back at his critics – Patrick Reed.
Reed sued just about everybody in the golf media for defamation after he faced criticism for ditching the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. In August 2022, he targeted Brandel Chamblee and Golf Channel in a $750 million defamation suit. Following the initial filing, Reed also added other media companies and notable individual golf writers to that suit.
Reed’s lawsuit has been dismissed multiple times and now the former Masters winner will have to pay for bringing such a laughable and frivolous claim to court. As noted by Andrew Pantazi, Reed will have to pay court costs and attorney fees for those named in his suit after a Jacksonville federal judge ruled in the favor of the defendants and against Reed once again.
Here are more details from the Florida Times-Union:
Patrick Reed, whose $750 million lawsuit against Gannett (the Times-Union’s parent organization} and other media outlets was dismissed twice, has been ordered to pay attorney fees and costs to the defendants.
In addition to Gannett, the other defendants are Golfweek.com, Associated Press national golf writer Doug Ferguson, Golfweek.com columnist Eamon Lynch, Golf Channel commentators Brandel Chamblee and Damon Hack and Fox Sports golf reporter Shane Ryan.
U.S. Middle District Court Judge Timothy Corrigan also denied motions by Reed for Corrigan to recuse himself and to reconsider his earlier dismissal, with prejudice.
Corrigan dismissed the suit for a second time on Sept. 27, 2023.
Chamblee used the occasion of the victory in court to fire yet another shot at Reed on X, claiming that he was trying to stifle his own free speech and that it would fit right in with the Saudi government that now writes his checks.
Here’s guessing Reed won’t try to file yet another defamation suit because Chamblee was tweeting meanly about him. He’ll just have to lean on @usegolffacts to defend him from now on.