Federal Judge Dismisses Patrick Reed's $750-Million Lawsuit

Patrick Reed's complaint against multiple golf media members, including the likes of Golfweek and Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee, has been dismissed by a Federal Judge on Friday.

Back in August, the 2018 Masters champion lodged a $750-million, 30-page complaint against Chamblee and the Golf Channel, with Reed then pulling the lawsuit from Houston, Texas and refiling it in Jacksonville, Florida. Furthermore, he had added further outlets and individuals like Shane Bacon, Damon Hack and Eamon Lynch.

The lawsuit claimed “conspiracy, defamation, injurious falsehood and tortious interference” and alleges that Chamblee, Hack, Bacon, Lynch, the Golf Channel, the PGA and DP World Tours and their commissioners, Jay Monahan and Keith Pelley, are “co-conspirators for their anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive practices, in order to destroy the upstart LIV Golf Tour, Mr Reed, and fellow LIV Golf Players in order to annihilate any competition with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour”.

The court papers also accused the defendants of having “defamed, falsely injured and tortiously interfered with this world-class golfer and his professional endeavors, by falsely and maliciously branding him a cheater, liar, a thief, a murderer and someone who accepts blood money from terrorists”.

It also went on to accuse Chamblee, the Golf Channel and the other defendants of having a “direct interest in contributing to harm Mr Reed” as the PGA Tour has “lucrative contracts with major broadcasting partner NBC's Golf Channel to broadcast events on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour”, adding that losing big name players and weakening those fields while LIV Golf was broadcast by a rival network would threaten those contracts with sponsors and broadcasting partners. 

Now though, on Friday 18th November, a US District Judge, Timothy J. Corrigan, stated the complaint made “failed to give Defendants notice of the grounds upon which each claim rests because Reed alleges 120 factual allegations, then proceeds to incorporate all 120 allegations into each and every count. … Reed attempts to allege various defamation and civil conspiracy violations against each Defendant; causes of action which require vastly different factual allegations.”

The District Judge has allowed the 32-year-old to file an amended complaint by the 16th December, with Corrigan stating: “In drafting the amended complaint, Reed is instructed to reevaluate his alleged claims and bring only those claims that are meritorious and supported by law.”