Brooks Koepka On Patrick Reed: “Did He Cheat? Yeah”

The World No.2 says he doesn't know what Reed was doing "building sandcastles" during the 2019 Hero World Challenge

Brooks Koepka On Patrick Reed: "Did He Cheat? Yeah"
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The World No.2 says he doesn't know what Reed was doing "building sandcastles" during the 2019 Hero World Challenge

Brooks Koepka On Patrick Reed: "Did He Cheat? Yeah"

Brooks Koepka said that Patrick Reed cheated at the Hero World Challenge back in December in an interview with Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio.

The World No.2, who was on his USPGA Championship media tour in San Francisco, was asked if the Texan cheated, to which he replied "yeah."

"Yeah. I think yeah," he said when asked if Reed cheated during the Hero World Challenge where he received a two stroke penalty for improving his lie in a sandy area.

"I don't know what he was doing building sandcastles in the sand.

"You know where your club is. I mean I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touched sand.

"It's one of those things where you know.

"If you look at the video, he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it."

The four-time Major winner also revealed that he has seen players improve their lies in the rough before and that "it goes on a little bit more than people think."

Watch the video below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8lG0v3jfy4&feature=youtu.be

"If you play the game, you understand the rules, you understand the integrity of what goes on," he said.

"There's no room for it.

"I'll be honest I've seen it a couple of times where it's like 'woah'

"I've seen some big names be like woah that's not right' and i've bit my tongue

"A lot of times tv you can't hide from the cameras and everything and we bite our tongue a lot

"It's one of those things, guys will hit it in the rough and all of a sudden they've got 3 wood out and they're down there patting it down

"It's interesting. It goes on a little bit more than people think."

Patrick Reed accepted his two stroke penalty at the Hero World Challenge but denied it was intentional, saying that the TV camera angle made it look like his club was closer to the ball.

He also denied he had cheated after being asked the following week at Royal Melbourne prior to the Presidents Cup.

"It's not the right word to use,'' Reed said after being asked if he cheated.

"At the end of the day, if you do something unintentionally that breaks the rules, it's not considered cheating, but I wasn't intentionally trying to improve a lie or anything like that.

"If I was, it would have been a really good lie, and I would have hit it really close.''

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV