Patrick Reed Turns To Last-Ditch Effort After Having $750 Million Lawsuit Dismissed

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Patrick Reed was never a stranger to controversy on the PGA Tour, and he had to know he was signing up for even more when he decided to defect to LIV Golf. He eventually filed a massive defamation suit against some of his most vocal critics, and he’s now turning to a last-ditch legal strategy after having the case dismissed.

The rise of LIV Golf injected a virtually unprecedented amount of drama into the sport, and plenty of players who made the leap to the Saudi-backed venture found themselves vilified as a result.

You can certainly count Patrick Reed among that group, although you have to imagine he was already used to being framed as the bad guy after being repeatedly accused of cheating at tournaments and causing a fair amount of internal tension while representing the United States at the Ryder Cup in 2018.

Reed’s history has understandably been a hot topic of discussion among reporters and outlets that cover golf, and earlier this year, a number of them found themselves on the receiving end of a $750 million defamation lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida by the man who accused them of dragging his name through the mud.

The filing targeted Golf Channel and Golfweek in addition to people employed by both of those outlets, including Brandel Chamblee and Eamon Lynch. The lawsuit essentially accused them of engaging in a years-long smear campaign against Reed, but U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan dismissed it on multiple occasions after ruling the golfer didn’t have any legal standing.

Now, Reed’s legal team is turning to another strategy in the hopes of continuing to pursue the complaint, as attorney Larry Klayman revealed he’s asked Corrigan to recuse himself from the case while asserting his client “cannot receive a fair, neutral, and unbiased adjudication” based on the judge’s decision to throw the case out before it even reached the discovery phase.

I’m certainly not a legal expert, but this seems like a pretty bold move that probably won’t pay off. With that said, I guess you can’t blame them for giving it one last shot.