Golfer Rory McIlroy speaks at a press conference during the Pro-Am ahead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club. Photo / AP
OPINION:
The grand old game of golf has always had a solid veneer of respect and respectability – but now the breakaway LIV tour, lawsuits and tee-throwing contretemps are widening the cracks in golf’s smooth exterior, allowing a peek under the blankets.
Controversy is an essential part of sport. Some sports now harness it themselves – Formula 1 with Drive To Survive and tennis with Breaking Point, fly-on-the-wall documentaries revealing things fans don’t see on the outside – even if some storylines were, well, a little dramatised. Golf is into it too. A Netflix documentary called Full Swing is currently being filmed – though it’s likely its drama will pale in comparison with the real-life tensions of the “war” between LIV golf, backed by the sportswashing Saudi Arabian regime, and the PGA Tour.
Just like a reality show, the LIV-PGA fracas is descending into the weird, showing not only a glimpse of golf’s underbelly but also of the US’s remarkable penchant for litigation.
This week, the golfing world was transfixed by US golfer Patrick Reed, a LIV rebel, throwing a tee in the general direction of world No. 1 Rory McIlroy. McIlroy snubbed Reed, declining to acknowledge his presence as the American tried to wish McIlroy Happy New Year on the practice range.
Turns out McIlroy – one of the most vocal critics of the LIV Tour – was miffed by legal action taken by Reed’s lawyer, Larry Klayman, resulting in McIlroy being served court papers while at home with his family on Christmas Eve. McIlroy told media it was “a storm in a teacup” – and certainly having a tee thrown in your general location rates right up there with being kicked by a butterfly. But it’s an all-too-real sign of the emotions churning immediately underneath golf’s practised exterior of civility and respect.
“I was subpoenaed by his lawyer on Christmas Eve,” McIlroy told media. “Trying to have a nice time with my family and someone shows up on your doorstep and delivers that, you’re not going to take that well. I’m living in reality, I don’t know where he’s living. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t expect a hello or a handshake.”
You do wonder what Reed thought he might accomplish. Oh, there’s Rory. I’ll just go and say hi. He couldn’t possibly be upset because my lawyer served him on Christmas Eve. Later, McIlroy said: “…if roles were reversed and I’d have thrown that tee at him, I’d be expecting a lawsuit.”
That was a jibe at Reed’s myriad legal actions. He has launched a defamation case against the Golf Channel and its analyst (and former PGA Tour golfer) Brandel Chamblee, whom he alleges conspired with the PGA Tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan, to defame him. Meanwhile Reed’s lawyer Larry Klayman has alleged that McIlroy, Davis Love III and Tiger Woods are co-conspirators in the PGA Tour’s anti-trust scheme to destroy LIV.
To be clear: Reed is not part of the case where McIlroy was served, the class-action case; that is Klayman v the PGA Tour. However, Klayman represents Reed in two defamation lawsuits pending in federal court (neither of which involve McIlroy).
Reed is seeking US$1.14 billion in defamation damages from 18 defendants, including the Golf Channel and Chamblee, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, New York Post Holdings, Fox Sports and Hachette publishers – plus several journalists representing the New Yorker, USA Today, and Golf Digest, among others.
Chamblee and Reed have history. In 2020, a lawyer for Reed sent a cease-and-desist letter to Chamblee demanding he stop repeating an accusation that Reed had cheated at the 2019 Hero World Challenge. Chamblee has also been critical of LIV golfers leaving the PGA Tour.
At the Hero, TV cameras showed Reed improving his lie in a bunker in the third round, a violation of the rules. Reed was given a two-stroke penalty; his actions were denounced by golfers and commentators – though he has vociferously claimed he did not act intentionally in the bunker.
In the defamation lawsuit, Reed alleged that, over nine years, the defendants conspired “to destroy his reputation, create hate, and a hostile work environment for him, with the intention to discredit his name and accomplishments as a young, elite, world-class golfer, and the good and caring person, husband and father of two children that he is.”
Here’s where it gets even weirder. McIlroy – not involved in the defamation case, remember, only in the anti-trust case where he might have to give evidence around allegations that LIV golfers are being unfairly treated – has defended Reed in the past. McIlroy said he didn’t think there was intent in Reed’s actions at the Hero and also said: “A lot of people within the game, it’s almost like a hobby to sort of kick him when he’s down.”
Even weirder still, in February last year, according to the Washington Post, Klayman (not then acting for Reed) said in a tweet: “Brandon (sic) Chamblee of Golf Channel and Others Have It Right: Don’t Sell Your Soul to the Murderous Saudi Regime Which Gave Us September 11! There Is No Justification to Get Into Bed With the Saudis Other Than Pure Greed!”
Funny old world. It’s enough to make you throw a tee at someone.