Patrick Reed has rubbished claims of “cheating” and “stealing” during his college golf days, labelling the accusations against him as “BS”.
Since his time in college, accusations of cheating and theft have been consistently linked to Patrick Reed, the LIV Golf player has recently spoken out about these claims ahead of the Masters tournament.
In recent years, Reed has established himself as one of the leading players of his generation by achieving victory nine times on the PGA Tour and three times on the DP World Tour.
His most notable achievement was winning the Masters championship at Augusta National in 2018.
However, his career has not been without its fair share of controversy. The previous winner of the green jacket has frequently been criticized as the villain of professional golf, particularly during Ryder Cup events.
During his time at the University of Georgia, Reed’s reputation was tarnished by accusations of cheating in a college match and theft from his teammates as detailed in Shane Ryan’s book ‘Slaying the Tiger: A Year Inside the Ropes on the New PGA Tour’.
Rubbishing the claims against him, Reed told Golf.com: “I have no idea where that stuff came from. No idea. Both coaches had signed statements saying ‘no he never stole or cheated ever’. So that stuff to me is BS obviously. I don’t know who [made the accusations].
“It is all these unnamed sources, nobody is actually putting a name to it. So I don’t know why or how something like that came out.” During his college career, Reed left Georgia before going on to join Augusta State, where he helped his team win back-to-back NCAA Division I titles in 2010 and 2011.
Reed explained his decision to move from Georgia to Augusta by pointing out his unhappiness at UGA. He expressed relief at leaving, as he believes that staying there could have led to uncertain outcomes in the following years.
When feeling unhappy, motivation tends to decrease in various aspects of life. In order to uplift my spirits, I decided to visit a place that I believed would bring me joy.
As a result of this, I found myself working more diligently and eventually reaching the desired level of success. Reed’s focus in the upcoming week will once again be on Augusta as he strives to win his second green jacket.” The American golfer has a strong track record at the famous major championship in Georgia, placing in the top-10 three times out of five since winning in 2018, with a tied-fourth finish last year.
He is among the 13 LIV Golf players participating in the Masters tournament.