US golf villain Patrick Reed accused of more indiscretions going back years

He may be the world No. 14 but American golfing bad boy Patrick Reed can’t seem to shake the tag that’s stuck to him since late last year.

Patrick Reed has been slammed since the Presidents Cup.

American golfer Patrick Reed has once again been slammed as the cheating storm surrounding him continues to grow.

From the first accusation before the Presidents Cup in Melbourne in December, the story has snowballed with eagle-eyed golf fans looking for any indiscretion.

Watch LIVE coverage of the USPGA & European PGA Tours and over 50 other sports on KAYO. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

Reed has been heavily targeted by fans and other players and it appears he can’t shake the tag, with the former Masters champion again dragged into the mud.

It comes after Reed moved sand behind his ball with practice swings during the third round of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last year. It’s illegal in golf to ground your club in a bunker before hitting the ball.

Reed was penalised two strokes, but questions over his integrity have followed him since.

At the time, Reed denied it was intentional, while Aussie golfer Cameron Smith called it “bulls***” and said “I don’t have sympathy for anyone that cheats”.

He was roasted throughout his time in Australia by fans.

The fan jibes made the US come-from-behind win all the sweeter for Reed.

Now golf analyst Peter Kotsis, a 27-year veteran with CBS, told the No Laying Up podcast it’s not the first time he’s seen questionable play from Reed.

“I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now,” Kotsis said.

“It’s the only time I ever shut (fellow commentator Gary) McCord up. He didn’t know what to say when I said, ‘Well, the lie I saw originally wouldn’t have allowed for this shot’.”

Kotsis pointed to a moment at the 2016 Barclays Championship, which Reed won by a single shot, where he felt the American had improved his position several times by manipulating the area around his ball.

“Because he put four or five clubs behind the ball, you know, kind of faking whether he was going to hit this shot or hit that shot and by the time he was done, he hit a freaking 3-wood out of there, which when I saw, it was a sand wedge lay-up originally,” Kotsis said before moving on to an incident at Torrey Pines.

“He hit it over the green and did the same thing, put three or four clubs behind (the ball). It was a really treacherous shot that nobody had gotten close all day long from over there. And by the time he was done, I could read (brand name) ‘Callaway’ on the golf ball from my tower.

“I’m not even sure that he knows that he’s doing it sometimes. Maybe he does, I don’t know. I’m not going to assign intent. All I’m going to tell you is what I saw.

“I think there’s always been a player or two throughout history who fudged with their coin marking the ball, who stepped on a spike mark with their foot walking across their line.

“But it’s rare. It’s really, really rare on the PGA Tour, I have to say. I mean, 99.99 per cent of the guys play by the rule book, and they’re to be applauded for that. That’s what’s supposed to happen.”

No, Patrick, you can’t just push the ball in the hole.

Speaking with the PGA Tour’s SiriusXM channel, world No. 2 Brooks Koepka took aim at his compatriot.

“I don’t know what he was doing, building sandcastles in the sand,” Koepka said. “But you know where your club is.

“I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touch sand. If you look at the video, obviously he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.

“I guess the (MLB’s Houston) Astros are going through that right now. (Astros owner) Jim Crane said it, when he got asked, ‘Is it cheating?’ And he said, ‘No, we just broke the rules’. If you play the game, you understand the rules. You understand the integrity that goes on. I mean, there’s no room for it.”

While he also admitted to keeping quiet in the past when there have been rule breaches, Koepka admitted he would “definitely say something” if he saw anything shifty in the future.

Current and former players have weighed in on the scandal with Aussie golf legend Greg Norman taking a shot on his American radio show Attack Life during the Presidents Cup last year.

“From my personal perspective, you know, I get really repulsed with that because, to me, you’ve got to protect the integrity of the game, not protect the player,” Norman said.

“Over the years that I’ve been involved with the sport, for 40-plus years, I’ve seen a lot of things happen and, to me, I’ve always been at the forefront of protecting the game before anybody else.

“I don’t care what it is, whether it is an infraction of the rules, or signing a scorecard incorrectly, or taking an illegal drop, or whatever it is that I see, I will always, always stand on the forefront of protecting the game first.”