Golfer Patrick Reed’s attorneys refiled his $750 million defamation lawsuit against the Golf Channel and analyst Brandel Chamblee in federal court in Jacksonville, Florida, on Thursday, while adding other Golf Channel employees and media groups to the complaint.
The lawsuit accuses the Golf Channel, Golfweek and its parent company, Gannett, as well as employees Chamblee, Damon Hack, Shane Bacon and Eamon Lynch, of conspiracy, defamation, injurious falsehood and tortious interference.
Reed originally filed the lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Aug. 16.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants are co-conspirators for their “anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive practices in order to destroy the upstart LIV Golf Tour, Mr. Reed, and fellow LIV Golf players in order to annihilate any competition with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour even if it means violating antitrust laws and going to extreme and scandalous measures to conspire to defame, falsely injure and tortiously interfere with Mr. Reed, fellow LIV Tour players, and LIV Golf,” according to a news release from Reed’s attorney, Larry Klayman .
The news release said the defendants labeled Reed a “cheater, liar, a thief, a murderer and someone who accepts blood money from terrorists.”
“The PGA Tour’s and its ‘partner’ the NBC’s Golf Channel’s mission is to destroy a top LIV Golf Tour player, his family, as well as all of the LIV Golf players, to further their agenda and alleged collaborative efforts to destroy the new LIV Golf Tour,” Klayman said in a release. “As alleged in the complaint, these calculated malicious attacks have created hate, aided and abetted a hostile workplace environment, and have caused substantial financial and emotional damage and harm to Mr. Reed and his family.”
Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, resigned from the PGA Tour, which has suspended its members for competing in LIV Golf tournaments without conflicting-event releases. Reed, a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour, earned more than $37 million during his tour career.
LIV Golf and three of its players have filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, accusing it of illegally suspending them and using its monopoly power to squash competition.
“While Defendants’ never-ending defamation and other alleged illegal acts with regard to Mr. Reed, as set forth in the complaint, is nothing new, with his joining of LIV Golf, it has reached new, intolerable heights,” Klayman said in a release. “As a result, enough is enough and it is time for Mr. Reed to protect not only himself and his family, but all LIV Golfers who have been maliciously defamed and harmed with other illegal acts to further the PGA Tour’s and the DP World Tour’s allegedly illegal attempts to maintain their virtual monopoly and stranglehold over professional golf.”
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