Tag: golf lawsuit

Patrick Reed’s attorney demands on-air apology from CNN’s Jake Tapper, Bob Costas; threatens $450M lawsuit

The attorney representing Reed is demanding an on-air apology from the duo for a “highly defamatory piece.”

An attorney representing Patrick Reed has added yet another lawsuit to a lengthy list of recent filings against media companies and personalities.

During a segment on CNN last week, studio host Jake Tapper chatted with longtime announcer and reporter Bob Costas about the court battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. A letter from Larry Klayman, the attorney representing Reed, is demanding an on-air apology from the duo for what it calls a “highly defamatory piece.”

If not, Klayman’s letter says his group reserves the right “to sue Tapper, Costas and CNN pursuant to Florida Statute 770.01 for damages well in excess of $450,000,000 dollars which includes compensatory, actual, special and punitive damages.”

It should be noted that the piece didn’t include a mention of Reed, who has fallen down to No. 80 on the Official World Golf Ranking since moving to LIV Golf.

In 2022, Klayman filed and then refiled a $750 million defamation lawsuit against Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, Damon Hack, Shane Bacon, as well as Golfweek columnist Eamon Lynch and its parent company, Gannett, then added a $250 million lawsuit against author Shane Ryan, Hachette Publishing, the New York Post and Fox Sports, as well as Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson and the organization for whom he works.

In civil cases, plaintiffs have to prove whether a defendant is liable, not whether a defendant is guilty. The suit was filed by Klayman, a Florida-based attorney who has been on the losing end of a number of defamation lawsuits, including one in which Arizona politician “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio sued several national media outlets, alleging they defamed him and impacted his attempt to win a U.S. Senate seat.

The original suit against Brandel Chamblee and Golf Channel said the group had “conspired as joint tortfeasors for and with the PGA Tour, it’s (sic) executives and it’s Commissioner Jay Monahan, to engage in a pattern and practice of defaming Mr. Reed, misreporting information with falsity and/or reckless disregard for the truth … purposely omitting pertinent key material facts to mislead the public, and actively targeting Mr. Reed since he was 23 years old to destroy his reputation, create hate, and a hostile work environment for him … ”

The new suit takes aim at Tapper and his political commentary, especially in regard to former President Donald Trump, who is tied to a number of golf properties.

At one time, I had known Jake Tapper to a moderately honest journalist and commentator, but after the election of President Donald Trump, he sold his soul to the hierarchy of CNN, then headed by rabid Trump-hater Jeff Zucker. Ever since, CNN and Tapper pliantly have been on a crusade to destroy Trump, which crusade apparently appeals to CNN’s generally leftist viewership, and reaps profit for the network. Interestingly, a person with the last name Zucker is referenced in the subject broadcast.

While Jeff Zucker has since been fired at the CEO of CNN over alleged misconduct with a subordinate at CNN, his legacy as a Trump-hater lives on and Tapper continues his unhinged vicious attacks on not just Trump but anyone and anything associated with him, such as LIV Golf, which simply played two events at the former president’s golfing venues in New Jersey and Florida last year, which LIV Golf payed (sic) for.”

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Attorney for LIV Golf’s Patrick Reed files $250M defamation lawsuit against ‘jackals’ Fox Sports, AP, Shane Ryan

Golfweek confirmed with the Middle District Court of Florida’s Jacksonville Division that the suit was filed this week.

Just over a month after Patrick Reed’s attorneys refiled a $750 million defamation lawsuit — adding Golf Channel’s Damon Hack, Shane Bacon, as well as Golfweek, columnist Eamon Lynch and its parent company, Gannett — a new $250 million suit has been filed against a number of other prominent golf media members and organizations.

According to a release from Reed’s attorney, Larry Klayman, the new suit includes author Shane Ryan, Hachette, the New York Post and Fox Sports, as well as Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson and the organization for whom he works. Golfweek confirmed with the Middle District Court of Florida’s Jacksonville Division that the suit was filed this week.

Ryan has written two books that are cited in the release: “Slaying the Tiger: A Year Inside the Ropes on the New PGA Tour,” and “The Cup They Couldn’t Lose: America, The Ryder Cup, and The Long Road to Whistling Straits.” Click the links to purchase either of these books.

The release said this of Ryan:

One of the earliest and perhaps the most hateful and unhinged of the defendants to defame, falsely injure and tortiously interfere with Mr. Reed, his family, and his colleagues is Shane Ryan, who wrote a book, “Slaying the Tiger: A Year Inside the Ropes on the New PGA Tour,” and in his newly released book, “The Cup They Couldn’t Lose: America, The Ryder Cup, and The Long Road to Whistling Straits,” compounds and republishes the alleged false and very damaging attacks.

In the Complaint, Shane Ryan is alleged to be pathologically obsessed with harming Mr. Reed and his family and colleagues, and given his well-known incestuous relationship with those on the PGA Tour, his latest book is part and parcel to the deluge of defamatory statements that have been published not just by the Defendants in this case, but also regurgitated with actual malice by Brandel Chamblee, Damon Hack, Shane Bacon and Eamon Lynch, commentators on NBC’s Golf Channel, which according to PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan is the PGA Tour’s partner. Chamblee, and the others are Defendants in a related suit styled Reed v. Chamblee, also filed in federal court in Jacksonville, Florida. See Reed vs. Chamblee, et. al, Civil Action No. – 3:22-cv-01059 (M.D. Fl.).

The original suit was seeking in excess of $750 million in damages. In civil cases, plaintiffs have to prove whether a defendant is liable, not whether a defendant is guilty. The suit was filed by Klayman, a Florida-based attorney who has been on the losing end of a number of defamation lawsuits, including one in which Arizona politician “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio sued several national media outlets, alleging they defamed him and impacted his attempt to win a U.S. Senate seat.

“My client, his family and colleagues have been made the whipping boy of cheap and dishonest journalists in the golf media, like Shane Ryan, who feed at the trough of the PGA Tour, a tour that historically mistreated Mr. Reed. Indeed, my client’s move to LIV Golf was primarily due to this mistreatment, where adequate security was not even provided at PGA Tour events, where hostile fans vilified and threatened Mr. Reed, his wife, caddie, and coach, thanks to the rank defamation and other alleged illegal acts of Defendants in these two recently filed lawsuits,” Klayman said in the release.

“Mr. Reed, on behalf of himself, his family, and colleagues, simply will not take it anymore and he is fighting back in the courts to not just redeem his rightful reputation for honesty and superior golf achievements and successes, but also to protect his loved ones from the likes of Shane Ryan, Doug Ferguson and the rest of the jackals who make their sorry and pathetic living spreading lies and false information about him. These types of journalists, publishers and networks give the good ones a bad name, by publishing and broadcasting false information to the masses for their own financial gain to generate readers, viewership, clicks, and for no other reason than to use Mr. Reed callously and cruelly as a tool to make money, no matter how harmful it has been or will be to his career, his family, colleagues and his life.

“Let it be known that anyone who emulates Shane Ryan and the other defendants in these two lawsuits, in order to make a cheap profit and harm Mr. Reed, his family, and colleagues, will be held accountable under the letter of the law.”

The original suit, which named Brandel Chamblee and Golf Channel, said the group had “conspired as joint tortfeasors for and with the PGA Tour, it’s (sic) executives and it’s Commissioner Jay Monahan, to engage in a pattern and practice of defaming Mr. Reed, misreporting information with falsity and/or reckless disregard for the truth … purposely omitting pertinent key material facts to mislead the public, and actively targeting Mr. Reed since he was 23 years old to destroy his reputation, create hate, and a hostile work environment for him … ”

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Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau among 11 LIV Golf Invitational Series players filing lawsuit against PGA Tour

Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau are among the players suing the PGA Tour.

Talk of lawsuits involving the breakaway Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series and the PGA Tour has been just that. Until now.

As first reported in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, 11 LIV golfers are suing to challenge their PGA Tour suspensions.

Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau are among the 11 suing the Tour.

Three other LIV golfers—Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford—are a part of the lawsuit because they are seeking a temporary restraining order so that they can play in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.

The other golfers involved are Abraham Ancer, Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Ian Poulter and Peter Uihlein.

The PGA Tour’s three-event postseason starts next week in Memphis. Gooch, Jones and Swafford were qualified for the playoffs before leaving for LIV.

The lawsuit, obtained by Golfweek, states:

As the Tour’s monopoly power has grown, it has employed its dominance to craft an arsenal of anticompetitive restraints to protect its long-standing monopoly. Now, threatened by the entry of LIV Golf, Inc. (“LIV Golf”), and diametrically opposed to its founding mission, the Tour has ventured to harm the careers and livelihoods of any golfers, including Plaintiffs Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones, Bryson DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, and Peter Uihlein (“Plaintiffs”), who have the temerity to defy the Tour and play in tournaments sponsored by the new entrant. The Tour has done so in an intentional and relentless effort to crush nascent competition before it threatens the Tour’s monopoly.

LIV Golf has now staged three events and ahead of each, a new group of PGA Tour and DP World Tour players have joined the upstart circuit backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. And each time, the Tour has suspended them.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.

“I just wish it wasn’t this way. I think wherever you qualify, you have the credentials to play somewhere, you should be able to do so,” Ancer said to Golfweek last week at the LIV Golf Invitational Series event at Trump National Bedminster. He also thinks he’d play in the playoffs if given the chance. “Everything is changing day by day, so I don’t even know what’s happening. I’m committed to LIV, but I’d like to play all over the world. We’ll see what happens.”

Matthew Wolff was unable to give a definitive answer to whether or not he’d compete in the playoffs when asked at Trump Bedminster, but said he’d “absolutely” consider it.

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