Patrick Reed: Caddie takes aim at “haters”

The caddie for Patrick Reed has taken to social media to mount a robust defence of his under-fire boss.

Reed has been widely criticised by a large section of golf fans following an incident during Saturday’s third round of the Farmers Insurance Open.

The former Masters champion claimed embedded ball relief after pulling his approach shot from a fairway bunker into the left rough – that in spite of the fact television footage showed that the ball had, quite clearly, bounced, making it highly improbable that it could have been embedded.

The 30-year-old was adamant neither he nor anyone in his group saw the ball bounce and marked his ball and picked it up before a rules official could inspect the lie.

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He was cleared to take a free drop later absolved of wrongdoing by PGA Tour officials.

Reed went on to win the tournament but the victory was overshadowed by the incident, which prompted some of his fellow pros to take aim at him. 

Xander Schauffele said “the talk amongst the boys isn’t great” adding “he’s protected by the tour and that’s all that matters”. Lanto Griffin added that it “kind of pisses us off”.

However, if anybody was expecting to hear any contrition coming from the Reed camp, they can think evidently think again. 

On Instagram, Reed’s caddie – and brother-in-law – Kessler Karain posted a pointed message to the 30-year-old American’s critics. 

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Posing with a flag from Torrey Pines, Karain wrote: “This one is to all you haters out there. Go get you a gallon of haterade you gon need it! So proud of my bro @preedgolf.”

This isn’t the first time Karain has defended his player’s honour. 

After Reed was accused of cheating at the 2019 Hero World Challenge, Karain got into an altercation with a fan during the Presidents Cup in Australia just weeks later, an incident that saw him kicked out of the event. 

Following his ninth PGA Tour victory, Reed is immediately back in action this week. He’s flying 8,500 miles from San Diego to the Middle East where he’s due to tee it up in the Saudi International on the European Tour.