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Patrick Reed has come in for a fair bit of criticism over the last couple of days for a lacklustre performance so far in this year’s Ryder Cup.

And it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

As the Masters champion was making his final preparations for taking on Tyrrell Hatton in today’s concluding singles session – as the US looked to overturn a 10-6 deficit – his wife, Justine, appeared to launch an extraordinary, furious attack on some of Reed’s critics.

As if that wasn’t enough, US captain Jim Furyk also found himself in the firing line, with a thinly-veiled dig aimed in the direction of Jordan Spieth, too.

It all began when Jay Coffin, the editor of GolfChannel.com, tweeted about Reed’s poor play that contributed to two defeats from two matches for ‘Captain America’.

I’m sure I’m missing something, but I just don’t recall anyone EVER playing as poorly as Patrick Reed just did in that Ryder Cup match with Tiger Woods. It was unspeakably awful.
— Jay Coffin ⚰️ (@JayCoffin) September 29, 2018

An account purporting to be Justine Reed spotted that and replied with this:

Wow. And you’re the Editor of @GolfChannel Doesn’t surprise me. He didn’t hit many fairways today, but many didn’t. He made sure he scrambled. First day, he made 5 birdies, and hit a ton of fairways, and sat the afternoon. I guess this is where the hate comes from @GolfChannel

— Justine (@JustineKReed) September 29, 2018

In an apparent dig at captain Furyk’s decision to split up the previously successful Reed and Jordan Spieth pairing at Le Golf National this week, “Mrs R” replied to another Twitter user with this:

It was set up that way. He was the leading point scorer for the last two Ryder Cups. You don’t see any of the others playing Molinari and Fleetwood? Yet you change the most winning pairing in American History in Patrick and Jordan.

— Justine (@JustineKReed) September 29, 2018

In response to another user’s claim that Reed is “just not very good at golf 50 weeks a year”, she replied:

Yea, I guess that’s why he’s 15th in the world and plays more than anyone in the top 25 in the world. Do your homework. pic.twitter.com/b5KL1RIZni

— Justine (@JustineKReed) September 29, 2018

Then this happened – a dig at Jordan Spieth perhaps?

I can assure you- you’re wrong. Patrick never said that he didn’t want to play with Jordan. Maybe you should ask Jordan why he didn’t want to play with Patrick. You don’t have to love the people you work with- but when you have chemistry and success, you go with it for the TEAM.

— Justine (@JustineKReed) September 28, 2018

No he didn’t. That’s simply not true. And Patrick didn’t say anything to Jordan! Sorry if someone can’t take a joke. Or is that just because the joke came from Reed?

— Justine (@JustineKReed) September 30, 2018

There was a little more back and forth with other users, before the attention returned to the Golf Channel.

You must be living in La la land! They (GC) are the ones that are unspeakably awful. Not even trying to hide their bias, their prejudice and their hatred. Journalistically disqualified. Have been for a long time. Now others can see it clearly as well.

— Justine (@JustineKReed) September 30, 2018

Now, at this point you might be wondering if this really is Justine’s account and not, in fact, somebody impersonating her with a view to causing mischief.

Don’t worry – we had the same thought.

So, too, did GOLF.com’s Dylan Dethier. His tweet makes for incredibly interesting reading:

I caught up with Justine Reed this morning to confirm that this was in fact her Twitter account. She had an interesting response. "I can’t really say, I don’t know," she said. When pressed with specifics, she declined to answer any further questions. https://t.co/JF9DmbG7h4

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) September 30, 2018

Wow – if this is all true and this was indeed Justine, it should be a fun flight home…

topics

Ryder Cup Ryder Cup 2018 Patrick Reed Justine Reed Team USA Jordan Spieth Jim Furyk Le Golf National

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor