‘I’ve seen Reed improve his lie four times now’

When a TV analyst hangs up his microphone one or two players tend to shift uncomfortably in their seats and Patrick Reed is again in the firing line after Peter Kostis joined the No Laying Up podcast.

Kostis was released by CBS at the end of last year and, while he maintained that 99.9 per cent of players were innocent of any wrongdoings, one or two “stepped on a spike-mark” or “fudged with their coin marking their ball”.

• Related: Koepka on Reed “building sand castles”

But Reed, who Brooks Koepka gently ripped to pieces only this week about his efforts in the Bahamas at the end of last year, wasn’t holding too much back.

“I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now,” explained Kostis. “You can go on YouTube. It’s the only time I ever shut [commentator Gary] McCord up. He didn’t know what to say when I said, ‘Well, the lie that I saw originally wouldn’t have allowed for this shot.’

“He put four or five clubs behind the ball, kind of faking whether he’s going to hit this shot or that shot or whatever. By the time he was done, he hit a frickin’ 3-wood out of there. When I saw it, it was a sand wedge lay-up originally.”

Peter Kostis on @NoLayingUp podcast says “I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie up close and personal 4 times now.” 😬 Here is one of those four. https://t.co/Z28Nkzqg6z

— Josh Berhow (@Josh_Berhow) February 19, 2020

Then there was the time when Kostis was in the TV tower in San Diego when Reed was alleged to have done a bit of gardening behind the ball.

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

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Then there was the Travelers.

“Same modus operandi,” Kostis said. “I’m not even sure he knows he’s doing it sometimes. I’m not going to assign intent. I’m just telling you what I saw.”

As to why Kostis never commented at the time his reasons were fair enough. Now he’s done though things are very different.

“I was told by Frank Chirkinian, the godfather of golf on TV, and this was kind the unwritten rule, that we are there to report the story, not to be a part of the story,” he explained. “He was adamant about that. We could never call a penalty on a player but we could comment if a penalty was called on a player. That’s the difference. I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t be the story.

“Now I’m done, I don’t really care.”

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