David Feherty slams ‘Captain Oblivious’ Patrick Reed for rules fiasco in interview

It hasn’t been an easy week for Patrick Reed, despite having captured a big win at the WGC-Mexico Championship. That victory inspired a new wave of criticism over his controversial rules violation back in December at the Hero World Challenge. Now longtime golf broadcaster David Feherty is jumping into the fray.

Feherty is always capable of offering an honest, insightful, and funny response to any goings-on in the golf world, and he rarely holds back. So when SI.com and GOLF contributor Ryan Asselta caught up with him after the WGC-Mexico, he unleashed some harsh words in Patrick Reed’s direction.

Feherty was first asked how he would describe Reed in one word, to which replied, “Jesus.”

“Jesus. You can put that in there actually. Just Jesus. I mean, I don’t even know what to say. It’s just, it’s going to follow him for the rest of his life,” Feherty told Asselta in the interview for SI.com.

But he was just getting started. When asked if Reed is the “most polarizing” golfer in the game, Feherty responded that he wasn’t, but only because no one is taking Reed’s side in the controversy that has dominated the discourse around the PGA Tour so far this year.

“I’m not even sure that he’s polarizing. I’m not sure there’s too many people on the other side, you know what I mean?” Feherty said.

He then revealed what his first thought was when Reed secured his big win in Mexico. Those words? “There is no God.”

“I mean, ‘there is no God’ was the first thing I said after he’d won last week. There is no God, you know, that’s proof of it right there,” Feherty said. “Amazing. I mean, he is amazing. He’s Captain Oblivious, just can let everything run off his back. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Feherty was the only major golf figure taking Reed to task recently. A week ago, Brooks Koepka admitted he considered Reed’s actions at the Hero, where he used a club to improve his lie in a waste area by moving sand during his practice swings, as cheating.

“Uh, yeah. I think, yeah — yeah. I mean, I don’t know what he was doing, building sand castles in the sand but, you know, you know where your club is,” Koepka said at a PGA Championship media event in California. “I mean, I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touched sand.”

Then former CBS Sports reporter Peter Kostis joined a podcast to claim that he’s witnessed Reed improve his lie in a bunker several times.

R&A Chief Martin Slumbers took a more diplomatic route earlier this week when he argued that modern Tour golfers face a level of scrutiny unseen by prior generations, and that certain things should remain “behind closed doors and private.”

“We live in a world now where everything is seen and everything is talked about.” Slumbers said. “Did the great players of 30 years ago lose their temper on the golf course? I’m sure they did. It just wasn’t reported upon. I think the young players today are on the whole great ambassadors for our sport — and they’re great company to be around. Certain things should be behind closed doors and private.”

Despite the increasing criticism, Reed has remained silent on the matter recently. But as long as he keeps teeing it up on Tour, and winning the occasional tournament, the now-World No. 8 golfer will likely continue to volley criticism.

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