Reed Intends To Challenge Claims Of Forthcoming Book
/And he's got lawyers, affidavits and a nice bank account to fight the claims made by author Shane Ryan.
Rex Hoggard reports.
While it's not clear what about Reed made the book and what was just material gathered during the book's research effort by Ryan, the issue in question relates to what was published on tobaccoroadblues.com.
The book, entitled “Slaying the Tiger: A year inside the ropes on the new PGA Tour,” was authored by Shane Ryan who wrote in an excerpt published on Jan. 30 on the website tobaccoroadblues.com that, according to anonymous sources, Reed stole a Scotty Cameron putter and $400 cash, and that he cheated during a qualifying round while he played for the Bulldogs.
Reed told Lewis his lawyers intend to send a letter to Ballantine Books, which is part of Random House Publishing Group, and Ryan requesting that portion of the book be retracted.
“I was shocked. That was the first time I heard about it. To read something like and see how degrading and false it is, to have someone say something like that without coming to me first and asking me, it’s shocking,” Reed said.
Reed denied the allegations and said he has affidavits from Chris Haack, the head coach at Georgia, and Josh Gregory – who was his coach at Augusta (Ga.) State, where he transferred after two “drinking incidences” in Athens, Ga. – that contradict Ryan’s claims.
Reed comes off very credibly in this explanation talking to Golf Channel's Todd Lewis.
**Stephanie Wei notes that one of Reed's Augusta State teammates, Taylor Floyd, took to Twitter to mock the claims by their former teammate. The Tweet reply has since been removed.
An interesting element of all this is that a former Augusta State golfer Taylor Floyd, who was teammates with Reed, reached out to Ryan via Twitter on Sunday night. -
The above tweet—now deleted—was retweeted by three other Augusta State golfers from Reed’s era, Derek Chang, Carter Newman, and Mitch Krywulycz.
The below screenshot shows Floyd’s timeline from last night. He also tweeted to Ryan, “You’re not the only one who wants this dude’s nonsense to come to light.”
