Patrick Reed’s offensive slur provides chance for PGA Tour to change secretive discipline policy

By now, you have likely seen or heard about Patrick Reed’s first round at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in China. Ordinarily, you might not even know a guy like Reed is playing in a tournament halfway around the world during the quiet period of the PGA Tour calendar. But you do now.

After a three-putt on his 10th hole of the day, Reed used some colorful language to scold himself. The language included a gay slur that has no place being used anywhere.

The PGA Tour was quick to respond to the situation, issuing a statement Thursday morning. “The PGA Tour Conduct Unbecoming regulations prohibit the use of obscene language on the golf course. The PGA Tour will deal with this matter internally in accordance with its regulations.”

So some sort of discipline is likely coming for Reed. But the key word in the quote above is “internally.” It has always been the policy of the Tour to keep incidents involving its players quiet. This is done in an effort to protect the players from being publicly shamed. It is also done to protect the image of the Tour.

We likely won’t know if Reed is fined. We definitely won’t know how much. And we almost certainly won’t hear about this again from the Tour. The lack of transparency continues to hurt the Tour’s reputation and it needs to stop here.

The recent poster child for the Tour’s confidential discipline system is Dustin Johnson. For years, there had been rumors about Johnson’s off-course behavior. In 2012, DJ was sidelined with a back injury, but many wondered if that was really the reason for his absence from the Tour. Some suspected the real reason DJ was missing time was because of a suspension of some sort. Because of its policy of not speaking about player discipline, the PGA Tour could not publicly deny those rumors. In the long run, it made the Tour and Johnson look bad and only incited further speculation and potentially untrue and damaging rumors.

With Reed, the Tour should be transparent in its discipline and change the policy. Reed’s gay slur has no place on the PGA Tour, and if there’s nothing beyond that boilerplate statement, there will be a negative reaction towards the Tour as a whole. If the Tour’s policy of internal discipline continues, there will be further outrage.

If Reed is fined, it seems useful to know the dollar amount. The amount should serve as a lesson to other Tour pros that the language Reed used is unacceptable and will be dealt with in a severe manner. Disclosing the amount will also show the general public how seriously the Tour takes this incident. If we don’t know how much Reed is fined, speculation will continue that the Tour didn’t do enough to discourage this type of behavior.

If Reed is suspended, we obviously won’t see him playing in a golf tournament. But unless the Tour comes out and says it suspended Reed, there will again be speculation as to why he is missing time and the general public will wonder if the PGA Tour even disciplined Reed.

The secretive policy is almost universally panned, whether its fines or suspensions for PEDs, drugs or on-course behavior. The unintended consequences seem to outweigh whatever the non-disclosure policy is trying to accomplish. While this incident is a bad look, it can be a catalyst for change and the Tour would be wise to alter its policy. At this point, the reputation and the image of the Tour has already been hurt by one of its members. By remaining quiet on any discipline, the Tour will only make matters worse.