Public opinion in sports can shift quickly. Many athletes are hated for their opinions, lifestyles, or simply for being who they are. Floyd Mayweather from boxing, Lewis Hamilton of F1, Antonio Brown in the NFL, and the list goes on and on. But when the criticism stops being about performance and starts touching someone’s family, that line becomes harder to ignore. And Patrick Reed is one such name. Reed says that he is painted as a villain, and he is okay with that. But what he’s not okay with is that hate reaching his family, too.

Talking to Bunkered.co.uk, the 9x PGA Tour winner opened up about his feelings on the mistreatment his family faces. “I mean, as a dad, it’s a lot harder. My kids don’t deserve it. I mean, I don’t deserve it. My family doesn’t deserve it. I feel like the world we live in these days, it’s always negative type of attitude – always trying to bring people down and attack people rather than trying to build everyone up. So it’s just confusing to me why everyone acts the way they do.

“So for me, it’s just trying to always talk to my kiddos and everything and just be like, ‘hey, just look at the positive sides.’ If we’re living the right way, doing the things that we feel is the right thing to do, that’s all you can do,” Reed said.

Reed recently spoke about how his kids are being bullied. After Day 2 at the International Series Philippines, he was in conversation with AFP. During the interaction, he said that his kids are bullied at school and that it is uncalled for. He has two children, an eleven-year-old daughter, Windsor-Wells, and an eight-year-old son, Barrett Benjamin. Patrick Reed says that many people don’t even know his children, but still get them into the chaos because of his image.

Despite being painted as a villain, Reed has always focused on the good, and he advises his children to do the same. He acknowledges that there will always be someone who does not like you. And it’s true. One cannot always make everyone happy. Take Tiger Woods‘ example. One of the most popular golfers to ever exist, there are a

few, or perhaps many, who even hate somebody like him.

So it’s true that there will always be people who don’t like you. Which is why Patrick Reed says, “You’re always going to have people that agree with you and don’t agree with you. It’s impossible to sit here and try to please everyone. If you do that, you’re going to live a miserable life because it’s never going to work.

“But I feel like everybody needs to take a hard look in the mirror and take a step back. Because I mean, the amount of suicides and the amount of mental health issues and things like that from all the verbal abuse back from everyone, from social media to in person, it’s just uncalled for,” Reed said.

What Reed says is that before pointing fingers at sporting celebrities, or anyone for that matter, you must put yourself in their shoes and feel how you’d feel. Mental health isn’t just the common man’s to get affected. It affects each and everyone. And probably more to the people in the public eye.

The kind of scrutiny Rory McIlroy faced at the 2025 Ryder Cup was a perfect example of this. Fans crossed all lines to the point where they even made an attempt to attack him, which ultimately hurt his wife. “Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people…So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy had said.

Reed joined LIV Golf, which might have added to the problem. Many American fans and golfers hate many athletes who have joined LIV, as they see LIV as a betrayal of traditional golf. The media also hasn’t spared them. But all that Reed is asking is for his family to be left out of all of this.

But while he faces a lot of criticism, Patrick Reed focuses on his golf, playing in the International Series.

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Patrick Reed’s performance in the International Series

Since the International Series is backed by LIV Golf, many LIV golfers are participating in it. His best performance this year on the International Series came in March at the International Series Macau. Firing rounds of 63-64-67-67, he finished 2nd on the leaderboard. He was just 3 strokes behind Carlos Ortiz, who won the event with 22 under par. Patrick Reed won 427.5 Order of Merit points and took home $220,000 in winnings.

After the International Series Macau, he played the International Series Philippines. With rounds of 70-66-71-70, he finished at T20. Miguel Tabuena won that tournament with a score of 24 under par. Reed is currently playing his third event on the International Series, which is the Link Hong Kong Open. He is the defending champion at the Link Hong Kong Open, winning it in 2024 by beating Ben Campbell by a margin of 3 strokes. Reed finished 22 under par with rounds of 65-68-59-66.

Patrick Reed’s comments shed light on the personal cost of public perception that sportsmen like him have to pay. They show how criticism can ripple far beyond the course. But despite the noise, he continues to compete and focus on his game.