Peter Kostis: I've Seen Patrick Reed Improve His Lie 4 Different Times

Patrick Reed is facing more accusations of cheating, this time from former CBS golf analyst Peter Kostis.

Appearing on the No Laying Up podcast (h/t Golf Channel's Will Gray), Kostis said he's seen Reed "improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now."

Kostis cited one specific incident from the final round of The Barclays in 2016: 

"That's the only time I ever shut [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.' Because he put four or five clubs behind the ball, kind of faking whether he's going to hit this shot or hit that shot. By the time he was done, he hit a freaking 3-wood out of there, which when I saw it, it was a sand wedge layup originally."

The accusation comes in the wake of Brooks Koepka telling SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio's Sway Callaway on Tuesday that Reed appeared to cheat by grounding his club in a bunker during the third round at the Hero World Challenge in December.

"It's one of those things where you know, if you look at the video obviously, he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it," Koepka said.

Reed was assessed a two-stroke penalty for the bunker incident, but denied any wrongdoing after completing his round: 

"I didn't feel like it really would have affected my lie. I mean every time I get in the bunker, I'm scared to even get my club close to it. It was that far away, but whenever you do that if it does hit the sand, just like if you're in a hazard area and you take a practice swing and it brushes grass and the grass breaks, it's a penalty. So because of that and after seeing the video, I accept that, and it wasn't because of any intent, I thought I was far enough away."

Kostis did note he's "not even sure that [Reed] knows that he's doing it sometimes" and was "not going to assign intent" to Reed's actions. 

Accusations of cheating have followed Reed around for some time, with his lawyer going so far as to send a cease-and-desist letter to Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee last month for calling out the Hero World Challenge incident. 

"To defend what Patrick Reed did is to defend cheating," Chamblee said on Golf Channel during the tournament (h/t CNN's Jill Martin and Rob Hodgetts). 

Reed finished third at the Hero World Challenge, two shots behind Henrik Stenson (-18). The 29-year-old posted a score of 74, including the two-stroke penalty, in the third round. He finished with scores of 66 in each of the other three rounds.