After departing LIV Golf last month and with his return to the PGA Tour not set until this summer, all Patrick Reed has done in the interim is win tournaments.
Reed won the Qatar Masters on Sunday in Doha at 16-under-par 272, following his 2-under 70 in the final round of the DP World Tour event. It is the American’s second tournament victory in three weeks after he won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January.
It nearly was three trophies in three weeks, but Reed lost in a playoff during last week’s Bahrain Championship.
“This little run I’ve had, two wins and a second, it’s awesome,” Reed said. “We couldn’t ask anything more than what we did. It’s special, to come out here especially to get two wins early on in the season, and hopefully there’s a lot more to come.”
Calum Hill of Scotland finished in second place at 14 under after shooting a 5-under 67 in the final round, while Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen (71) and American Johannes Veerman (68) tied for third at 13 under.
“Golf feels good at the minute (and) it was nice to have a really good week last week,” Hill said. “… Today it was a different story, it was a big chase. You’re trying to get as much on the field as you can and then hopefully Patrick didn’t go too far away.”
Reed was 1-over par over his first nine holes Sunday but was able to hold off the hard-charging Hill with birdies on three of the first four holes on the back nine. He came home with four consecutive pars to win on the European Tour for the fifth time in his career.
Since leaving the PGA Tour in 2022, Reed won one LIV Golf tournament in June of last year at Dallas. The 2018 Masters winner has won nine times on the PGA Tour, with the last in 2021 at the Farmers Insurance Open just outside of San Diego.
Reed’s latest victory was in doubt early after he carried a two-shot lead into the final round. That was erased when Olesen had a birdie on the first hole and Reed posted a bogey on his second hole to create a tie at the top of the leaderboard.
Oliver Lindell of Finland charged into the lead with six birdies and two bogeys over his first eight holes. Lindell, who finished tied for sixth at 12 under, fell by the wayside with a double bogey 6 at the 15th hole that took him to 3 over on the back nine at the time.
“It wasn’t looking very good there on the front nine,” Reed said. “To lose the lead like that and then to be able to kind of flip the switch there on the back nine obviously felt amazing.”
Veerman made a late run with five birdies over his final nine holes before Reed showed a steady hand to close out his round.
“I feel amazing,” Reed said. “This one hasn’t fully sunk in yet but today, with how stressful the day was, I was very proud because it very easily could have gotten away from me. The golf we’ve played since basically the offseason has been some stellar golf. I feel really confident in my golf game right now.”
