Patrick Reed has brilliantly delivered LIV Golf back-to-back success at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
Reed, 35, was unchallenged over the final, teeing-up leading by four and capturing a fourth DP World Tour victory by four over the host Majlis course
The proud Texan was contesting the Rolex Series event for a third occasion, having finished runner-up two years ago and sharting 10th place a year ago to fellow LIV Golf colleague Tyrell Hatton.
The 2018 Masters champion produced a rock solid level par 72, having hardly got into top gear in posting two birdies at the 10th and 13th holes with a similar number of bogeys.
Reed headed down the last, in a second of three straight DP World Tour events as he’s contesting next week’s Bahrain event, a picture of calmness finding the fairway with his drive, laying-up shy of the water with his second, chipping a third to 35-feet and from there, two-putting for a par.
And it was very laid-back Reed, taking off his 4Aces GC cap to shake hands with his playing partners before embracing his own caddie Kessler Karain, who is also Reed’s brother-in-law. He is the brother of Justine Reed, and took over from caddying for Reed in 2014.
“It hasn’t fully set in yet. But yeah, today was a lot harder than I expected. I knew it was going to be. I just couldn’t really get anything going on the front nine,” said Reed.
“I learned a lot about the round today. Instead of just keeping the foot on the gas early, I tried to protect that lead since I had a four-shot ead, and next thing you know, David (Puig) goes and birdies 8 and 9 and shuts it down to two.
“Even Kess (Caddy) was like, “Hey, now it’s a dogfight. Now let’s get going. Go shoot under par on the back nine, no one will beat you.
“We were able to get that birdie on 13 to get to 1-under and he gave me a gift there by bogeying, and from there on, just hit fairways, hit greens and just don’t make any mistakes”.
England’s Andy Sullivan produced a 71 to grab second place at 10-under while Spain’s and fellow LIV Golf star David Puig (73) and Frenchman Julien Guerrier (69) shared third at nine-under.
Four-time Dubai champ Rory McIlroy, and on the occasion of a 20th anniversary in first contesting the event, was hardly sighted all week signing for rounds of 73, 69, 71 and a poor closing 73 to end in a share of 33rd, a distant 12 shots shy of Reed.
