Getty Image / Jared C. Tilton
Patrick Reed is back in the winner’s circle for the first time in 16 months dating back to his 2018 Masters victory.
Captain America entered the final-round of The Northern Trust Open with a one-shot lead over Abraham Ancer and that’s exactly how things finished up on Sunday afternoon at Liberty National with Reed earning a one-shot win over Ancer at 16-under for the week.
Heading into Sunday’s final-round the story of the week for Reed was the fact he had just one bogey to his name thru 54 holes. That story quickly flipped on its head as he carded three bogeys thru his first six holes on Sunday, but was able to play his final 12 holes in three under to secure the win.
It was a rather dramatic finish for Reed and company chasing, however.
Ancer was able to keep things interesting down the stretch with birdies on two of his last three holes. Jon Rahm was right there as well, but completely imploded with two bogeys on his last five holes, without those two bogeys he would have found himself in a playoff with Reed at 16-under. Brandt Snedeker was playing with Rahm and was in the thick of it as well, but a few missed putts en route to playing his last five holes at one-over did him in.
The name of the game when it comes to Liberty National is finding the fairway off the tee and that’s exactly what Reed did all week long. He finished second in the field in strokes gained: tee-to-green and hit 78.5 percent of his fairways good enough for the eighth-best average among the field. The iron play wasn’t too bad either as he finished T-5 in greens in regulation hitting 51-of-72.
Somehow Patrick Reed was the least controversial part of golf this weekend
— Joel Beall (@JoelMBeall) August 11, 2019
Reed’s game was there all week to say the very least. Then again, the win felt a bit like a long time coming as he entered the week with five straight Top 23 finishes which included a T-5 finish at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at the end of July.
As for the FedEx Cup Playoff implications during the first event of the three-tournament stretch, Reed moved from 50th to second with the win behind Brooks Koepka who sits atop the standings.
Others that received huge boosts in the FedEx Cup Playoff standings this week: Ancer from 67th to eighth, Louis Oosthuizen from 51st to 28th, Harold Varner III from 102nd to 29th.
There were a few big names that saw their PGA Tour season come to an end on Sunday as well as they fell outside of the Top 70 in the playoff race including Matthew Wolff, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Bubba Watson and Henrik Stenson.
Next up on the Playoffs slate is the BMW Championship next week just outside of Chicago at Medinahh Country Club.