Ten months after clinching his third PGA Tour title and declaring he was among the game's top five players, Patrick Reed enhanced his golfing status by winning the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on Monday.
Never short of confidence, the 24-year-old American produced a stellar display of shot-making over the closing holes at the Kapalua Resort before beating compatriot Jimmy Walker in a playoff to earn the winner's cheque for $1.14 million.
A birdie at the 15th was followed by a stunning eagle at the par-four 16th, where he holed out from the fairway. Though Reed lipped out from four feet to bogey the 17th, he birdied the par-five last, and again in the playoff, to seal victory.
“The main thing all week for us was stay patient, it’s windy out here, give yourself looks for birdie and just try to make some putts,” Reed, who drained an 18-foot putt on the first extra hole, told reporters.
“Early on I seemed to leave a lot of putts short, just didn’t get them to the hole. It all kind of just turned around when I hit a really good three-wood on the fifth hole, the par-five.”
Reed’s eagle at the 16th, where his ball landed to the right of the hole before spinning sharply sideways and disappearing into the cup, lifted him into a tie for the lead.
“I heard the applause,” he smiled. “I didn’t really see it but I was able to see the highlights. I think it spiked pretty hard ... luckily I made that there.”
Reed had booked his place in the elite winners-only field at Kapalua with victory at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral last March, where he brashly claimed he was “one of the top five players in the world”, though his form since has been erratic.
“My game was still there,” he explained. “I just never put anything together. There was always one piece that would be missing. But I felt like I was improving, my stats were improving. Things in my swing were improving.
“Later on in the year it started to show again ... hopefully it will continue the good play that we have now.”
Reed was specific with his goals for 2015.
“One of them is a multi-win year,” he said. “And also just to make that percentage of top-10s better ... just to get that consistency better.”
