Patrick Reed shook off his involvement in another rules controversy to claim a five-stroke win and his ninth PGA Tour title at the Farmers Insurance Open in California.
The American was awarded a free drop and saved par on Saturday after what he later described as a “textbook” call to handle a ball he believed did not bounce before settling in the rough on the par-four 10th.
The Ryder Cup star, who was penalised two strokes for appearing to deliberately improve his lie in a bunker at the Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in December 2019, pushed ahead undaunted on Sunday to close with a four-under 68 at Torrey Pines.
The 30-year-old eagled with a 45-foot putt on the par-five sixth before coming home strongly with a birdie on the final hole that saw him finish with a 14-under 274 through the tournament.
Fellow Americans Tony Finau, Ryan Palmer and Xander Schauffele were five strokes back and tied for second with Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Henrik Norlander of Sweden.
Ireland’s Rory McIlroy dropped eight spots from the previous day to finish tied for 16th after a disappointing one over par 73. He started poorly with bogeys on the 10th and 13th before he double-bogeyed on the par-four 15th.
The victory, Reed’s largest margin on the PGA Tour, pushes the former Masters champion 55 spots up the FedEx Rankings for him to finish a weekend of controversy ranked 10th.
Collated final round scores and totals (USA unless stated, par 72):
274 Patrick Reed 64 72 70 68
279 Henrik Norlander (Swe) 73 69 68 69, Ryan Palmer 66 70 73 70, Tony Finau 69 67 74 69, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 70 65 73 71, Xander Schauffele 70 72 68 69
280 Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 67 72 72, Lanto Griffin 66 70 72 72, Will Zalatoris 68 71 70 71
281 Adam Scott (Aus) 67 69 72 73, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 72 71 72 66, Luke List 66 77 72 66, Peter Malnati 66 71 73 71, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 72 67 72 70, Sam Ryder 71 69 69 72
282 Robby Shelton 73 64 73 72, Rory McIlroy (Irl) 68 71 70 73
283 Adam Hadwin (Can) 69 70 73 71, Bo Hoag 72 69 71 71, Cameron Tringale 72 69 72 70, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 72 73 68, J. T. Poston 69 74 71 69, Joseph Bramlett 69 73 74 67, Kyle Stanley 72 70 70 71, Marc Leishman (Aus) 71 70 72 70, Max Homa 71 68 72 72, Sam Burns 66 72 70 75, Ted Potter Jr. 71 69 72 71
284 Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 72 68 66 78, Jason Kokrak 70 69 74 71, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 72 71 70 71
285 Brandt Snedeker 69 70 77 69, Cameron Davis (Aus) 70 71 71 73, Sepp Straka (Aut) 69 74 77 65, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 69 74 69 73, Wyndham Clark 67 73 73 72
286 Alexander Noren (Swe) 64 74 75 73, Corey Conners (Can) 72 71 73 70, Doug Ghim 70 71 73 72, Justin Suh 71 72 73 70, Kevin Streelman 68 75 73 70
287 Bill Haas 71 71 72 73, Brandon Hagy 66 75 73 73, Bronson Burgoon 69 74 74 70, Lucas Glover 68 72 75 72, Tom Lewis (Eng) 68 75 71 73, Will Gordon 67 70 75 75
288 Cameron Percy (Aus) 71 72 73 72, Gary Woodland 66 75 77 70, Matt Jones (Aus) 70 73 74 71, Matthew NeSmith 70 73 76 69, Talor Gooch 66 74 77 71
289 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 70 73 71 75, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 74 68 74 73, Michael Kim 69 74 74 72, Phil Mickelson 71 72 74 72, Rhein Gibson (Aus) 66 76 73 74, Rickie Fowler 70 73 73 73, Roger Sloan (Can) 68 73 78 70
290 Chase Seiffert 72 68 76 74, Kelly Kraft 73 69 79 69, Richy Werenski 69 69 73 79, Steve Stricker 72 70 77 71, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 70 73 74 73
291 Danny Lee (Nzl) 74 67 76 74, Harry Higgs 71 69 76 75, John Huh 69 72 76 74, Kyle Mendoza 73 69 77 72
292 K. J. Choi (Kor) 66 76 77 73, Pat Perez 71 70 77 74, Tain Lee 71 72 75 74
293 Troy Merritt 71 72 76 74
294 Denny McCarthy 67 75 73 79, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 67 76 80 71
296 Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 72 71 75 78, Tyler McCumber 76 67 78 75
297 Jason Dufner 74 69 78 76, Kevin Stadler 71 72 77 77
298 Grayson Murray 69 73 81 75
