Hyundai Tournament of Champions - Reed Wins

On Monday Patrick Reed became just the 5th player in the last 20 years to win a PGA Tour title before his 25th birthday.

The other four?  Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia. Who else?

The stocky, cocky 24-year-old 2014 US Ryder Cup player did it by winning `the Hyundai Tournament of champions at Kapalua’s Plantation Course in Hawaii where he beat fellow American Jimmy Walker on the first hole of a dramatic play-off.

Australia’s Jason Day, one of the bookies’ pre-tournament favourites, fired a stunning, day’s-best 62, to finish just one shot back on 272 in a tie for third with Russell Henley (67) and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (70) with South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon a further shot back on 273.

Defending champion Zach Johnson was next in 7th place on 274.

But getting back to Reed; the great irony of his victory over a field made up entirely of 2014 PGA tournament winners was that he never thought he could pull it off until he actually stood over a daunting 18-foot putt in the play-off.

This especially when he had been four shots back from a flying Walker with just four holes to play and thought it might not be possible to catch the leader.

"I thought my chances were slim," Reed said. "So I was just thinking to myself, `Let's try to birdie three of the last four and get ourselves a chance to secure second alone.”

Reed not only made the birdies he aimed for, he did more. He added an eagle as he put together some extraordinary golf heading down the closing stretch.

He got his first birdie with a straight-forward two-putt hole on the pa-5 15th, then holed out with a spectacular wedge shot from 80 yards for his vital eagle and although he needed three putts from 100 feet for a par at 17, he made up for it when he two-putted for birdie from 80 feet on the par five 18th to finish with a 6-under 67 and a 21-under 271 total.

Behind him Walker had run into a nervy finish after he made his first bogey in his 33 holes at Kapalua. This when he tried to play it safe at the par-four 14th and found a bunker.

He then failed to hole two birdie putts from inside 10 feet on the next two holes and it sent him to the 18th facing a crucial 18-foot birdie putt to win in regulation.

He missed again, closing with a 69 to join Reed at 271.

The nerves were still there in the play-off. His approach overflew the green and even before he had a chance to putt for par from 6ft, Reed, cool as a cucumber, had already drained his dramatic, winning birdie putt from 18-ft.

"It was there for me to win," said a luckless Walker who much like Charl Schwartzel in Sunday’s final round of the SA Open on the other side of the Atlantic, had seen himself caught and then edged out after leading by four with four holes to play.

"It was a bummer. I didn't close the door on it."

On his cool finish, meanwhile, Reed opined: “I think it's just because I'm stubborn. I don't really care.

“I go out there and just kind of focus on my golf game, and I don't really care what anyone else is doing or however anyone else hits the shot. I just know how I can do it, and you know, what works for me and what makes me more consistent under pressure.”

Reed’s eagle was clearly the shot of the tournament and turned the game.

“As soon as we saw that opening,” said caddie and brother-in-law Kessler Karain, “I told him, ‘Hey man, you’ve got the keys to the car now. Let’s go take it for a ride.’ ”

Reed has only had one other top-five finish since his win at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March, but he’s hoping that the work he has been putting in to make himself more consistent will pay off by giving him a multi-win year.

And that’s not impossible. Reed is clearly one of the game’s new young guns who are rapidly becoming a force in US golf.

THE TOP 10 FINISHERS

-21 Patrick Reed (won play-off at 1st)
-21 Jimmy Walker
-20 Jason Day
-20 Russell Henley
-20 Hideki Matsuyama
-19 Bae Sang-moon
-18 Zach Johnson
-17 Robert Streb
-17 Brendon Todd
-15 Bubba Watson

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