DUBAI – Patrick Reed followed through on his plan to win the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in order to pay off his DP World Tour fines.
Reed, the 2018 Masters champion and member of LIV Golf since 2022, closed in even-par 72 on The Majlis at Emirates Golf Club on Sunday for a four-stroke victory over England’s Andy Sullivan.
Patrick Reed tees off on the ninth hole during the final round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic 2026 at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Reed, 35, nabbed his fourth career win on the DP World Tour and his maiden Rolex Series event. Reed won LIV Golf Dallas in June his first title in 41 starts since joining the Saudi-funded league in 2022. He won the 2024 Hong Kong Open on the Asian Tour and before that the last of nine wins on the PGA Tour occurred at the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open. He entered the week ranked No. 44 in the Official World Golf Ranking and could move as high as No. 26, which is important as he is only qualified for the Masters of the four majors.
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Last summer, Reed began working with swing instructor Claude Harmon III, son of famed coach Butch Harmon and also the coach of Dustin Johnson, his 4 Aces teammate.
“I would see him a bunch and it just made sense. My swing was based so much on timing and he’s helped me better understand why the ball goes left and right,” Reed said.
Added Harmon III: “We’re just trying to get the clubface to be not so active.”
Precision off the tee and a hot putter was a deadly combination for Reed, who possesses some of the best hands around the green in the game.
“I feel like I’m driving the ball a little better right now. You know, early this week, just seeing a couple putts go in, after last year, I felt like it was one of those kind of half of the seasons where I felt like I was doing a lot of things really well,” Reed explained. “I was hitting a lot of putts and the balls weren’t going in. There were a lot of burned edges.”
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Reed built a four-stroke lead entering the final round and while he wasn’t as sharp on Sunday, it turned out he didn’t need to be. He bogeyed the fourth hole and didn’t record a single birdie on the front as his lead was cut in half. Reed always has enjoyed playing at Emirates GC, recording a top-10 last year and finishing runner-up in 2021. He traded a birdie at No. 10 for his second bogey of the day at No. 11 and for a moment his lead was down to one. But Spain’s David Puig, a fellow LIV player, missed his par putt and he’d never get closer. Reed tacked on a birdie at the par-5 13th and no one else managed to make a charge. Puig, who closed in 73, bogeyed Nos. 13 and 15 to drop back into a tie for third with Julien Guerrier (69), a stroke behind Sullivan (71). Reed finished with a 72-hole total of 14-under 274.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Patrick Reed cruises to Hero Dubai Desert Classic title
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