Around The World
Following the WGC-Cadillac Championship, 23-year-old Patrick Reed answered a reporter’s question by affirming that he considers himself one of the five best golfers in the world – and while the confident Reed later re-framed those words to suggest that he’s working towards that goal, his impressive victory over a world-class field suggested that he is perhaps already on the cusp. Indeed, Reed triumphed wire-to-wire over the exceedingly rare non-Major championship field to include the entire top 50 in the Official World Ranking, and he did so without wilting under some serious final-nine pressure on Doral’s revamped – and dangerous – Blue Monster layout. Reed topped the leaderboard on Thursday following an opening 68, then maintained a share of the lead following a 75 on a windy Friday which saw scores skyrocket. A 69 on Saturday then saw him to a two-stroke 54-hole lead, and when he quickly extended that lead to four via three early Sunday birdies, his position seemed fairly secure. But as Bubba Watson and Wales’ Jamie Donaldson mounted late charges, an untimely Reed bogey at the 14th suddenly left the door slightly ajar – and it got wider when Donaldson birdied the 17th to close within one. Relying on a deft short game, however, Reed saved par from greenside bunkers at the 15th and 16th (having earlier done so at the 13th) and when Donaldson bogeyed the demanding 471-yard finisher from a greenside bunker, the lead was back to two. Smartly, Reed took the water out of play at the last by laying up with an iron, his “routine” bogey clinching the title……………… Ex-Georgia Tech All-American Chesson Hadley took only 13 PGA Tour starts to give some major support to those touting him as a future star, birdieing the final two holes to claim a two-stroke victory at the Puerto Rico Open, in Rio Grande. In an event played opposite the WGC-Cadillac Championship (and thus featuring a light field), Hadley played steady golf for the first 54 holes, his rounds of 68-65-67 staking him to a one-shot lead over 2008 U.S. Amateur champion Danny Lee of New Zealnd. But after an admittedly nervous night, Hadley quickly extended his lead by birdieing three of his first five holes on Sunday, with a chip-in four at the par-5 5th proving a turning point. Lee would mount a late charge, however, carding birdies at the 13th, 15th and 16th to make things interesting, and even even adding a final birdie at the par-5 18th for good measure. But after reeling off seven straight pars from holes 10-16, Hadley kicked it into gear once more to post his final two birdies and clich the title.