Patrick Reed's Winning Back 9 | Hero Dubai Desert Classic

Certainly won't be flustered Patrick Reid from pooch getting a little closer to him and a perfect tee shot to start the back nine. With height. That was brilliant. High, soft. Taking his time on every one. There it goes, Reid's first body of the day. Look out there's two. Time to find out. Cracker and he hasn't and that's scooted out of the bunker left. Strange old bounce. That's well played. Well, well, well. Pooch has got the momentum here in this final group. I read back to 13. Pooch with a five footer. Can take off if he finds a deck. These fairways have dried out. They've got a little bit of a fire in their belly now. You just wonder if it's the way he plays, but you just wonder if he'd concentrate on getting the ball in the fairway instead of trying to knock the cover off it. It might help. Sounded pretty solid and he's done really well. Got himself what halfway up this massive green here at 12. He's been very successful today from this kind of range. Just hear a little bit of the anxiety maybe sort of creeping in there. Ignoring his short game read for par at 12. He stays two ahead. What does he aim it down the right and hit a soft draw? And make it run down there like a like a rabbit. That'll do nicely and have to hit the same shot as we've been seeing. A nice high fade. Not his forte. First thing he's sort of gone right to left, I thought. Yeah, it's in the bunker. Yeah. And oh, it came out of the bunker, but that's just as good because he tried to hit it in the left side of the bunker, Andrew, and open the angle up. Great match. Players get it up and down out of ball washes. This lies OK. So this is going to be a pop and a trickle down there from left to right. Time and time again. As well, just like that. And his lead has doubled. It sounds a long, long way away, though. It's out in the ocean. Well, that drive, that three wood is out in the middle of the fairway. 140 yards off a little upslope and the flag set all the way back into a puff of draft. Difficult to get it all the way back to this flag. You're so mindful of going along. We can be excused for coming up just a tad shy. Not that shy. I don't think he caught it. Straight up the hill into the green, quite slow. Doesn't want to move a heap. It's raining in Dubai. No stress at all for Patrick. He's looking exactly where Radar said. Well, actually, that's not really far in the front. It's a very difficult putt from there. Got about three different levels. No one's going to beat the course record. That is for sure set by Ernie Els back in 1994. Five shots of this with three holes of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic to go. Out with the drive, a wind out of the left hand side, which isn't ideal. Aim it down the left semi. Just let the wind do what it does. And I think he'll bail right out. He'll have nothing to do with that tunglet juts. Juts out on the left. Straight down for the tee. That's perfection. It's the job at hand now. Just don't make any mistakes. And this title is yours. I can't see this going at the hole with great pace. Trying to put the nail in the coffin of others hopes. Very nearly did Patrick Reid. I think the flowers are on top of the coffin there, Don. Another door closes on the field. Once again, a job well done. The little swale. So we might even see a little bit of backup here. We haven't seen much this week. 1-13. Into a puff of it. A little twirl at the club. He told us all we needed to know. No one rifled. It's not been spectacular. It's been solid. He's played cleverly. It's all decisions out of his hands as well for the next shot. Quite a clever play in some ways. No ego involved. Well done. Job done. Avoid the divot though. Pretty much the only thing that could conspire against him at this stage. Oh, you're good at keeping this going. He's just been better than the rest. He's got his moment here. Well done. What a performance from Patrick Reid. A gold star performance as he collects his first Rolex Series title with the victory of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. He wins it by four with a closing round of 72. Level par. Congratulations. Patrick, runner-up here in 2023. You've gone one better. You're the Dubai Desert Classic winner of 2026. Try and describe your emotions right now. Yeah, you know, it hasn't fully set in yet. Yeah, today was a lot harder than I expected. I knew it was going to be. I just couldn't really get anything going on the front nine. I learned a lot about the round today. Instead of kind of just keeping the foot on the gas early, I tried to protect that lead since I had a four-shot lead. Next thing you know, David goes and birdies eight and nine and shut it down to two. Cass was like, hey, now it's a dogfight. Now let's get going. He said, just go shoot under par on the back nine. No one will beat you. We were able to kind of get that birdie there on 13 to get to one under. And he kind of gave me a gift there by bogeying. And from there on, it was just kind of hit fairways, hit greens, and just don't make any mistakes. You said how hard it was out there. You're 1-0 for that front nine. How much of a grind was those first nine holes for you? It was a grind. I mean, it was one of those nine holes that I really didn't feel like I hit it that bad. Just couldn't get anything really close. And then when I did, we under-read a couple of putts. But besides that, it was just kind of steady. I mean, I hit the ball. I mean, I hit it OK. I mean, didn't hit it close. But that's the hard part. When you try to protect, then all of a sudden, instead of looking at flags, you're looking away. And you misjudge a wind here and there. You get 50 feet all day long. And that's kind of what happened. And good thing we were able to kind of make that switch there on the back nine and kind of get it going. David, as you said, you got the lead to two. 13 was a huge hole. Did it feel like the pressure valve just released a little bit after that hole to get the lead back to four for you? No. I mean, obviously, when we were four up with a couple left, it definitely felt a lot nicer. But with the firepower that David has there, especially with his length, I mean, when he hit that drive there on 14, I'm just like, where the heck is he going? And he's almost in the fairway. And he's able to kind of cut the corner on 16. I know he's going to be able to get close there on 17. And so for me, I mean, I knew I had to keep the pedal down. Because with him, I mean, I felt like he would have had the advantage on the last couple of holes with his length. Because, I mean, I can't get to a lot of those corners. I can't drive 17. And, you know, just kind of those kind of things that I didn't take advantage of last time when I was here that I was like, hey, you've got to get it a little bit farther of a cushion. Because, you know, these guys, these long guys, I mean, they're going to take advantage of those holes. Patrick, really well played. You've got your name on the same trophy as Ernie and Tiger and Seve as well, who I know you've been compared to recently. Many congratulations. Well played. Thank you. With scores of 69, 66, 67, and 72, and a total of 14 under par, the winner of the 2026 Hero Dubai Desert Classic from the USA is Patrick Reid. Patrick, I'm going to invite you to lift that beautiful Dalla trophy.