Reed Overcomes Controversy, Wins at Torrey Pines

Patrick Reed celebrates after his five stroke victory at Torrey Pines South

La Jolla, California - Patrick Reed shot a final round 68 Sunday to overcome

another rules controversy and win the Farmers Insurance Open by five

strokes at Torrey Pines.

Reed and Carlos Ortiz shared a two-stroke lead over Jon Rahm

and Viktor Hovland thru 54 holes.

Ortiz bogeyed the first and never recovered - stumbling to 6-over-par

78, falling into a tie for 29th at 4-under-par. Hovland briefly made a

run, tying the lead after birdies on the seventh and ninth, but Reed

took command when he drained a 45ft eagle putt on the par-5 sixth

(the same hole where he sank a 40 ft bomb for eagle in rd 3 Saturday).

Reed ran a string of 8 straight pars on the back nine before finishing

off the field with an exclamation point birdie at the last to finish at 14

under par total of 274.

Reed's victory was overshadowed by the embedded ball controversy

that took place during Saturday's third round. The PGA Tour rules

officials declared on Sunday that Reed followed the proper procedure,

but many tour players past and present felt that Reed manipulated

the rules by picking up and moving his ball away from the it's original

location prior to the rules official arriving on the scene. Perhaps the

biggest part of the drama that infuriated so many, was the fact that

the ball bounced prior to supposedly becoming embedded - and lack

of transparency while he removed the ball from the ground were issues

cited by many that felt Reed's reputation from past violations removes

any benefit of the doubt that many other PGA tour players would seem

to receive in similar circumstances.

Reed declined to speak about the matter after the win, staying positive.

“I knew coming into today was going to be a grind, especially with that

leaderboard and seeing how many big names were right around there

at the top." Hovland, Finau, Schauffelle, Norlander and Palmer finished

tied for second at 9 under par.