For Reed, long wait since last win ends
Patrick Reed picked a good time to end 16 months without a victory.
Reed fell behind early, was still two shots behind on the back nine at Liberty National in Jersey City, N.J., and then rolled in three straight putts — one for par, two for birdies — that allowed him to overtake Jon Rahm and hold off Abraham Ancer to win the Northern Trust.
Reed closed with a 2underpar 69 after a breezy afternoon in which a halfdozen players were in the mix on the back nine.
“It’s been a little too long,” said Reed, whose last victory was the 2018 Masters. “What better place to do it than here? It’s definitely a good time to get a ‘W.’ ”
Reed had such mediocre results by his standards that he began the FedEx Cup playoffs at No. 50 and was assured of only two events. Points count four times as much in the playoffs, so the victory vaulted him to No. 2 in the FedEx Cup.
His place at the Tour Championship is secure. His odds of earning the $15 million prize increased greatly.
It still wasn’t enough for him to get in the top eight automatic qualifiers for the Presidents Cup, which will be decided after next week.
He finished at 16under 268 and won for the seventh time in his career on the PGA Tour.
Ancer felt like a winner when it was over. He also played bogeyfree over the final 12 holes, and his birdie on the 17th gave him hope. But his approach to the 18th came down below a ridge, and his long birdie putt to force a playoff went some 6 feet by the cup. He made that to finish one stroke back and alone in second, his best PGA Tour finish.
That was enough to send him from No. 67 to No. 8, with more perks than he could count.
Ancer is a lock to make it to the Tour Championship in two weeks, meaning he earns his first spot in the Masters. He wrapped up a spot on the International team for the Presidents Cup, making him the first Mexican in the event.
“When I finished, I was a little down because I didn’t get it done and I feel like I played good,” Ancer said. “But then getting all this news that I’m going to the Tour Championship, playing all the majors, going to Masters, all that, I was like, ‘Man, this is not too bad.’ I’m extremely happy, proud of the way I performed.
“I still obviously want that W, but really proud with all the boxes that I checked off today.” Rahm wasn’t that happy. He made a 12foot birdie putt on No. 12 and reached the par5 13th in two to set up another birdie, giving him a twoshot lead. And then it all fell apart for the Spaniard. He was on the wrong side of the green at the par3 14th and threeputted for bogey from 50 feet. His tee shot narrowly found a bunker on the 15th, leaving him no shot at reaching the green, and he had to scramble for bogey from the thick grass behind the green.
Rahm closed with a 69 and tied for third with Harold Varner III, two shots behind Reed.
Varner started the PGA Tour postseason at No. 102, and though he came up two shots shy of his first PGA Tour victory, his tie for third moved him to No. 29. That not only gets him in the BMW Championship, he has a realistic shot to reach the Tour championship. U.S. Women’s Amateur: Gabriela Ruffels became the first Australian winner in U.S. Women’s Amateur history Sunday, beating Stanford’s Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland 1 up in the 36hole final at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss.
Ruffels, a 19yearold preparing for her junior season at USC, pulled even with a birdie on the par5 33rd, took the lead with a birdie on the par3 35th and matched Valenzuela with a birdie on the par4 36th.
“This is the biggest championship in amateur golf,” Ruffels said. “I’m still speechless.”
Valenzuela, 21, will be a senior at Stanford. She also lost in the 2017 final, falling 6 and 5 to Sophia Schubert at San Diego Country Club. Ruffels beat another Stanford player, Andrea Lee, in the semifinals.
“I mean, it’s tough,” Valenzuela said, “and it will be even tougher tonight, but I fought really hard.”
The allinternational final was the third in event history.
The finalists earned spots in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston. Ruffels can play the Women’s Open as an amateur or professional. Valenzuela must be an amateur.
LPGA: Mi Jung Hur won the Ladies Scottish Open in North Berwick for her third LPGA Tour title, closing with a 5under 66 in wet conditions for a fourstroke victory over fellow South Korean Jeongeun Lee6 and Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn.
Hur finished at 20under 264 at the Renaissance Club. She shot a 62 in the second round, taking just 24 putts.
Lee6, the U.S. Women’s Open champion, shot a 70. Jutanugarn had a 71. Jutanugarn’s sister, Ariya, won last year at Gullane.