LA QUINTA, Calif. –Scottie Scheffler started his season as though nothing had changed, running off four birdies in a six-hole stretch Sunday to blow past 18-year-old Blades Brown and the rest of the field. He closed with a 6-under 66 for a four-shot victory in The American Express.
Scheffler won for the 20th time on the PGA Tour, all in the last four years, to earn a lifetime membership. More indicative of his dominance in the game is winning nine of those 20 tournaments by four shots or more.
Scheffler has 20 wins and four majors before turning 30. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are the only other players to have done that.
“Pretty wild,” Scheffler said. “It’s been a great start to my career. It’s been special. I try not to think about that stuff too much. I was just trying to do the things I needed to do to be prepared.”
The world’s No. 1 player shared the stage with Brown, who finished high school two weeks ago and played in a Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas that finished Wednesday. He’s the first player to play eight straight days of PGA Tour-sanctioned competition.
Brown was one shot behind 54-hole leader Si Woo Kim and one shot ahead of Scheffler heading to the tee at the par-3 fourth on the Stadium Course at PGA West. Five holes later, Brown and Kim both were five shots behind and Scheffler was putting it into overdrive.
Brown fell from a tie for second to a tie for 18th, costing him a spot at Torrey Pines next week.
“Eight rounds I know sounds like a lot, but I was having a lot of fun,” he said. “You’re telling me I get to play in a PGA Tour event and to play with Scottie Scheffler and see him win it, that was insane.”
DP WORLD: In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Patrick Reed kept everyone at bay and closed with an even-par 72 on Sunday for a four-shot victory in the Dubai Desert Classic, his first European tour title that moves him back into the top 30 in the world for the first time since he joined LIV Golf.
Reed also made enough money from the Rolex Series event that it should cover his European tour fines for playing in the Saudi-backed rival league, assuming he can sort out a new LIV contract.
Reed revealed he is still negotiating a new contract to play on LIV, which starts Feb. 4 in Saudi Arabia. The 35-year-old American, who is playing the European tour next week in Bahrain, said he fully expects to be with LIV and a contract may already have been sorted out. His focus was only on golf this week, and he took care of business.
Reed seized control with middle rounds of 66 and 67 to build a four-shot lead over David Puig of Spain going into the last day. Reed said he found himself getting too conservative — no birdies, one bogey over the front nine — and the lead was cut in half when the Spaniard made birdie on Nos. 8 and 9.
Reed finished at 14-under 274 for his 12th title worldwide – nine on the PGA Tour, one each on the European tour, Asian Tour and LIV. Reed has won two World Golf Championships and the Masters that count toward his European tour tally.
Rory McIlroy was never in the mix from his opening 73.