Reed hangs on to win Humana

Patrick Reed lost his putting touch for a few hours in the final round of the Humana Challenge. He found it when things were getting interesting.

After shooting three straight 9-under 63s to open a seven-stroke lead, Reed had a 1-under 71 on Sunday at PGA West’s Arnold Palmer Private Course in La Quinta, Calif., to beat Ryan Palmer by two strokes.

“It was tough out there,” Reed said.

Finally resembling the guy who talked Saturday about being in a “putting coma,” Reed ran in an 18-footer for birdie on the par-3 15th to push his advantage to three strokes and parred the final three holes. He completed the wire-to-wire victory at 28-under 260.

“I started toward the end playing for par, just because I knew pars weren’t going to hurt me,” Reed said. “I knew someone was going to have to do something spectacular to catch me.”

The 23-year-old Reed has two victories in his first 46 PGA Tour starts, winning the Wyndham Championship in August. He was projected to jump from 73rd to 42nd in the world rankings, enough to lock up a spot next month in the 64-man Match Play Championship field.

Palmer made a 15-foot eagle putt on the final hole for a 63.

“What can you do with what Patrick did this week?” Palmer said. “It’s ridiculous what he did. Amazing how good he played. We’ll come up a couple short, but it was a win in my game because I was playing for second today.”

Champions Tour

Bernhard Langer birdied five of the last six holes to pull away from Fred Couples and Jeff Sluman and win the Mitsubishi Electric Championship by three strokes in Kaupulehu-Kona, Hawaii.

The 56-year-old German shot his second straight 64 in the final round of the winners-only event that opened the 35th season of the Champions Tour. He finished with a 54-hole total of 22-under 194 at Hualalai.

Sluman surged ahead at the turn, his fifth birdie putt taking him to 17 under. Langer and Couples caught him at 18 under with birdies on No. 13.

Langer just kept rolling, two-putting for birdie on the next hole to grab the lead alone, then draining three more birdie putts.

Former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett finished at 205.

European Tour

Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal shot a final round 67 to end a near three-year winless drought to capture the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in the United Arab Emirates.

Larrazabal, 30, won by a stroke with a 14-under par 274 on the National Course in the UAE capital. Rory McIlroy (68) finished with a share of second place with Phil Micklelson (69) at 13-under.