American Express – 2021 Farmers Insurance Open leaderboard breakdown, grades: Patrick Reed pulls away for win at Torrey Pines

Thankfully, Patrick Reed won the Farmers Insurance Open by more than one stroke on Sunday at Torrey Pines. Following an embedded ball kerfuffle on Saturday during Round 3, it would have been unfortunate if the event had come down to Reed winning by a single shot given the scrutiny around and criticism of what happened on Saturday.

If you missed it, Reed declared that his ball was embedded on the 10th hole in Round 3 before picking it up and then calling a rules official over to double-check him on it. It was a lousy order of operations that led to a lot of questions in the subsequent 24 hours after Reed got up and down for par from what would have been (should have been?) an impossible position on the 10th hole.

Though he played the next eight holes on Saturday poorly, he rebounded on Sunday and was never truly threatened. After five pars to start his final round, Reed played the last four holes of the front nine in 3 under — including a bombed-in eagle putt to really get things going — and played the second nine safely enough to secure his ninth PGA Tour win by shooting 4-under 68 to finish at 14 under and win by five.

What’s truly incredible is that he did everything with little game from tee to green. In three measured rounds on the week, Reed barely gained any strokes off the tee or with his iron play, instead doing the lion’s share of his work on and around the greens. This was on display on Sunday when he got up and down six of seven times, sometimes from astonishing positions.

This week is a nice summation of Reed, too. His short game is laugh-out-loud good to the point that fellow pros gawk at what they’re seeing. But it’s often hard to appreciate because of all the ancillary nonsense. 

Reed is frustrating in that sense because he should be fun to watch and enjoy, but he’s often not. Still, as a purely golf experience, there are few better when it comes to grinding out wins on nasty tracks against big-boy fields. Reed held off Tony Finau, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele on a U.S. Open course with the chips down on Sunday. That’s a monumental achievement, even if there was some meandering to get there.

Not that the meandering should fly under the radar! Reed did nothing to help his already-teetering reputation this week at Torrey Pines. For the rest of his career, folks will have to disentangle his preposterous talent from his even more preposterous adherence to the rules. This is the Pat Reed experience. It always has been, for better or worse. Grade: A-

Tony Finau (T2): Rahm went for it at the end on the par-5 18th when he hit his second in the water in an attempt to make eagle. I respect it. Last week, I was critical of his willingness to be aggressive on Sundays, and he got after it with the chips down late. His driving was worse than his putting on Sunday, though the flat stick will likely get most of the attention (which is fair). Also, there are much worse things than being Tony Finau! Grade: A-

Xander Schauffele (T2): Schauffele’s play was shocking this week, not because he’s not a great player but rather because he has never played well at Torrey Pines. Coming into this week, he’d missed four of five cuts at Torrey, but he rolled on the weekend all the way to a top-five finish, which is his fourth in his last six starts on the PGA Tour. Grade: A

Jon Rahm (T7): The former Farmers Insurance Open champ got off to a smoking start before fading late in the day with some pretty mediocre (especially for him!) iron play. He still notched a top-10 finish, which for him has become a baseline, but it felt like a missed opportunity to make a run at Reed. Regardless, he’ll be one of the big favorites at the U.S. Open on this course in June. Grade: A

Phil Mickelson (T53): What should we make of Mickelson making the cut at a tough Torrey Pines after missing it at an easier The American Express last week? It was a nice putting week for Lefty, even though his ball-striking was almost exactly field average. The obvious problem is that good putting weeks have been unusual for Mickelson, and this is likely an outlier event rather than some sort of turn back toward contending more regularly. Still, it’s amazing to see him making cuts in this level of PGA Tour events shortly after the 30th anniversary of his first-ever PGA Tour win. Grade: B-