Qatar Masters: Patrick Reed continues excellent form with impressive start

Patrick Reed continued his fine start to the season at the Qatar Masters. 

The former Masters champion, who quit LIV Golf last month, carded a seven-under par 65 on Thursday at Doha Golf Club.

It puts the 35-year-old in a share of the lead with pre-tournament favourite, Australia's Daniel Hillier, on seven-under.

Highly-rated youngsters, Finland's Oliver Lindell and Spain's Angel Ayora are also among a group of five players on six-under. 

Reed's confidence is sky-high at the moment. 

He won the first Rolex Series event of the year in January at the Dubai Desert Classic.  

And, last week, was unfortunate not to win back-to-back events on the DP World Tour.

The American was involved in a three-way play-off at the Bahrain Championship but dropped out on the first extra hole with a bogey. 

"We're definitely enjoying it a lot right now," he told the DP World Tour after round one. 

"The game feels solid, I feel like a lot of the work we’ve done in the off-season has really stuck and it’s gone pretty well.

"At this point we're just riding the confidence, allowing ourselves to go out there and just play a little bit aggressive, attack the golf course and worst-case scenario allow my short game to bail me out."

Reed's round contained nine birdies and two dropped shots at the eighth and 13th. 

Starting from the 10th, he made the perfect start with three consecutive birdies. 

A bogey and another birdie meant his first par did not come until his sixth hole, the 15th, and he had only two in an outward nine of 31 thanks to further gains at the 16th and 17th. 

He birdied the first, fourth and seventh before dropping a shot at the par three eighth hole.

Reed added: "It was nice, I hit the ball pretty well, especially early in the round, a lot of my birdies were just kind of kick-ins which is always nice, not having to think too much around there.

"It was a solid start, I would have liked to capitalise on the par-fives a little bit more, and really the par-threes, even though I had a birdie, two of them are bogeys and all the bogeys came on par-threes so just tighten that up a little bit and really just get ready to go.

"The golf course, especially when it's windy like this, it requires a lot of shot-making – you have to work the ball both ways, or flight things down, or take it up in the air.

"That's the kind of golf I like, I like to get creative when I'm out there and really dive into the golf shot, and a golf course like this with a lot of doglegs and cross-winds, it allows you to do that. 

"It's just one of these places that kind of suits my eye."