Patrick Reed takes care of DPWT fines with dominant win in Dubai

Patrick Reed cruised to his fourth DP World Tour title at the Dubai Desert Classic. 

A final round of level par 72 was enough for the LIV Golf man to win the first Rolex Series event of the year by four shots. 

American Reed, 35, finished on a 72-hole total of 14-under par at Emirates Golf Club. 

Spain's David Puig, also a LIV recruit, was primed for a showdown with the former Masters champion after an excellent moving day - but an error-strewn three-over 75 saw him drop down the leaderboard and finish in a share of seventh on seven-under. 

English veteran Andy Sullivan took solo second on 10-under, with Julien Guerrier, Nicolai Hojgaard, Francesco Molinari, Jayden Schaper, Ricardo Gouveia and Marcus Armitage rounding out the top-10. 

"It hasn't fully set in yet," Reed told Sky Sports in the immediate aftermath of victory ."Today was a lot harder than expected, I knew it was going to be. 

"I just couldn't get anything going on the front nine, I think I learned a lot about the round today.

"Instead of keeping my foot on the gas early, I tried to protect that four-shot lead and then David goes and birdied eight and nine, and shut it down to two."

"Kess (Reed's caddie) was like, 'It's a dogfight, now let's get going and shoot under par on the back nine and no-one will beat you'. 

"We were able to get that birdie there on 13 to get to one-under and he (Puig) gave me a gift there by bogeying, from there on it was hit fairways, hit greens and make no mistakes."

Reed, who also finished runner-up here to Rory McIlroy in 2023, has also secured a much-need boost in the world rankings. 

Victory has lifted him as high as 26th in the Official World Golf Ranking. 

The Dubai Desert Classic also saw McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland and Tommy Fleetwood compete but all four showed signs of rust.

Meanwhile, the win for Reed means that he is now able to take care of his fines for competing in conflicting LIV Golf events whilst still being a member of the DP World Tour. 

Reed told reporters at the beginning of the week he was beginning the season in the red. 

It is understood he will rack up more than $1m in fines across the season. The Dallah Trophy also came with a cheque for $1,530,000. 

The topic of sanctions dominated the first two days of the week after the aforementioned McIlroy called for his European Ryder Cup teammates, Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, to settle their fines. 

Both players are refusing to do so and an appeal process is ongoing.