Reed grabs Qatar Masters lead as Sharma, Sandhu miss the cut

Patrick Reed will take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Qatar Masters after finishing strongly on Friday at Doha Golf Club.

The 2018 Masters champion closed with a seven-foot birdie on the 18th to reach 12-under, edging ahead of Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren. Reed had spent much of the back nine tied for the lead before pulling clear with three birdies over his final five holes.

Reed signed for a 5-under 67, building on his opening 65 and continuing a run of form that has pushed him to the top of the DP World Tour’s International Swing standings. He won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic two weeks ago and followed it with a runner-up finish in Bahrain last week.

Lagergren sits one back at 11-under, while Daniel Hillier and South Africa’s Richard Sterne share third at 10-under. Sterne produced one of the rounds of the day, a bogey-free 66 that included a hole-out birdie from a greenside bunker late in his round.

Angel Ayora, Matt Wallace and Ewen Ferguson are next at nine-under, with Jacob Skov Olesen and Kota Kaneko at eight-under.

For India, it was an early exit. Shubhankar Sharma (73-74) finished three-over and Yuvraj Sandhu (72-76) four-over, both missing the cut as it fell at two-under.

Padraig Harrington also advanced, shooting 70 to make the cut for the 380th time in his 500 DP World Tour starts — a remarkable 76 percent success rate.

Photo – DPWT