Chez Reavie held off a final-day charge from Alex Noren to win the Barracuda Championship by a single point at Tahoe Mountain Club.
The American started the final round of the Modified Stableford event with a six-point lead over Scotland's Martin Laird and was nine points clear of Noren, a member of Europe's 2018 Ryder Cup winning side. Noren made a hot start with birdies on the first and second hole, each worth two points, but a bogey on the third hole, costing a point, would prove the difference on the day.
After nine holes the deficit was reduced to one as Noren made four birdies in a row from the sixth hole, moving to 39 points, but Reavie, who had held the lead after 36 holes after scoring a tournament-high 19 points on Friday, fired back with gains on the eighth and ninth after a bogey on the fourth to sit on 40 points at the turn.
Both players matched each other on the back nine, with bogeys on the tenth and birdies on the 12th and 16th holes as Reavie finished with 43 points, one ahead of Noren’s 42 to secure his third PGA TOUR title.
"It's amazing," said Reavie. "It was stressful out there today with the wind and missing some putts early, and was fortunate to make some good putts coming in and pull it off. I was hitting good shots early. Even today I had some good looks. Good look on one, left it just short, three-putted two for par. So I had some good looks, and I started to get the urge to get impatient. I told myself, just relax, you're hitting good shots, just give yourself some looks, you'll knock some in, and it took a while, but I eventually did.
"I didn't look at a leaderboard until I walked off the ninth green. I birdied eight and nine, just took a look to see where I was at, and then pretty much on the back nine I looked every time I could, every other hole, every third hole. I knew where I sat the entire time.
"I was watching (Noren). I didn't see him birdie 16 just because it's over the hill, but I assumed he did just because it kind of fits his game perfectly and he was playing well. So when I got on 17 I watched him make par, and I got on the green on 17 and I knew exactly where he was and I was. I was watching him on 18 to see if he was going to make birdie or not, and I saw he made a par, so then I was like, okay, let's just fly it up there by the hole and two-putt and get out of here."
Noren, who celebrated his 40th birthday on Tuesday, finished the day with 14 points after eight birdies and two bogeys. The ten-time DP World Tour winner made a late decision to travel to California earlier in the week after being first reserve for The 150th Open at St Andrews.
"If it was another tournament, I might not have gone here," said Noren. "But I just love this week, and I wanted to have a vacation at home with the kids before the (PGA TOUR) Playoffs start. I wanted to be able to grab some points, either at The Open or here. I didn't want to just sit out The Open and then having to add a week.
"I love this course. It was pretty tricky today with the wind. It's been a roller coaster of a week, obviously, but when you make the cut, you think, well, this is a great week anyway, and then I played good on the weekend and had a blast today. It's tough to come up one short, but it's how it goes."
Laird finished third on 38 points, with Germany’s Hurly Long the next best placed DP World Tour member in seventh on 33 points. The result capped an impressive two weeks for the 26-year-old as he backed-up his fourth-place result at last week’s Barbasol Championship.
"It's been a lot of fun. My game was solid. I hit a lot of good shots. Putting was solid, too," said Long, who graduated from the European Challenge Tour in 2021. "That's the word that I would describe or use to describe it. It was very solid, a lot of good shots. Good off the tee, and I felt like this course suited me, too, because there was a lot of low fades off the tee, and that happens to be my favourite shot.
"I don't know if there's just one (highlight from the last two weeks). They're so different, these two weeks, but I enjoyed both of them. This is more of a challenging course, whereas the other one you could go make a lot of birdies, which I enjoyed both. Two great weeks."
With this victory, Reavie will be exempt on the DP World Tour until the end of the 2023-24 season.
