Patrick Reed will take a one-shot lead into the weekend of the 2026 Qatar Masters after a closing birdie on day two at Doha Golf Club.
Related: Patrrick Reed, Daniel Hillier share lead in Qatar
The 2018 Masters champion spent the latter stages of his round sharing top spot with Swede Joakim Lagergren, before holing a seven-foot putt on the last for his third birdie in the final five holes to climb to the summit at 12 under.
The American made just two birdies on the front nine but took advantage of the par-five tenth for the second consecutive day and his gains at the 14th, 16th and 18th more than offset a bogey at the 15th to sign for a five under par 67.
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Reed will look to cement his position at the top of the International Swing rankings after recording his fourth DP World Tour win at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic two weeks ago followed by a runner up finish at last week’s Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
Lagergren made four birdies and an eagle in his round of 66 but the most memorable moment came at the second hole. The Swede’s tee-shot landed in a rock formation but with the help of powerful caddie Jesse Karlsson, he was able to move the obstructions and clear a path to the ball to make par.
He finished off in style with a 24-foot eagle putt at the 18th to move to 11 under, and spent much of the day at the top of the leaderboard until he was overhauled late on by Reed.
Daniel Hillier, who shared the first-round lead with Reed, carded a 69 to sit alongside South African Richard Sterne in third on 10 under.
Hillier dropped shots at the third and 12th but on each occasion responded with a trio of birdies – three in succession from the seventh and three in four holes from the 13th. A third bogey, after failing to escape from the sand at the 17th, meant he had to settle for three under on the day.
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Sterne produced a bogey-free 66, with the last of his six birdies coming when he holed out from that same greenside bunker on the penultimate hole.
Angel Ayora, Matt Wallace and Ewen Ferguson shared fifth place on nine under par with Jacob Skov Olesen and Kota Kaneko at eight under.
Pádraig Harrington shot 70 to reach three under and make the cut for the 380th time in his 500 DP World Tour events, an impressive 76 per cent rate.
Player quotes:
Patrick Reed: Honestly, today was a little frustrating, especially early. Didn’t hit my first fairway until six, finally had a little bit of a celebration there for hitting the fairway and next thing you know I go and birdie the hole.
Ball-striking wasn’t quite as sharp as it was yesterday but I missed in the right spots today and because of that I was able still to get balls on greens.
Going round this place and feeling like you didn’t hit it quite as well as you wanted to, and hit 17 greens is always a positive.
I will go back, recover, rest and get ready for tomorrow. Towards the end the golf game started feeling pretty solid so we’re just looking forward to the weekend.
I love the golf course. I think it’s one of these where you really have to be able to work the ball both ways and today I unfortunately had the opposite shot going to what I was trying to hit early in that round.
Because of that there was a little bit more stress but it definitely showed that as long as you do your homework, figure out where you can miss it on this golf course, you still have an opportunity to go out and shoot a number.
I was able to do that and get myself back up top on the leaderboard, and at the same time feel like I got some confidence on the back nine with how I was able to hit the golf ball.
I’m just going to go in and approach it the same way I always have, try to start at even par with everybody and try to go win the day. If you can go and win more days than not, you’ll win the tournament at the end of the day.
Just really go into the weekend with the same mindset, go and play the golf course and continue to give myself some good birdie looks and try to roll in some putts.
