Red-hot Patrick Reed has made it two triumphs in three weeks on the European tour while David Micheluzzi kept up Australia's big golfing weekend in the Middle East with a top-10 finish in the Qatar Masters.
The 2018 Masters champ Reed, who won the Dubai Desert Classic a fortnight ago and was beaten only in a playoff for the Bahrain Championship title last weekend, held off all his Sunday challengers at the Doha Golf Club to win the Qatar crown by two shots.
Micheluzzi, who had begun the week with a hole-in-one at the par-three third hole, maintained his fine challenge for four days, eventually finishing five shots behind the American, tied for ninth place.
The Melburnian's effort, one of his best on the European tour, ended a lucrative weekend's work for Australian golfers in the Middle East, with his former tour colleague Elvis Smylie winning the LIV Golf event in Saudi Arabia while the all-Aussie Ripper GC quartet won the team event there in Riyadh.
Six hundred kilometres east in the Qatari capital, though, nobody could live with the former LIV player Reed, whose decision to abandon the Saudi-based tour to try to regain his PGA Tour card already looks like a winner.
The 35-year-old American was put under severe pressure from Scot Calum Hill and Finland's Oliver Lindell before he prevailed with a 16-under par total.
Hill, who was also beaten in the same Bahrain playoff as Reed last week by Freddy Schott, ended up second on 14 under for a second consecutive runner-up finish, one shot ahead of Reed's playing partner Jacob Skov Olesen and Johannes Veerman. Early pacesetter Lindell finished in a four-way tie for fifth on 12 under.
"This little run I've had, two wins and a second, it's awesome. We couldn't ask anything more than what we did," said Reed, who's already shot to the top of the European tour's 'Race to Dubai' order of merit.
Even at this early stage, he looks nailed on for the top-10 season-ending finish that will win him his PGA tour card back, but he wants more. "It's always been a dream of mine to be an American that comes out to win the Race to Dubai and we're off to a fast start.
"It's special, to come out here especially to get two wins early on in the season, and hopefully there's a lot more to come."
Micheluzzi needed a sharp start and got one with an opening birdie at the par-five first hole, but he found greenside bunkers at the fourth and seventh holes to effectively lose any chance of getting on terms.
He responded with three birdies and a bogey on the inward nine to finish with a one-under 71 and a ninth-place finish that's shot him 50 places up in the Race to Dubai.
Jason Scrivener finished with a 72 and a seven-under total in joint-24th position, while Ryan Peake also went round in level par to finish at three-under, tied for 44th spot.
