Patrick Reed reacts after missing a putt for birdie on the 17th green during the final round of the U.S. Open Golf Championship on Sunday in Southampton, N.Y.

Patrick Reed reacts after missing a putt for birdie on the 17th green during the final round of the U.S. Open Golf Championship on Sunday in Southampton, N.Y.

LPGA

Grand Rapids, Mich.: So Yeon Ryu found her winning touch at Blythefield Country Club

Ryu won the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday, closing with a 5-under 67 for a two-stroke victory over Caroline Masson. The 29-year-old South Korean player has six LPGA Tour victories, winning twice last year.

“I’ve been working really hard with my coach and my psychologist, trainer, whole my team,” Ryu said. “Finally I was able to find the last piece to put everything together, so it’s really, really meaningful to me.”

The two-time major champion birdied the par-5 16th and par-4 17th and parred the par-4 18th to finish at 21-under 267.

“I’ve been really, really struggling. I had a lot of crazy moments,” Ryu said. “I had some good rounds, I had some really bad rounds, so I couldn’t even really finish top-10 compared to any other season. So, all those reasons just drove me crazy.”

Two strokes behind Anna Nordqvist and Lee-Anne Pace entering the round, Ryu had six birdies and bogey in the final round.

“I was really calm today,” said Ryu, set to open her NW Arkansas Championship title defense Friday. “Of course I prayed like thousand times, but I was really calm. I was able to focus on my game instead of think about other players.”

Masson closed with a 70-foot birdie putt for a 68.

“Super happy about the finish today. Second place is great,” Masson said. “I was trying to win it today, but it just wasn’t quite enough. I think I made a couple good putts and I missed a few very makeable ones, too, so I guess you just have to make those if you really want to win.”

Lydia Ko shot a 67 to finish third at 18 under.

“I don’t remember this course being this easy and I don’t think it was easy, but it just shows the amount of talent that’s on our tour,” Ko said, “It’s just good to have a great week. This is a tournament I really love playing.”

Nordqvist and Pace each shot 73 — after each had a 64 on Saturday — to tie for fourth at 17 under with Jacqui Concolino (66), Azahara Munoz (68) and Angela Stanford (70).

U.S. Women’s Open winner Ariya Jutanugarn shot a tournament-record 62. She birdied five of the first seven holes, eagled No. 8 and added three more birdies to finish 12th at 15 under.

“I just like really want to go out and have fun, especially play with like Emily (Tubert) like one of my best friends,” Jutanugarn said. “And have so much fun today.”

Reed offers no complaints about Shinnecock course

Southampton, N.Y.: When other golfers maligned unforgiving Shinnecock Hills this weekend, Patrick Reed said it was fair. When there were grumblings Saturday that they could lose the course, Reed said he didn’t think that was probable at all. And when everyone else treated Shinnecock as a foe to be vanquished — a wild and unpredictable terrain to be survived, but not necessarily enjoyed — Reed befriended it.

He spent a week walking the grounds with longtime Shinnecock Hills caddy Tim Fox. He tried to learn, he said, its quirks and understand its tantrums.

And in the end, Shinnecock returned the favor.

Though he came up short of the U.S. Open victory, Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, put together a rousing comeback — throwing himself into contention as Dustin Johnson faltered — and finishing fourth at 4 over par, thanks to a 2-under 68 Sunday. This, after he ended Saturday at 1-over 71, three shots off the lead. Reed wasted no time rewriting the narrative Sunday, going from afterthought to a temporary main attraction after he birdied the first three holes.

Johnson, who led for the first three days, ended up third, and Brooks Koepka claimed his second U.S. Open in a row.

“I knew I had to (have) a hot start,” Reed said. “Watching those early scores today and watching the live coverage, it seemed like the greens were really receptive. So I knew that in the beginning part of the round, you had to attack and I had to put as much pressure as I could on the leaders and I was able to do that. I felt like I really didn’t miss a golf shot” through the first 11 holes.

Part of his success came from his study of Shinnecock.

“It felt like four different days and four different golf courses,” he said. But he was as prepared as he could have been, speaking to Fox, a local Shinnecock whisperer, picking his brain and working with him all week.

“I felt like it helped because to be able to go around with Tim, he was able to tell me if this hole plays really firm, this is kind of the way you’re going to want to play this hole,” he said. “If this plays soft, as it was when I was here, then you knew what to do.”

And it so happened that this tournament ran the gamut of conditions. There were whipping winds Thursday and a firm course Friday. Saturday?

“You had medium to soft to ridiculously firm,” Reed said, and on Sunday, after they had watered it, it was simply soft. That last one meant that Reed could be about as aggressive as he pleased.