Patrick Reed wins the Masters by resisting the charges of Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth

Augusta, Ga. • Patrick Reed’s ball trickled toward the hole on Augusta National Golf Club’s 18th green, as he motioned with his palms down in an effort to make it stop.

Rickie Fowler and a bunch of other interested people may not have wanted the Masters to end, but Reed was eager to get it over with as soon as possible Sunday evening. He succeeded. Reed’s birdie attempt kept going past the hole, but he made the comeback putt for par and earned the green jacket for his first major tournament victory.

Reed’s closing round of 1-under-par 71 was his worst score of the week, yet it was good enough under all kinds of pressure. Reed suggested that having Golf Channel’s analysts pick Rory McIlroy to emerge from the last twosome and fans cheering much louder for his rival lowered the expectations for him. Nothing is stress-free about winning a major, though.

As the final round unfolded, with Jordan Spieth charging from way behind with a 64 and Fowler completing a 65-67 weekend, Reed’s job was to play steadily enough to stay in front. Spieth briefly tied him, then Reed birdied the par-4 No. 14 and maintained his lead over the last four holes, finishing at 15 under to beat Fowler by one stroke and Spieth by two.

All day, Reed kept doing just enough to make him believe, “No matter what they throw at me, I can do this,” he said.

So the Masters became a showcase of American golf, with three members of the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team — Reed, Spieth and Fowler — staging a strong Sunday performance, while Europeans such as McIroy, Jon Rahm and Henrik Stenson couldn’t sustain anything.

With hardly any wind, it was a good day for scoring, as Spieth and Fowler showed. So did Salt Lake City native Tony Finau, whose caddie had to tell him that he’d birdied six holes in a row on the back nine, on his way to a 66. Finau tied for 10th place and earned an invitation to the 2019 Masters. Paul Casey missed the top-12 cutoff by one shot; he bogeyed the last two holes after being 9 under for the day.

Spieth also threatened the course record of 63, but he drove poorly and bogeyed No. 18 after standing 9 under. He was tied for ninth after three rounds, nine strokes behind Reed. “With eight people ahead of me starting the day, to get that much help and shoot a fantastic round was nearly impossible,” Spieth said. “But I almost pulled off the impossible.”

Reed’s 71 was sufficient. He led after 36, 54 and most importantly, 72 holes of the Masters. “We did everything we could,” Fowler said. “And Patrick went out there and outplayed all of us this week, and he earned it.”

That remained true until the end. With Fowler playing in the group ahead of him, Reed heard a roar from the 18th green. “I just knew it had to be [for] Rickie,” he said.

Sure enough, Fowler’s birdie cut Reed’s lead to one stroke. After his chip lipped out of the hole, he made a tough par putt on No. 17 and then parred No. 18 to complete his victory.

Reed grew up in Texas and Louisiana and attended two colleges in Georgia — including Augusta State, where the golf team occasionally gets to play Augusta National. He’s a confident guy who once was derided for saying he was a top-five player.

Reed never lived up to that label in the Masters or any major until last August, when he tied for second in the PGA Championship. As he said Sunday, “The biggest thing is I put too much pressure on myself.”

In the Masters, he managed to just go out and play golf, and the strategy worked. The pairing with McIlroy, whose bid to complete a career Grand Slam made him the popular favorite, turned the final round into something resembling a Ryder Cup match with Reed feeling like he was playing for the road team.

He came through by trouncing the European star, while holding off some surging Americans in the process.