Patrick Reed deserves more credit for astonishing start to season

There are some who will have us believe that Patrick Reed is having it easy on the DP World Tour, that the quality of the opposition he is facing is somehow rather inferior.

What complete and utter nonsense that is.

The field at the Dubai Desert Classic featured Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry, David Puig, Nicolai Hojgaard, Thomas Detry, Tom McKibbin, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Ryan Fox, Dustin Johnston, Adrian Meronk and Thriston Lawrence. By anybody’s standards, that is a world-class field. And he left them all trailing in his wake.

I am the first to admit that I am not really a fan of the American. He is surely the very definition of a Marmite human being.

Some of his antics over the years have left me cold. The accusations of cheating, falling out with his Ryder Cup teammates because many of them supposedly did not want to play with him, the controversy that surrounded him during his college days and his bitter-sweet relationship with his parents. There has been much drama played out in public.

However, one thing is absolutely undeniable - the former Masters champion is a ferocious competitor and a world-class golfer. 

Bearing in mind that he has played so much LIV Golf in recent years, it is to his eternal credit that hehas now forced his way to the cusp of the top 20 in the world rankings. You don’t do that without being seriously good. 

This is also a guy who has won 11 times on the PGA Tour.

To date, he has made four starts on the DP World Tour in 2026. He finished 26th at the Dubai Invitational, won the Dubai Desert Classic, lost the Bahrain Championship in a playoff and won the Qatar Masters. 

He leads the Race to Dubai and even at this early stage in the season is clearly going to be challenging Rory McIlroy’s bid to win the race for a record-equalling eighth time. And with the season still in its infancy he has locked up his PGA Tour card for 2027. It is remarkable.

He already his his eye on the Race to Dubai. After his win in Qatar, he said: Reed said: "It’s always on your radar. Trust me, you’d rather be in the lead than chasing. 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.

"This little run I’ve had, two wins and a second, it’s awesome. We couldn’t ask anything more than what we did. 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."

He has done all of this while averaging less than 300 yards from the tee and while only hitting 58.93% of fairways. But he finds a remarkable 76.04% of greens in regulation - only one player has done better. He has a stroke average of 68.88, which is almost 2.5 better than the tour average.

He is a remarkable chipper. On the rare occasions when he misses a green you know for certain that he is going to get up and down 99 times out of 100. And in winning in Qatar he only missed one putt of less than five putt. Statistics like that remove a huge amount of pressure.

He leads the way in overall strokes gained, is third in strokes gained in approach play, and is fourth in strokes gained around the green.

It is also fair to say that he is not short when it comes to self-belief. Winning is a habit. A good habit.

When McIlroy is in the field at any DP World Tour event the question that is asked is who is going to finish second? Well maybe that question should now apply to Reed. I don’t think that I am exactly sticking my neck out when I predict that he will be picking up more trophies in 2026.