Reed turns up the heat in Race to Dubai

DUBAI • Patrick Reed is very much in contention to become the first American to win the Race to Dubai title.

He carded a superb eight-under 64 in the second round to take a two-shot lead over Matthew Fitzpatrick at the European Tour's season-ending DP World Tour Championship yesterday.

After an opening round of 70 on Thursday that left him three shots behind overnight leader Victor Perez of France, 2018 Masters winner Reed turned up the heat with five birdies on the front nine before adding further gains on four holes after the turn.

The only blemish on his card was a bogey on the par-four 12th hole at the Jumeirah Golf Estates' Earth Course but the world No. 11 said he was pleased with his effort, having gone 10-under 134 for the tournament heading into the weekend.

"Any time you shoot eight under, you're always happy. I feel like today, I got off to a little better start than yesterday and the putter was working a little bit," he said.

"Yesterday, I felt like I did a lot of things pretty well, just putts weren't really falling, was kind of burning a couple edges, a couple iron shots weren't as close as they needed to be, and today I tightened it up.

"I was able to hit the ball a little closer, give myself more opportunities and seeing the lines a little better today."

At US$3 million (S$4 million), the DP World Tour Championship offers the single biggest prize of any individual tournament in golf, and whoever is top of the standings after tomorrow will also take home US$2 million as the Race to Dubai winner.

While Reed is the favourite, the leaderboard is still too close to call.

England's Fitzpatrick was eight-under overall after a second successive round of 68 while compatriots Tyrrell Hatton (68) and Laurie Canter (66) were tied-third, three shots behind the leader.

English duo Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Lee Westwood (68) were tied-fifth at six-under, while Perez dropped to tied-14th after a disappointing round of 74.

REUTERS


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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 12, 2020, with the headline Reed turns up the heat in Race to Dubai. Subscribe