MADRID — Patrick Reed holds a 308-point lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the Race to Dubai standings as the DP World Tour season heads for a dramatic finish, with just five events remaining after the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Reed will look to extend his advantage at this week's Open de Espana from 8-11 October in Madrid, where 5,000 Race to Dubai points are on offer and McIlroy is not in the field.
McIlroy has won the last four Race to Dubai titles in a row and seven overall, with one more set to draw him level with Colin Montgomerie on a record eight. Collin Morikawa was the last man to stop McIlroy topping the standings. Reed, who left LIV Golf in January to take up full-time DP World Tour membership while serving out his suspension, made a fast start with victory at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January and the Qatar Masters in February either side of a play-off defeat at the Bahrain Championship. He added a T12 at The Masters, T10 at the PGA Championship, T13 at the Genesis Scottish Open, T11 at the Omega European Masters and T2 at the Amgen Irish Open before injury struck at Wentworth. McIlroy's season has centred on going back-to-back at The Masters, alongside a T7 at the PGA Championship, third at the BMW Championship, T4 at the Tour Championship and a runner-up finish at the BMW PGA Championship that cut the gap to Reed.
Reed leads the standings on 3,423.62 points from McIlroy on 3,115.86, with Eugenio Chacarra third on 2,824.39. Casey Jarvis (2,654.01), Aaron Rai (2,408.50) and Ryan Fox (2,266.95) complete the top six, followed by Jayden Schaper, Matt Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan and Jacob Skov Olesen. Reed will play one more tournament than McIlroy down the stretch. Both men are scheduled to face off at the DP World India Championship from 15-18 October (5,000 points) before the DP World Tour Play-Offs, while neither is entered for the Genesis Championship from 22-25 October (5,000 points).
Both Reed and McIlroy are in the fields for the two play-off events in the Middle East — the Abu Dhabi Championship from 5-8 November (9,000 points) and the DP World Tour Championship from 12-15 November (12,000 points). There had been worries over player safety due to the ongoing war in Iran, but both events now look set to go ahead as planned and the bumper points on offer mean the title could change hands in a heartbeat, with three head-to-head meetings still to come.
It remains far from a two-horse race. Chacarra sits around 300 points behind McIlroy and about 600 off Reed, but with 1,500 points for the winner in Abu Dhabi and 2,000 in Dubai a victory would put him very close if the top two falter. Chacarra will play one more event than the leading pair, with entries for Spain and India plus the Genesis Championship in Korea, where a top-two finish could make things very interesting heading to the Middle East. Aaron Rai and Ryan Fox would need something seriously special, though as Major champions a late charge cannot be ruled out. The winner's share is 835 points in each of the next three 5,000-point events, rising to 1,500 in Abu Dhabi and 2,000 in Dubai.