The user manual for the Majlis course is very clear: the score must be made on holes 2, 3, 10, 13, 17, and 18. If you want to win the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, you have to rack up birdies on those holes and then survive. Anything you scrape here and there on the rest of the course will be a wonderfully welcome bonus. Failing to take advantage of that sequence of short par 5s and 4s will result in an uphill battle that even Sisyphus would struggle with.
Patrick Reed (-9) has studied the manual. He knows it inside out and is applying it perfectly. In just two days, he has accumulated -10 on those six holes. That’s it, rack up there and survive with a +1 on the rest. But it’s not just a thing of this year. Reed has always been clear about it.
In 2023, his first participation here, when he finished second after a phenomenal duel with Rory McIlroy, he scored -13 over the four days on those holes. He finished -18. In 2025, his second participation in these parts, 10th place, he scored -11 and finished -9 overall. It’s pure mathematics. In two and a half years, or in other words, ten rounds, Reed has scored -34 on the four par 5s of the Majlis plus holes 2 and 17. He does well on the Dubai course. He does well because he wonderfully applies the manual.
Reed is the sole leader with a four-shot advantage after delivering a bogey-free round of 66 this morning. Spectacular. He has already played ten rounds on the Emirates course, and nine have been under par, seven below 70 strokes. He sees it well. It won’t be easy to knock Reed off the pedestal, as his great reading of the course is complemented by a magnificent short game that allows him to escape the myriad problems that this course always ends up posing around the green due to the explosive mix of generous rough and fast greens.
With the afternoon session still in play, the second place with the round finished is for Jayden Schaper (-5). The South African is not coming down from the good wave. He won two tournaments before the end of 2025, and there he is again among the best. He is the leader of the Race to Dubai and has no problem showing his stripes. Today he scored 68 strokes. From there, the provisional third place is for David Puig (-4), another who doesn’t tire of getting into the top positions in the DP World Tour tournaments. Another victory option for the man from La Garriga with 36 holes to go. One stroke further back are JC Ritchie, Niklas Lemke, Tom McKibbin, and Ewen Ferguson.
On the other hand, Dustin Johnson (+4) cannot be overlooked. Out of the cut without remission. Two rounds in Dubai and both over par. Two 74s. One birdie all day, four in 36 holes. Claude Harmon, his coach, is around here. They have work ahead if he really wants to be among the best again, the one who was once the undisputed Number One in the world.
