Last year, Patrick Reed went to Macau to punch his ticket to the Open Championship.
With his five-year major championship exemption from his 2018 Masters win expired, Reed has taken every avenue possible to still play in the four majors while being a member of LIV Golf. He missed the 2024 U.S. Open and Open Championship, but punched his ticket to all four in 2025 with help from a second-place finish at the International Series Macau.
Things might be easier for Reed in 2026 after he held off David Puig on Sunday to win the DP World Tour’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
With the win, Reed’s first DP World Tour win since his victory at the co-sanctioned WGC-Mexico Championship in 2020, he is projected to rise to No. 29 in the Official World Golf Rankings, according to OWGR guru Nosferatu.
Reed is exempt into the Masters for life but needs to qualify (or be given an exemption) for the other three. The PGA Championship normally offers special exemptions for players inside the top 100 in the OWGR who are not already exempt. The U.S. Open’s OWGR cut-off is for the top 50 in the OWGR, while the Open’s is for the top 60. Both the R&A and USGA also added a LIV exemption last year, given to the player inside the top-three in the individual standings who is now already exempt.
Now inside the top 30 in the world — and with LIV potentially getting OWGR points this year — Reed’s path to the three majors outside of Augusta National would appear to be easier than it has been the past few years. The win in Dubai should allow him to clinch spots in all four majors as long as he avoids an OWGR plummet. Reed plays all over the world, and he plays a lot. He played in 10 DP World Tour events outside of the majors in 2025 and is expected to follow a similar schedule this season. He’ll tee it up in Bahrain next weekend. All of that should give him a good shot at securing spots at Aronimink, Shinnecock Hills and Royal Birkdale.
“It’s always nice to lock up the majors,” Reed said after the win. “I mean, any time you go ahead and get a win, it’s special. It means a lot.
“29?” Reed said when informed of his OWGR jump. “To be a guy that earned my World Ranking points out here in the majors, to sit there and have as little amount of events that I’ve played to be in the Top 30 is something that it shows that my golf game still where I want it to be. Hopefully this springboards me this year to have a really solid year.”
All thanks to a steady display in Dubai that saw Reed jump out to a four-shot lead through 54 holes, with LIV compatriot David Puig entering the final round as the only one within shouting distance.
But Reed played conservative to start Sunday’s final round and watched as Puig cut it to two at the turn. That’s when Reed’s caddie Kessler Karain gave him a kick.
“Instead of just keeping the foot on the gas early, I tried to protect that lead,” Reed said. “Even Kess was like, ‘Hey, now it’s a dogfight. Now let’s get going. Go shoot under par on the back nine, no one will beat you.’ “
Reed birdied No. 13, and Puig stumbled home, which allowed Reed to cruise to a four-shot win over Andy Sullivan.
Reed’s win in Dubai also got him a $1.5 million winner’s check, which the 2018 Masters champion said he could use to put toward the fines he’ll incur from the DP World Tour once the LIV Golf season starts in February.
The DP World Tour fines members for playing in conflicting events, and Reed, a lifetime member, has no problem paying them.
“I’d rather just tee it up and play, and [if it] costs me this, whatever, I’ll go play. Play well and it offsets,” Reed told reporters in Dubai on Friday, via Golf Digest’s Evin Priest.
“Go ahead and win early [in the season] and that will take care of it,” Reed added later, noting he’d have to earn at least $1 million on the DP World Tour to break even.
Reed’s win comes one week after he told The Telegraph that the PGA Tour’s new “Returning Member Program” is something he would consider if he were eligible. Reed called the PGA Tour the “best in the world” and reiterated his stance this week that he’d look into returning should the criteria — which currently only covers major champions and Players winners from 2022 to 2025 — ever be extended to cover him.
“I’ve always enjoyed being out there on the PGA Tour, and if that opportunity ever comes whenever that is, you know, it will be a decision,” Reed said. “But right now, that decision isn’t out there yet. For me, at this moment, I’m just kind of playing here and kind of my schedule is set, where everything was set going forward. Supposed to get to LIV in Riyadh in two weeks and tee it up. That was the plan all along. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
For now, that’s Patrick Reed’s plan. And after a win in Dubai, his 2026 path to the majors should be a lot smoother than it has been the past two years.
