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Race to Dubai: Patrick Reed sets the pace with flawless start to the DP World Tour Championship

Reed carded a bogey-free 65 at Jumeirah Golf Estates to finish seven under par and a shot ahead of Rose and Australia's Scott Hend

Thursday 16 November 2017 12:56 GMT
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Patrick Reed set the early pace in Dubai
Patrick Reed set the early pace in Dubai

Patrick Reed set the pace in the desert with a flawless start to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai as Justin Rose moved closer to a Road to Dubai title that looked a way away just a few weeks ago.

Despite waking up with a bad back, Reed carded a bogey-free 65 at Jumeirah Golf Estates to finish seven under par and a shot ahead of Rose and Australia's Scott Hend, with defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick part of a six-strong group on five under.

Rose was a distant 10th in the money list until claiming more than 2.3million points with back-to-back victories in China and Turkey and came into the week trailing long-time leader Tommy Fleetwood by 256,738.

That means the Olympic champion needs at least a top-five finish to overhaul Fleetwood, whose 73 suffered hugely in comparison with another superb display from playing partner Rose.

"It looks worse and feels worse," Fleetwood admitted. "He played flawless golf. I don't know how long he's going to keep doing this for but it's doing my head in. To do well I have to improve things myself. I can't go out and play my round and then go out and watch him and hope he doesn't do very well."

Fleetwood admitted he was feeling the pressure as he double-bogeyed the first and dropped another shot on the third, but an eagle on the seventh helped him get back to level par before a three-putt bogey on the 17th.

Rose's only bogey also came via a three-putt on the ninth, but the 37-year-old holed out from a bunker on the 14th for an eagle in a back nine of 31 and admitted he was now the man to catch.

"It's probably shifted but tomorrow could be a whole other day," Rose said. "This was not really on the radar a month ago. That's the perspective that I have to keep because it's an opportunity for me.

"(It would) certainly be easy to start to think about it now as being in my hands, but I think for me it's still a bonus at this point."

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