It would be fair to say that Patrick Reed has made one heck of a start to 2026 on the golf course.
He opened up with a decent 26th-place finish at the Dubai Invitational before going on to win the Dubai Desert Classic at a canter just days later.
The following week, Reed ended T2nd at the Bahrain Championship before claiming his second victory in three starts at the Qatar Masters.
Between his triumph in Dubai and the play-off defeat in Bahrain, Reed's life changed quite a bit, too. The 2018 Masters champion resigned from the LIV Golf League and opted to make the most of his lifetime membership on the DP World Tour.
Doing so proved to be a very good call in both the short term and long term, with Reed flexing his trophy-lifting muscles in earnest and setting himself up for a likely return to the PGA Tour come September.
And because of his hot start to the campaign, the 35-year-old has already been crowned the DP World Tour's International Swing champion.
The International Swing includes seven events - four in the Middle East, one in Kenya and two in South African, which are still to come.
Four of the first five tournaments offered up 585 Race To Dubai points for its victor from a pot of 3,500 while the Dubai Desert Classic handed out 1,355 from a total of 8,000 due to its status as a Rolex Series event.
As a result, Reed's total through just four events equals 2,259.70 - an extraordinary 1,025 points more than the man in second, Jayden Schaper.
With a maximum of 1,000 points to be won in the pair of upcoming South African tournaments, the Texan has already banked the $200,000 bonus for topping the standings.
Reed is due to tee it up at the South African Open Championship this week as well, so his earnings could grow further once all is said and done.
To this point in 2026, Reed has already collected an impressive $2,263,691, with the recent bonus taking that figure close to $2.5 million.
He has also risen into the world's top-20 for the first time in five years and has qualified for the DP World Tour's Back 9 sequence, which begins with the British Masters in late August and ends with the Genesis Championship in South Korea in late October.
Each of those tournaments will offer up at least $3.25 million in prize money and includes the prestigious BMW PGA Championship with a total payout of $9 million.
It is not known how many of them Reed will play, however, given he has previously stated his intent to return Stateside as soon as possible and a PGA Tour card - via the DP World Tour's 10 Cards Initiative - appears wrapped up already.
The former LIV golfer last played on the PIF-backed circuit in August 2025, so the end of his 12-month ban will arrive at around the time that the DP World Tour's Back 9 and the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Fall begins.
Before that happens, though, Reed has an excellent chance to claim the Race To Dubai trophy as well. The American has a gap of almost 2,000 points to Rory McIlroy and that gap is only likely to grow before the Northern Irishman next competes in a DP World Tour event.
Therefore, even if McIlroy defended his Masters title, Reed would remain in the box seat for a maiden Harry Vardon Trophy on the European circuit.
