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By Kent Gray
Captain America’s hold on the Harry Vardon Trophy has tightened and he’s developing a scary new golf superpower  — consistency — to help repulse any late pretenders to his rightful throne.

While nearly all around him battled to avoid bogeys and even potentially tournament ending calamity on Friday, Patrick Reed circumnavigated Earth in 64 of the smoothest strokes ever witnessed at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

It moved the 30-year-old Texan to -10 and the summit of the DP World Tour Championship leaderboard through 36 holes. More significantly, Reed is back to being projected Race to Dubai champion for 2020, a position he’s held for large chunks of this year like no other.

With 2016 DPWTC winner Matthew Fitzpatrick just two strokes back at the arrowhead of a formidable peloton including Tommy Fleetwood, Danny Willett, Martin Kaymer, Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland and Lee Westwood (all within six shots), Reed still has a way to go to become the first American to be crowned European No.1.

But the way he backed up his opening 70 with nine second-round birdies suggests this event, and his date with history on Sunday, is Reed’s to lose. Not even a bogey at the 12th could derail the American. Indeed, the remarkable up and down par save he made when further dropped shots beckoned on the 13th was arguably the key to his day. And that was saying something the way he went flag-hunting, approaches hit tight to the 8th and 18th (he birdied three of his four closing holes) among an extended highlights reel.

“Anytime you shoot eight-under-par you’re always happy,” he said afterwards.

“Today, I got off to a little better start than I did yesterday. The putter was working. Yesterday, I felt like I did a lot of things pretty well, but the putts weren’t really falling. I burned a couple edges and a couple of iron shots weren’t as close as they needed to be. Today, I tightened it all up. I was able to hit the ball a little closer to the hole, which gave me more opportunities. And I was seeing the lines a little better too.”

Reed has been working on “tightening it all up” with coach Sean Hogan. The significant swing change clearly seems to be working as he arrived in Dubai fresh from five consecutive top-20 finishes.

“Ever since I started with the new swing, it has felt a little bit more controllable,” he said.

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“It feels as if I don’t have as big a curve going on with my irons. Because of that I feel like, whether it’s a right flag or left flag, I can aim closer to the hole rather than trying to aim farther away and trying to sling it in there.

“For me, it’s more of a comfort thing as well as just a consistency thing. With how good the guys are out here, whether on the PGA Tour or European Tour, when they are on, they’re on. It’s the days when it’s not quite feeling right, the ball still needs to be in play, still needs to be on the green if you are to have a chance to make birdies. That’s been the biggest difference so far. My misses are playable as far as I can still handle them, get up-and-down or even have a putt for birdie.”

If Reed continues in a similar vein to Friday, he will win the 12th DPWTC, perhaps in a canter. Scarier still is the American could probably win this without his A-game.

The one caveat? No American has won the Race to Dubai, formally the Order of Merit, and a bevy of fiercely proud European’s on the front page of the leaderboard will battle till the last putt drops on Sunday to try and deny Captain America.

It’s going to be a fun weekend.