There are just two Americans in the DP World Tour Championship field in Dubai this week. One of them is a full-time member of the European Tour, which concludes its Race to Dubai with a 60-player tournament and a bonus pool awaiting the top 15 finishers in the standings.
Don't feel bad if you had little idea that Patrick Reed is the U.S. player with European Tour membership -- making him the only American to hold full playing privileges on the PGA Tour and abroad.
Reed, with little fanfare, joined the European circuit soon after winning the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour. His 2014 victory at the WGC-Cadillac Championship made him eligible. Not that anyone would have really noticed. He didn't play a European Tour event outside of the United States until July at The Open, followed by the European Masters in Switzerland.
Since the Presidents Cup, Reed, ranked 14th in the world, has spent a good bit of time in Asia, playing the Hong Kong Open (European Tour), CIMB Classic (PGA Tour), WGC-HSBC Champions (counts for both) and last week's BMW Masters in Shanghai, where Reed lost in a playoff.
That moved him up to 15th in the Race to Dubai standings, which are led by Rory McIlroy -- one of seven players with a mathematical chance of capturing the top spot on the European Tour. The Presidents Cup -- as it does on the PGA Tour -- counts toward qualification, so Reed will tee it up in his 13th event this week.
Reed, 25, has four PGA Tour victories and became just the fifth player in the last 25 years -- joining McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson -- to win that many times before turning 25 when he won in Hawaii. Jordan Spieth subsequently joined Reed on that list this year.
"I feel like my game needs to keep on improving and just travel around the world, see the different types of grasses, different types of terrains and different climates," Reed said a few weeks ago at the Hong Kong Open, where he tied for third. "Golf is so different all around the world. You get your different courses in the States, your different courses in China and Asia, different courses around Europe.
"It's just one of those things that I need to come out and feel like I need to test my game in all different places and hopefully it will pay off."
It is a noble pursuit, one that few Americans ever take up unless the European Tour is their only option. Over the years, major champions such as Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Shaun Micheel and Rich Beem have toyed with European Tour membership along with the PGA Tour.
Brooks Koepka, who won the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this year on the PGA Tour, played both tours in 2014 and won the Turkish Airlines Open last year. But he recently gave up European Tour membership, citing the demands of trying to meet requirements on both.
Peter Uihlein is the only other American in the Dubai field this week and is fully exempt on the European Tour, although he does not have a PGA Tour card.
Numerous European players compete on both tours, including top 20 players such as McIlroy, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen.
They are required to play 15 PGA Tour events and 13 on the European Tour, but the four majors and four WGC events count on both tours. (The European Tour has changed its criteria for 2016, requiring five starts, but excluding the majors and WGCs.) But because those players call the European Tour their "home" tour, they are not required to seek releases from the PGA Tour to compete in those events.
That's not the case for Reed. For each event that conflicts with a PGA Tour event, he must get a release to play on the European Tour, including this week opposite the RSM Classic -- or a total of four. He gets three for playing the tour minimum 15, then the tour grants one per five extra events played.
Americans have through the years been criticized for not expanding their games beyond U.S. shores, but the truth is they have it so good at home on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods could have claimed several European Tour money titles had he taken up membership, requiring him to add a few overseas events. He never did.
And ask No. 1-ranked Spieth about it after hauling in $22 million in prize money and bonus money this year on the PGA Tour. Spieth's lone trips outside of the United States during that run was for the WGC in China (in 2014) and The Open.
That doesn't mean Spieth won't travel to foreign lands. Next week he will defend his title at the Australian Open. In January, he is headed to Abu Dhabi for a European Tour event and to Singapore for an Asian Tour event. Both come with guaranteed paydays.
But it's a different deal when playing both tours, as Reed can attest. He played 27 times on the PGA Tour in the 2014-15 season and finished 12th in the FedEx Cup standings, earning more than $3.5-million. He's added approximately another $1.2-million in the European Tour events.
Including the Presidents Cup, the DP World Tour Championship is Reed's 32nd event in 2015 -- with the Hero World Challenge to come in two weeks followed by another year of juggling two tours.