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THE RYDER CUPSeptember 25, 2014Patrick ReedAUCHTERARDER, SCOTLAND PAUL SYMES: Well, Patrick, many, many thanks for joining us. Your Ryder Cup debut, I assume you're pretty excited to get going tomorrow. PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure. This week seems like it's lasted forever. We got here Monday. It's about the same amount of time that it takes in normal events I play, but leading up to The Ryder Cup and everything, it just seems like Monday through today has been such a long, you know, process, just waiting and waiting just to get out there and play and represent your country. So I'm excited, can't wait and can't wait for tomorrow. PAUL SYMES: Have you visualized that first tee shot many times in your head? PATRICK REED: I have. When I first stepped up on the tee the first time, I didn't really hit a good tee shot. Just a practise round, didn't think I would be nervous but almost felt like how it did first time ever I stepped up at St. Andrews in a practise round. Just the history behind that golf course, but also the history behind The Ryder Cup and everything, it's almost like all the oxygen got sucked out. After the first time playing it, the nerves were gone and all that. So I'm excited and I just can't wait. Q. I just wondered, there was an awful lot that had been said about you early in your career. You had been accused of being a loner, you were accused of not buying into team ethics and things like that. How are you fitting into the team environment here and do you refute those kind of things that were put to you early in your career? PATRICK REED: Golf is an individual sport. I go to the golf course on a normal basis, I get out there in the morning, I pop in my headphones just to kind of get myself focused and tunnel visioned onto what I'm trying to do while I'm out there. This week is completely different. This week, we have had so much fun with all the guys. Just a lot of activities we've been doing and all that kind of stuff. When you play a normal PGA TOUR event, it's a lonely sport, but here it's totally different and I feel like the camaraderie that we have as a team is very high, and I feel like the excitement and just the fun aspect that we've had, it's been amazing. Q. Did that upset you? PATRICK REED: Did it upset me? No, I let a lot of things go and brush it off my shoulder. Q. I read in your PGA profile, one of your guys in a dream fourball is Ian Poulter. Is that correct? PATRICK REED: Oh, yeah. Q. Could you explain why? PATRICK REED: When I played through all the Monday qualifiers that year, I actually played in Travelers and that's when I first ever played with Ian. Of course, I've seen him on TV and seen everything. Playing golf with him, Justine was on the bag at the time, we had such a great time. He made you laugh literally the entire 18 holes we played, it was always just one-liners and jabbing a little bit. He was a lot of fun, real down-to-earth and easy to play with. I felt like if I spent some more time with him, get a couple more laughs and play some good golf. Q. Would you expect it to be like that this week? PATRICK REED: No, Angry Bird. Q. Ian is confident in himself and you're a very confident guy. Poulter in the past has said, "Picked me. I will get a point." When you look at your expectations this week, would you say that to Tom? PATRICK REED: I think every guy on our team would. All of us are confident, all of us feel like we're playing really well. At the end of the season this year, it was a long run through the Playoffs and everything, so we were able to go home, get a bit of rest and I feel like the whole team is playing a lot better, and also is way more energised and recovered from such a long season. Q. You mentioned the Monday qualifiers. It not a perfect comparison, but they are 18-hole sprints. Can you pull anything from what you did that year with so many Monday qualifiers to what you may go through this week? PATRICK REED: For sure. I'll pull from the Monday qualifiers, but I'm mainly just going to pull from the Match Play I've played. NCAAs, I was 6-0 in match play throughout my career. I played a lot of things in college, because at Augusta State, half the team was international and half the team was U.S., so we played multiple times a year in a Ryder Cup kind of a format and events like that. So those are just the kind of things I feel like are going to help me this week. The main thing is, you know, keep my head down, play some good golf and keep going. Q. Also can I ask about the caddie situation. Did just Justine -- PATRICK REED: Justine is not caddying this week. Q. Did she want to? PATRICK REED: Of course she would love to. The thing was, she felt like this would have been a fun week for her to be the wife, take in all the activities with the other wives and get to know them and build more friendships, just like I did out here with the guys. I think what we did is the best way. She feels comfortable with it. She'll be cheering pretty loud on the sideline. Q. You talked about getting rest. In one week, how do you recharge your batteries, especially when you have a baby in the household? PATRICK REED: I mean, we travel with an army. I mean, we have my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, Justine, Kessler, myself. So when we go home, it's the same. We have a lot of help at home, especially this past week, because we knew I needed the rest and Justine needed the rest, as well. So we had the help, and I just shut down the clubs for the first three days and was able to -- I really didn't do much. I just kind of sat around and just kind of rested. With that, not only did that help me physically, but mentally it really helped to get my mind away from everything. I was itching to pick up a club again, and when I got back and started playing again, the golf game has been exactly how it was before. The only difference was I wasn't making the stupid errors that were making all the big numbers. Q. You don't have to go very far to read about how the U.S. has been not very successful in Ryder Cups over the recent history. How do you approach that knowing that situation, and how is your team approaching that, especially after what happened at Medinah? PATRICK REED: Medinah is the past. I wasn't there during it and the guys that were there, they seem fine and they are playing great, which is always nice to see. And also, I love being the underdog and kind of the team that's not really expected to win. I mean, Augusta State, did you expect us to win two in a row? So, I mean, we still did it. And any guys on our team can play well, and if they get it going can make a lot of birdies, and I feel like that's great in match play. Q. What was the reaction in the U.S. Team room yesterday when Phil Mickelson took the mick out of Rory and G-Mac? PATRICK REED: What's that? Q. The comments Phil Mickelson made yesterday? PATRICK REED: We were busy yesterday with the gala and everything. We didn't really have much time to talk about it. Q. You were aware of it? PATRICK REED: Yeah, everyone knows about it. Who doesn't. Q. What did you think of it? PATRICK REED: I mean, everyone has their opinion. Really don't have that much of a comment about it. Q. You mentioned your record at the NCAAs. Why does match play seem to suit your personality so well? PATRICK REED: I mean, honestly, if I knew, I might be able to give you an answer. But if I were to take guesses, probably just the fact that I know I only have 18 holes, I'm playing that one guy; I always know where I am every second, basically. Normal events, you have 100-something players, and when you have that many guys, you don't know what everyone else is doing. You don't know what the morning is doing compared to the afternoon, and match play is just you're playing your guys in your group, and that's it. I feel like that's what kind of gets me going, due to the fact that I know what they're doing, I can adapt my game plan, whether I need to start playing a little more aggressive or kind of back off. I feel like that's basically what's helped me. Q. Do you have a sense for not only who you'll play with tomorrow but who the possibilities might be over the next couple days? PATRICK REED: That is all up to Captain Watson. It all depends on how everyone is playing. We have of course played in our groups the whole time. The good thing with the captain, especially Captain Watson, with how much he's played and been around the game, he can pick from one group to another group who is playing well, who is putting well, who is chipping well and all that and is going to be able to put us together to make our team do as well as we can. Q. Hopefully this is not redundant, but I was going to say, it looks like maybe Jim Furyk would be a partner at some point. So let's say in theory you end up playing with Furyk. You seem like a little bit of an odd couple, but how is it playing with him the last few days? PATRICK REED: It would be awesome. He hits every fairway and makes every putt, and I hit my irons very well. That would be good in alternate-shot and best-ball. The way he's been playing, these past couple days, he's been playing great. That would be -- it's one of those kind of things that we've played -- I've played with Furyk, Kuchar, Spieth, Hunter and Zach, so I mean, if he's going off of groups, I have five guys I have an opportunity of playing with. It just all depends on who Captain Watson thinks is the best pairings and whatever it is we'll go from there. Q. Personality-wise, can you relate to Jim? PATRICK REED: Him and I get along really well. We've had a lot of fun this week. I've played with him before and every time I've played with him, him and I seem to have a great time playing and he would be a great guy to play with. Q. Some of the big American sports don't really have much of an international dimension, like baseball and U.S. football. Can you recall growing up and getting excited about watching The Ryder Cup, and given the time you've been growing up has been not a terribly successful period for America, can you remember your thoughts about it as it unfolded? PATRICK REED: I've absolutely loved watching it since I was a little kid. My father used to play golf, so it didn't matter whether it was played in the States or played over here; it was on the TV. Whether I was up at 2.00 or 3.00 in the morning watching it or up at 11.00 watching it, we were always watching it. It was one of those things that I've always dreamed of making the team, and finally making the team means a lot. It's just one of those things that hopefully we can do our job and hopefully the Cup comes back home. Q. Can you remember your emotions as a kid watching your team lose and sometimes bad turnarounds on the final day -- PATRICK REED: Damn. It seemed like we haven't been very successful winning the Cup, but the guys have been playing great. Being my first, I wasn't able to see how the practises went or anything like that throughout the other ones. But the guys are looking good, and I feel like I'm playing really well. So, you know, hopefully we can go and get some points. Q. If I ask you to describe Tom Watson's captaincy in a few words, how would you do that? PATRICK REED: Oohh. That's a good one. Q. A few crisp adjectives. PATRICK REED: Basically just like he is. He's resilient, great player, and he gets it. Doesn't matter whether it's on the golf course or off the golf course, when we are all hanging out, he gets it. He knows what to say. He knows how to handle his team. We hope we can do our job on the golf course for him. Q. Do you feel encouraged, I guess, when Tom comes up to you and says something, looks you in the eye and says, in effect, do this, Patrick; do you feel yourself growing in confidence because of his stature? PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure. He has a good track record over here, you know, in his own golf game. Whenever he comes up and gives you any kind of advice or tells you what to do, I mean, 99 per cent of the time, he's right. As long as you execute what he's asking, it's going to turn out really well. I think he's a great captain and I hope we can go out and get the job done for him. Q. If I ask you to describe the game and personality of Victor Dubuisson from France in a few words, what would you say? PATRICK REED: What's that? Q. Speaking about the French player, Victor Dubuisson, what would you say about him, his game and personality? PATRICK REED: His personality, I mean, I think he has a great personality for the game of golf. Doesn't really get too high, doesn't really get too low. And at the same time, the one thing I know about him, those shots he hit in the playoff during the Match Play when he was in the rocks and in the weeds, those are probably two of the best up-and-downs I've ever seen. He seems like a resilient player, and hopefully I'd love to play him. Q. This is a follow on Tom Watson. You were not even alive during his heyday. What is your earliest memory of him coming onto your radar, and how does he bridge the generation gap or does he even try? PATRICK REED: I mean, he's been around for a long time. It's one of those things that, you know, he has learned how to deal with and handle guys my age, guys Phil's age, guys his own age, even people younger than us. That's just one of those things that as he's been around the game for so long, he's a great leader and is it doesn't matter who it is in the game of golf. When he's around, you know he's around, and, yeah, I mean, it's one of those things that I love him as a captain and I can't wait to play some golf for him. The first time I really saw him play really or anything like that, was the British Open with Stewart Cink. Q. Just as an example of the communication that goes on, can you remember something specific that either Tom Watson or one of the assistant captains has told you this week, encouragement, advice? PATRICK REED: Yeah, just said be yourself, play your own game. That's basically what I plan on doing. It's still golf. At the end of the day, you're playing a game and it's still golf, and the main thing is just focusing on that. Q. Was that Tom that told you that? PATRICK REED: Tom's told me that. Andy North has told me that. Multiple players have told me that. It's just one of those things, you're trying to help out a rookie. Q. You talked about Justine and the decision to be a wife and not a caddie, but can you talk about what Kessler brings when he's on the bag, and how important a caddie can be in this situation? PATRICK REED: Oh, you know, a caddie is very important, especially in this kind of situation. Justine and Kessler are so much alike. They have the same kind of demeanour. They don't ever get high. They don't ever get real low. You look at them, they are just flat-lined. I feel like that's good with me because I get high and I get lows, so I have that person to kind of balance me out and get going and get ready for the next shot. That's huge. Justine is such a huge competitor. It was hard to have her not come on the bag. But at the same time, I feel like Kessler and I, we've played extremely well with each other and we've played great, and hopefully we can go get the job done. Q. How much input have the players have into pairings, both for practise rounds and then for tomorrow versus being told this is who you're playing with? PATRICK REED: You know, I mean, just like every team, whether it's our team or the other team, of course the captains ask you who you'd like to play with, who you feel like you'd play best with and give him our input. But at the end of the day, they are the ones seeing every player playing, so they will put together who they feel like is going to be the best match-ups. PAUL SYMES: Many thanks, Patrick, and enjoy the week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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