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WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 4, 2015Patrick ReedMIAMI, FLORIDA LAURA NEAL: Like to welcome Patrick Reed back to the media center. Last time you were sitting here it was a good day. Talk about coming back to the Cadillac Championship to defend your titles and what good memories you have going into this week. PATRICK REED: It's always good to come back to where you're defending, especially back here last year, we were lucky enough to actually get put in the same exact room. I walked back in that room and was like, all right, some good memories, stepping back up on that first tee‑‑ there are some minor changes out there but feels like it's playing almost about the same as it did last year, and that comfort level is back and hopefully I can continue to play some good golf and have a chance to come down on Sunday. Q. What did you take out of last week or what did you take from last week? PATRICK REED: I felt like it was a pretty solid week. Saturday and Sunday, I hit the ball awful. I was hitting snap hooks all day Saturday. Seemed like every time I watched‑‑ I watched the coverage at night, every time I see myself on TV I was in the left rough or scrambling. To be able to scramble as well as I did last week to have a chance coming down the last couple holes is always nice. That iron shot even though it went in the water on 15, I really didn't feel like I hit that bad of an iron shot. The day, before the wind was blowing harder, I hit 5‑iron over the green, over the bunker and it was up against one of the palm trees. I hit a full 6 and it kind of stood up in the wind, and next thing you know it didn't cover the 178 number that I needed to cover. Unfortunately we didn't close it out but any time I feel like I didn't have a good weekend and still be able to finish inside the Top‑10 is always nice. Q. You played with Pádraig, so you saw that he hit his share of sketchy shots, as well. So what did you take from him holding onto win? PATRICK REED: He was hitting some wayward shots here and there but we went back out that afternoon‑‑ well, that morning on Monday. He made every putt he looked at. Any time you rally off four birdies, I think it was four, maybe even five, however many in a row. You know, he wanted it bad enough; and when he makes that many in a row, he just kind of keeps it going. And he hit a poor iron shot on 17, but to be able to make that long putt on 18 to get into the playoff was kind of one of those things that he felt like it was his time, and he went out and got it. Q. Last time you were in here, you wearing cowboy boots‑‑ PATRICK REED: I have golf shoes on today. I literally just got off the 18th green. But I guarantee, once I get done here and go back to the room, they will be on. Q. Along the same lines Karen just asked, Rory was asked if he learns more in defeat than victory, and he made it clear he learns a lot more about himself in defeat. Would you agree with that? PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure. When you win, you always look at all the positives and everything you did well. But when you play poorly, you can fine tune and find really what it is that you need to work on. Just seemed like putting the ball in play and in the fairway was a struggle for me. And you know, when I was hitting quick lefts with the driver, and also I started aiming more and more right, it just seemed like then all of a sudden I hit‑‑ make a good ball swing, ball would go straight, yet the ball is actually right because I'm aimed right. It happened a couple times, and that's just stuff I worked on a little bit here these past two days and feel like I'm hitting the ball fine. Just need to get it going. Q. Playing with Pádraig, he's kind of slow. Some of us thought that might have had a negative effect on your game? PATRICK REED: I mean, with Pádraig, with Poulter, myself, with everybody, I mean, the wind was blowing so hard. It's really hard to tell who is playing slow, who is playing fast at that point. I mean, the wind is howling, we're getting rulings, we're trying to figure out what chub to hit. Then all of the sudden, we set up, the wind dies; so you're backing off trying to figure out if that's the right club. So it just seemed like all week, it played slow all week, which is expected. It's howling, and then all of a sudden it was raining, and then you're in a delay and next thing you know, Monday you still have 11 holes to play. Q. This course was the most waterlogged as far as guys hitting their balls in the water on the PGA TOUR last year. How did you avoid that here last year, and what was it about this course that you really felt like you could and did get a good grasp on? PATRICK REED: My short game was really good last year here. My chipping was just amazing. I remember making a lot of putts. Whenever your short game is on, you can kind of aim a little bit more away from the flags. You know it's playing tough, so you know you don't have to go shoot, 12‑, 13‑under par. I knew single digits was going to handle it. Playing almost a little bit more conservative but aggressive to where I wanted to go. It seemed to really work. I would pick targets away from the flag and just try to make an aggressive golf swing to there and at least give myself a chance. You're going to roll a putt in here or there once in awhile, and just happened to be, come down 18 I had that chance. Q. Is that the type of course you enjoy playing? PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure. I love it when golf courses are playing hard because I'm a scrambler. And whenever you have to go out and play a golf course where everyone is hitting driver and wedge on every green and making birdies on every hole; to me it's more fun to play a golf course where you haven't hit every different shot, having to scramble to make pars, and when you go shoot 2‑, 3‑under par, it's a good score. Q. When you look back at this tournament last year, was the win overshadowed at all by the reaction of people to the Top‑5 comment, and a year later, you're right in the hunt to actually be Top‑5; so did you think you would be there sooner? Is this happening faster? Can you just address the Top‑5, the comment and the reality. PATRICK REED: I think it's, the kind of over shadowing and kind of the way that it's being talked about and everything, that's more of the media and everyone else. Me, it's just‑‑ to me, it didn't matter. It's more about the win and playing well and just keep on improving. Big thing to me was improving on consistency, and I knew that that needed to happen for me to get to the goal of being a Top‑5 player in the world. You know, to have 21 rounds of par or better, and then unfortunately I shot over last round to break that streak; but that's just part of the consistency to get back into being in contention; instead of finishing 30th, being able to pull off a top 25 or a top 20, or sometimes a top 10. Q. If there was a negative connotation to the Top‑5 comment it seemed like maybe it turned around with your performance in The Ryder Cup. I hear a lot of people saying a lot of things much more positive after you came back from The Ryder Cup. Did you sense that, too, that maybe your image improved from your performance in The Ryder Cup? PATRICK REED: I don't‑‑ that's more of what people think. Honestly for me, it's just more on the determination and passion that I have for the game. That's the one event you can kind of show it and go out after it. To play really well there meant a lot for me just because it first time representing my country. It was amazing. Q. You had already won on TOUR before you won here last year, but did it feel different? PATRICK REED: It did. Our first win, you never get the feeling that you're going to have whenever you win your first event. To have Justine on the bag meant so much more to me than really anything, and to come here and play with the first time I'm really playing with the top‑‑ basically all the Top‑50 players in the world, I think 49 of them were here last year. To be able to actually play against them and have a lead going into Sunday and having Tiger in the group in front of me, having Bubba right there, having Dufner, having all these guys that have won majors all around me; and be able to hold them off and go out and win it, it just gave me that extra confidence that I can play with everybody. It's just, I mean, you have to have your game on and I felt like this week last year it definitely was. Q. You talked about staying in the same room this year than last year. Curious if that was intentional, first of all. I know you're listening to the same song before each round and curious if you're a superstitious guy and if you have any other ones? PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure. Actually we tried to get the same suite that we were in last year, luckily we were able to get it. That's always nice to come back to the same room. Last year we were in a different building and then we got moved to that room like a day after because Justine needed a bath because she was seven or eight months pregnant, so at that point I don't want her standing up in a shower. Luckily they were able to help us out with that and this year, I was like, we're getting that same room. Yeah, I've always listened to that song. It seemed to work and it hasn't changed. Q. Do you have any other superstitions? PATRICK REED: Not really. I always work my ball with the tails. I never put it on heads. If I pull out of the pocket, going on heads, I'll literally flip it over to tails. Six tees in the pocket, only play three golf balls, No. 3s. Red shirt final round. I have changed that up a little bit, every once in awhile. I've worn the same black golf shoes now for a year and a half, same ones. Q. Same coin to mark your ball with? PATRICK REED: No, because I lose those. Q. Along the routine lines, have you retired Justine as a caddie permanently‑‑ PATRICK REED: No. Q. And when will we see her back out here, as a caddie? PATRICK REED: Ask her, she's right back there. (Laughter) but no, she's not retired yet. Q. Why does having her brother on the bag work just as well, seemingly? What is it about them that you feel comfortable with that works? PATRICK REED: Well, with Kessler, he kind of has the same kind of attitude that Justine does. They are both pretty level‑headed. With Kess, we were able to teach him basically how I wanted the caddie job and what I wanted him to do just like how I did with Justine in the very beginning. So I was basically able to mold him into the caddie that Justine was doing. Just seemed to work. He soaked it all in and he ran with it and has done a pretty solid job. You know, it's working. Q. Have you gone back to 18? Have you played a practice round? PATRICK REED: Yes, I just played 18 today. I hit 3‑wood into the green. Q.  That's what I was going to ask. PATRICK REED: Yeah. Q. Did you think about last year, the way you finished up? PATRICK REED: I did. If it comes down to that way this year, if I have more than a one‑shot lead going down Sunday, I will not be hitting anything close to that fairway. I will be hitting 3‑iron right again. It's the easiest way to play the golf hole and especially when, like today, how it was howling into the wind, I hit an okay drive. Kind of flirted out there a little right and ended up just barely off the fairway into the trees. I had like 225 into that gale into the wind. I hit a pretty straight almost a little cut 3‑wood to the back middle of the green. So if it in the wind, it's playing long. It's going to play like a par 5. Q. How helpful over the years or at least since you've been using ShotsToHole, how helpful has that been for you and your game just here in the past? PATRICK REED: It's been real helpful. Any time you can look at stats and kind of see what it is that I feel like I need to work on‑‑ all of us know what we need to work on each week but any time you get it in paper and you see it, and it's like, all right, I was right, this would really help me if I would work on this. So you know, definitely helps, especially when you look at it long term, just to kind of see. This week, your putting might have been poor. Next week, you might feel like your putting's good, but really, if you don't hit any greens, you don't really know until you actually break it all down over a period of time. I was able to do that and just kind of see what it was I needed to work on. Q. For this week are there any couple things that you're looking at in general when it comes to that? PATRICK REED: Yeah, hitting a cut. Work on my cut a little bit and just trying to feather some more shots in rather than just always playing that draw. I know how to hit a cut. I've done it pretty well. It just in the last week, my swing wasn't right there. My timing was a little quick.  So just kind of slow everything down and get back into shot shaping and more of those kind of shots rather than just trying to rip it and hit it low and underneath the wind like I was last week. Q. Rory was talking about being comfortable in his role and all the work he's done to get into the position he's in. Your role as being one of his rivals, where do you see yourself? PATRICK REED: Oohh, being a rival, battling out with him. Q. And are you comfortable kind of with the way you're portrayed as one of his rivals? PATRICK REED: Yeah, for sure. Any time you go up and play against the top player in the world, you'd better be comfortable. You don't really have to be comfortable playing with him in general as in just being comfortable playing your own game. If I feel comfortable playing my own game and I feel like I'm playing well, then everything will all sort out. That's something I learned while I was out here, and something I've really tried hard on just being comfortable in my game plan and how I'm playing the game of golf. At the end of the day, come down Sunday, if I do everything well, I should have a chance. You know, if I don't, then that means I have to figure something else out and I need to work on something else. I would love to get up to that position where I'm a true rival against him or battling out 1 versus 2 but I've got some ways to go. I think I'm 15th now so I still have a couple more spots to move up. Q. How comfortable are you like you were in that role at The Ryder Cup, getting involved with the crowd‑‑ how comfortable has it been for you to get into that role as well? PATRICK REED: That's me. I love it. Any time I can go out and fire up the crowd‑‑ Ryder Cup, you don't want the guys just standing there and just (indicating quite, polite handclap). You want them to get fired up. That's the one week they can be crazy, you can be crazy, just go have fun. It's just something that I've always wanted to do. It's something that whenever I play on a team event that we're playing against different countries, which that was the first one‑‑ I was going to be playing in Walker Cup but I turned pro that year, so I turned that down. But finally having that chance and to be able to go out and just you know you're wearing stars and stripes going out that first time, you get so pumped up. That would have been one time I could go in the gym and probably out‑lift anybody, okay. I was so pumped. I mean, I was in short‑sleeved shirts and it was 20 degrees. I couldn't feel anything (laughter). You know, it was such a blast, and I think it would be good to have some of the young guys coming up and trying to battle it out. Rory has been out here for some time, and he has a couple more years on Jordan, myself, and a couple of the other young guys. But hopefully we can close that gap and make it a real fun rivalry. Q. At any point before or after you put Kessler on the bag, did it run through your mind that if this doesn't work out, it could be really awkward firing my brother‑in‑law? PATRICK REED: No. He's my brother‑in‑law. That's family. Kessler, when we first started, he knew that we were going to try this to see if it worked. It happened to be that the first week was the Tournament of Champions, and you know, he did well there. And then happened to be the next week, I go out and win Humana with three 63s. It's just kind of one of those things that just kind of clicked. If it didn't work out, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be any hard feelings either way. If it didn't work out, I'd be telling Justine, let's go, get back. It's one of those things that luckily worked out and hopefully will work out for quite some time. LAURA NEAL: Patrick, thanks for your time. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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