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WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIPMay 12, 2015Patrick ReedCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Patrick Reed to the Interview Room. Patrick, thanks for taking the time to come by. You just played a little on the course. If you want to talk about how the course looks, your thoughts coming into this week and we'll have some questions. PATRICK REED: The course looks good. This is the first time I've seen it since they redid a couple of the holes and you know, see the changes. I thought 16 looked a lot different and seems like it's going to be a good hole. I saw some pin placements on that green that would be a really good challenge. I'm looking forward to it and just glad to be back in the area. MARK STEVENS: Thank you. Questions. Q. Patrick, I know you finished earlier on Sunday but did you watch any of the highlights of the playoff and, if you did, what were your impressions of just these three golfers, all of whom seemed to play very well under that pressure? PATRICK REED: I saw some of the playoff, then we got on the flight. I saw a couple of highlights afterwards. It seemed like, you know, the main thing I noticed was Rickie Fowler. I played with him the first two days. Seemed to dominate hole 17. I mean I don't know what it is but he loves that hole and, you know, he played really well and just seemed like he had so much momentum going into the playoff with how he finished the round. Was he 6-under the last 6 holes? Anytime you can do that you have a lot of confidence and momentum going in and I didn't even remember and realize that it was a three hole playoff, that they had to go back to 16, play 16, 17 and 18. Just seemed like at the end that all of them seemed to play well and, you know, Rickie at the end he did what he had to do to get in the playoff and he played really solid during the playoff to make it through. Q. What you saw the first two days could you have seen that for him? PATRICK REED: It was -- he was playing really well. I didn't -- I couldn't tell if he was going to win the event or not. You know, I was out there trying to do the same myself but, you know, for him, he was hitting the ball real well when we were playing with him. I could see how if his putter was working how he could get really hot coming down the stretch and when he rallied off four birdies and an eagle in the last 6 holes, it didn't surprise me. Q. Stay on that. You talked about you played the 17th. He played the 17th, birdied it all the time the last day. Can you put that in the context of a player? PATRICK REED: I hit a really good 51-degree on that hole during regulation and it landed in the middle of the side slope just left of the flag and it got held up up top. So for him to hit it inside 7 feet, it means he was really aggressive and I don't know whether he cut it, which it would be hard to believe that he would be able to cut that softer of a -- short of an iron. For him to stay that aggressive and attack the flag like that obviously meant he felt really confident in how he was hitting the ball and, you know, how he was playing. Q. Patrick, since the playoff at Tampa it seems like your scores have been okay but not good enough to get you in contention. What are you waiting to see click? PATRICK REED: Just seems like, you know, one day I'll be hitting the driver well, and I'll be hitting the irons well and won't be putting as well as I want to and then other days I'll be putting really well but not hitting the ball very well. I need everything to kind of click at the same time. I felt like -- myself, I felt like I haven't really played very well but still figure out a way to finish inside the Top 25 and have respectable finishes, not great finishes but respectable. Q. Have you seen Kevin Kisner, have you played much golf with him? What do you know about him? PATRICK REED: I think I played maybe one round of golf with him. I haven't played hardly any. I wouldn't be able to tell you. Q. Along the lines of Kisner, I don't know if you saw his putt that he missed by about this much on 18 (indicating). PATRICK REED: I did the same thing. Q. Can you talk -- PATRICK REED: It breaks a lot more than it looks. I hit the exact same putt and, you know, it's hard as it is already to make a putt to win an event and to read a putt where your eyes and everything say that it's a ball break, maybe a cup and it -- for it to break almost a foot, it's tough and, you know, I would say that he could learn from it but really I'm pretty sure he hit a really good putt. I mean it didn't look like it was pushed or pulled. It was perfect speed. So just one of those that I'm sure if he hits that putt again at another tournament where it's to win the event, if he hits it just how he did, I mean it will probably go in. Q. I'm curious about the psychology, for somebody like him, you put yourself in his shoes to have missed it by that much, the championship, extra million dollars, everything that comes with it, how hard is that? PATRICK REED: I mean I don't really think -- I wouldn't think he would take it as hard or kind of in that perspective as it is I'm really close. I'm pretty sure he could go back just like everyone can go back and say, "Well, if I hit this shot, this shot," we can pick ten shots a week that if we could have over again we would take, you know, so I doubt he's thinking it that way. Q. Are you talking about the same putt in the playoff or regulation? PATRICK REED: In the regulation. The one that went -- everyone thought was going in, that I thought was going in that went right over the right edge. It breaks more than it looks. Q. Couple guys for Chambers Bay, lot of talk about this golf course. Have you made a trip up there? PATRICK REED: We'll wait and see. I'm not really sure if I'm going to go out and play early. It's kind of one of those places that I've played during was the Junior Am or Am they had there. I liked it. I liked the golf course. I thought -- it's different and I don't know if they've made any changes really or how many changes they've made but not -- I'm going to go up and kind of adapt and kind of see how it's playing because in that part of the country it could be 90 degrees one day, 40 degrees the next day. You never know. Q. You are one of the first people that I heard that said I like the golf course, Chambers Bay. Lot of guys have already formed their opinion, maybe it's not a U.S. Open-type course. Are guys out here kind of finicky of going to new places like that that's hosting a Major and being unfamiliar with? PATRICK REED: I don't know if it's as much as being unfamiliar. It's just different. You step up on the property and you look at it and it's like this is a totally different kind of golf course than we're used to playing. Some people like change, some people don't. All depends. I can see how people are going to have mixed reviews on whether they like it or don't like it but I seem to play pretty well there when I played in the Am, especially in the stroke play part. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing how it is. Q. Patrick, when players like yourself at the top of the golf rankings are getting younger and younger, it seems to be reflected in the galleries, the fans. Is that something you've noticed with the fans being younger and louder? If so, what does it means for the future of golf? PATRICK REED: Golf is getting stronger and stronger, seems like. You have guys coming out from Monday qualifiers that are competing and having a chance to win. You have older guys that are still stepping it up and being able to win. You have guys out of college, sponsor exemptions, having chances to win a golf tournament. Seems like from top to bottom now in fields that more and more guys are having the ability, if they're on that week, have a chance to win the golf tournament and it's great for the game of golf because it's not the same guy every week that, oh, well, he's going to win the event so might as well hand him the trophy, who is playing for 2nd? Now it's more on well, there's a handful of guys to a couple dozen that have a chance of winning the golf tournament if they're on. All of them are on, it's going to be a battle. MARK STEVENS: Okay. Any last questions? Everybody good? All right. Thanks for your time Patrick. Good luck this week. PATRICK REED: Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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