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DEAN & DELUCA INVITATIONAL

May 26, 2016

Patrick Reed

Fort Worth, Texas

Q. Patrick, 65 today and you had a fast finish birdieing two out of your last three holes. How did you play out there?
PATRICK REED: It was solid. You know, it was just kind of one of those days that I wanted to keep the ball in the fairway. I wanted to feel like I have control of my golf ball. I felt like I did that for the most part. Really my only bogey on that one par-3 I felt like I hit a great bunker shot, felt like I hit a great putt, the ball just happened to not go in. Besides for that putt and the one on 6, I felt like I putted pretty solid. But those are the kind of putts you have to make to make it a great round rather than just a good round.

Q. This is one of the most iconic venues on the PGA TOUR and everybody talks about how great this course is. What do you have to do here to perform well?
PATRICK REED: You have to be in control. Around here you have to be completely in control of your golf swing and the golf ball because you miss a fairway by just a yard, depending on if you don't miss it in the right spot, it's so penalizing because the rough is -- I wouldn't say the rough is really thick, it's that kind of rough that if the ball sits down you're hacking. But 90 percent of the time you're trying to figure out is it going to fly, is it not going to fly. It's crucial here to hit fairways, and I felt like I did that pretty well today, and the ones I missed, I felt like I barely missed.

Q. Great round today. A lot of fairways, a lot of greens. Are you happy with how many looks you gave yourself today?
PATRICK REED: I'm definitely happy with how many looks I gave myself. I only missed three greens today, and I feel like the ones that I missed, even the one I made bogey on, all of them I feel like I had a pretty straightforward chip or bunker shot, and I never short sided myself, so I gave myself a lot of -- I won't say easy but pretty basic shots. That's crucial to have a low round because if you start missing greens and short-siding yourself and having to make eight, nine-footers for par, it makes it difficult. But I was hitting it close enough on the greens I missed, and the greens that I hit, I felt like I hit those pretty well besides for about the halfway part of my round. Those times I felt like I hit some solid golf shots but didn't really judge the wind very well. It seemed to be swirling a little bit.

Q. I thought 7 and 8 were huge after the mis-hit at 6 to get a lot out of the round. Did you feel the same way about that?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, you know, how I started, starting the day off hitting the fairway on 10 and hitting a great iron shot in there and stepping over my 14-footer and then blowing the horn before I could pull the trigger and then coming back out there and missing a short -- missing that putt on 10 by leaving it short dead center, missing a shorty on the next hole, and then kind of got a little hotter, got on a run, and then towards that back nine after feeling like I didn't play 4 poorly, that par-3, it's just a hard hole, and I missed a short putt there that I felt like I hit perfectly and ended up going into 6, which -- those kind of things are going to happen. I hit a great drive, great wedge shot, and where that pin was and how I read the putt, I thought it wasn't going to break as much as it did. I wasn't too disappointed there. Really the only thing I probably would say I'm disappointed about today is I felt like I hit a perfect drive on 7 that somehow ended up in the right bunker. To make a 40-footer there definitely kind of calmed me down a little bit after feeling like I should have hit the fairway.

Q. Great round today. What's it mean to you to get off to such a good start.
PATRICK REED: It's always one of those days that when you look at the weather, it looked like it was going to be pretty nasty and you knew the wind was going to be blowing. To start a tournament that way and coming out here and getting off to a pretty solid start, I felt like I was in a lot more control earlier this week and today than I have been the past couple weeks. You know, taking it to the golf course on Thursday, hit some quality golf shots and gave myself a lot of looks, so it's definitely comforting.

Q. Did the delay upset your rhythm?
PATRICK REED: No, with the delay I only hit two golf shots before it. I hit my tee shot on 10 and hit an iron shot into the green. They blew the horn right when I was about to pull the trigger on my 14-footer. I came back out. I left that one dead center in the jaws short, so I'll blame the rules official for not allowing me to hit that putt because that putt definitely would have gone in if I had regulation. But besides that, I felt like it was almost like starting a new round because I was so -- I only hit two shots into the round.

Q. You spoke a couple weeks ago about the frustration that comes with being close and contending but not winning. Is that still something you're thinking about?
PATRICK REED: I never really think about it, especially when I'm playing or anything, about any hurdles or trying to win a golf tournament. Really all I can focus on is trying to hit each golf shot and do that the best I can, because if I play four rounds and hit four rounds in a row of great golf shots how I'm wanting to and hit the putts where I'm wanting to, at the end of the day, I hope to be there in contention. Any time you're in there at the end with a back nine having a chance to win a golf tournament, anything can happen.

Q. Was there a point today where you knew you had a pretty good day going?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, you know, I felt like this morning when I woke up, when I got out here, my warm-up I felt like was really solid, especially with the ball-striking, and to step up on 10, 11 and 12, which for me for some reason the tee shots I haven't really -- throughout the past three years I've played here, I haven't really hit those tee shots very well, and to step up there and hit great tee shots on all three of them and hit really solid iron shots on all of them and give myself really good looks, it just kind of calmed me down and got me into the round. Just keep that up, if you give yourself -- through those three holes I didn't have a putt outside 15 feet. I'm sitting there going, if you give yourself 18, 15-footers or in, you're going to play pretty well. But I knew that wouldn't going to happen throughout the whole entire round, but that was kind of my mindset.

Q. Is there one particular course here in Texas that you seem to be more comfortable on? You obviously play pretty well in this state.
PATRICK REED: You know, not really. I'm pretty comfortable at all of them. It's just kind of one of these places -- I mean, I grew up in San Antonio, played all my junior and amateur golf basically here in Texas, so I've seen a lot of these courses and kind of know what to expect when I'm playing in Texas. But they all just -- it's just like playing at home, and it's nice to be in your home state playing some golf, and hopefully I can just kind of continue doing what I'm doing.

Q. Is it the bentgrass greens?
PATRICK REED: Those are always nice. Any time you can get bentgrass greens, that just means one less factor. You don't have all that really grainy Bermuda. But the one thing is around the greens here, and the fairways, they're really grainy. You go from really grainy and then you get on the green and there's not much. So you just have to take that into consideration and go, all right, there's not a lot of grain on the greens, you just have to go out and putt with what you see.

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