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THE 145TH OPEN

July 16, 2016

Patrick Reed

Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland

Q. Talk about your round today.
PATRICK REED: I hit it horrendously. The difference between today and the past two days is yesterday I played really hard and I missed a lot of putts, but today I just hit it horrendously. I hit it so far right on every single hole, and you can't do that. I was hitting banana slices. Stepped up on the last tee shot and 17, 18 or really 15, 17, 18, my iron shots started 10 yards left of the flag. And finished 18 if it didn't hit the grandstands it still would keep going. That thing was 70 yards right, a big slice. Same thing with 15 and 17. I mean, I was trying to hit a soft two-iron, so that thing started 40 yards left of the green and almost went in the bunker to the right.

So I hit the ball better because I finally putted halfway decent today. I left a lot of putts short, but I made quite a bit. But I mean, just got to hit the ball better. You can't come out here and hit the ball poorly and get steep, put a lot of spin on the ball and wipe it. Because if you do that, this back nine's going to be brutal. This back nine has owned me the past three days, so I have one more day to hopefully go take it.

Q. Four straight birdies on the front nine. You did something right.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, hole number 4 is playing like a par-4. That par-5 I hit driver and I hit 8-iron into the green. So it's not really a par-5. I wouldn't consider that a par-5. So I end up making just -- hit 8-iron short of the green, two-putt, pretty easy birdie.

Then 5, hit a really solid 7-iron. That was probably one of my best shots of the day. Hit that up there to about eight feet behind the hole, made that.

Then on 6, if you hit the fairway there with the driver with my length, and with it being down off the right and being a draw to the golf ball, I can get there in two. I didn't knock it on the green in two, but I hit a 2-iron from the fairway in that left bunker like middle of the green, so it's a basic bunker shot there.

Then 7, with how hard the wind was blowing you could almost drive the green. I hit driver up there to 30 yards short and basic up-and-down.

So besides for hole 5, I would say my birdies were just pretty easy. Lot of wedges or lot of stress-free two-putts, and fortunately when I made the turn I just didn't hit the ball very well.

10 I bogeyed again, like always. Bogeyed that hole three days in a row.

11 was -- even though they moved the tee up, you're still hitting driver, 5-iron to that hole. So it's still a hard hole. I was kind of stress-free.

And then I finally hit a good iron shot on 12 and hit it to six feet, made birdie. Besides that it was just a struggle all day.

There were no like just kind of stress-free tap-ins or anything like that. I was grinding the entire day because I was hitting it so poorly. So need to figure that out and go out there when the rain isn't here in this tent and go hit some balls and try to figure it out.

Q. When you know it's going to be windy going into the day and the whole week it has been, when you're on the range and warming up, do you change the flight of your ball to try to get it a little lower or do any adjustments at all?
PATRICK REED: I just hit a bunch of different shots, basically the same way I do at home. Start off just -- my normal warm-up is go take normal, full swings, get your body loose. Then I go hit 75% shots, 85% shots, full swings, just because you never know. You might have to keep it under a limit at home, and over here you might have to keep it under the wind. Which I kind of found out it's impossible to keep it under the wind, considering putts even get affected by the wind.

So nothing really has changed. The only difference is you have to get used to the distance when it's 170 yards into the wind. Because of how cold it is here, back home we're still hitting 7-iron, and now we're hitting 5-iron, 4-iron.

Q. It can get warm here sometimes.
PATRICK REED: I don't know. They say this is summer.

Q. (Inaudible) disappointed with the bogeys. How do you feel about tomorrow? You might be 7 or 8 shots back. How do you approach?
PATRICK REED: Well, if it's windy like this and it's rainy and nasty, yeah, if I'm 7 back or 8 back, there's always a chance. I'd have to go out and have a special day and go shoot 8 or 9-under par and get some help. But I feel like I'm putting well enough. And not today, but yesterday and the day before, even though yesterday I was 3-over 32 or however many over par I was, yesterday I felt like I hit the ball well, I just had no clue what was the wind was doing and couldn't figure out how far the ball was going. Either I'd hit it 30 yards over the flag or 30 yards short of the flag. But I flagged so many golf shots yesterday. Today it was just the complete opposite. Today it was like, all right, let's set up. That's our target. Let's try to hit it over there, and I'd all of a sudden hit it, and you're yelling at the ball, don't get in the gorse, don't get in the bunker or don't go out of bounds.

I mean, no matter how hard I felt like I released golf clubs on that back nine and even on the front when I felt like I released them, the ball never turned. Even on the downwind, right-to-left holes, it just didn't want to go left. I don't expect it to turn on the back nine because it's blowing 30 from the left.

But with my draw I would think with the first two days when I hit a solid golf shot I could kind of hold it up into that wind with the draw where I kind of stayed pretty straight or cut five yards, ten yards. But today literally the ball was moving 30 to 50 yards to the right. It was just some really bad golf swings and something I need to fix.

Q. So you're not getting used to the wind, but the cold and the rain?
PATRICK REED: It is what it is. I mean, it doesn't really bother me. I'm in short sleeves. At one point on the back nine I changed. I had long sleeves on, and then I took it off and was in short sleeves and made a run. Then I kind of got a little cold at one point when the rain started coming and it started blowing even more, so I put on my long sleeve and went and bogeyed that hole, then I put the long sleeve on. So I took that damn thing off and put it in the bag. I was like uh-uh, that's not coming back out.

But it's cold, but really if I had my long-sleeve sweater on or my vest I didn't really feel any difference. For me it's more just keeping my core warm. Fat boy needs to keep it warm, because if not, things can go south. But it's just been one of those things that even if my arms get cold or get numb it doesn't really affect me in my arms. Really the two things that would affect me are is if my back or my chest or my stomach gets cold or if my feet get cold. I kind of start losing where my balance or feeling where my balance is and everything. But that's why I've always just kind of been a guy who wears a vest.

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