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SBS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 4, 2017Patrick ReedKapalua, Maui, Hawaii ALEX URBAN: I'd like to welcome Patrick Reed here into the interview room here at the SBS Tournament of Champions. Obviously you won this event a couple years ago, finished runner-up last year. You've got good vibes around this place. Talk about what it means being back here at the SBS Tournament of Champions to start your calendar 2017 season. PATRICK REED: It's always a good place to start because it means last year, you won a golf tournament. So you're obviously coming off of a good year, and to be able to come into this year, coming into an event that's a small field, yet a challenging golf course, it kind of sets the tone on allowing you to see what you worked on the off-season, how it is under the gun. You know, it's a big week to start off. Especially first week, coming out and playing a golf course that usually you'll have some wind. You'll have different kind of conditions. Really get to test everything. Q. When you look back at last season, what's the highlight for you? Is it the win or what you did at The Ryder Cup? PATRICK REED: Oohh, I'd have to say the win. You know, the reason why I say that is I felt like with what my game plan was going into the year, and the things my coach and I were working on, were the right things. But there was nothing to really validate. There was just a lot of Top 10s. We don't go and play golf tournaments to finish Top-10. We're going to try to win golf tournaments. I wasn't able to kind of get over that hump to get a W, and to be able to finally close one out, especially at Bethpage, a really challenging golf course; and to go out and play like that, just kind of gave me the confidence to know that what we were working on all year was the right things. You know, that just also fed into confidence going into The Ryder Cup, which allowed me to play as well as I did at that point, because I just kept working on what I was working on in the past, because there was some doubt in there on whether I was working on the correct things since last year, going into the Playoffs, I didn't have a win yet. And I was running out of time and I felt like I was getting better; I felt like I was getting more consistent and I was having more Top 10s, but just wasn't getting the Ws. To finally win there just kind of gave me that validation, also gave me the confidence going into the rest of the year and kind of leading into Ryder Cup. Q. (But you had to think about it). PATRICK REED: Oh, yeah, I did have to think about it. It's totally different kind of scenarios and everything, The Ryder Cup compared to a regular TOUR event. You go to a regular TOUR event, it's up to you. You're playing 100-something guys going into a field and you have four days. Going into Ryder Cup, you're playing one other player, or maybe two players if you're playing the team format, and you have 18 holes, that's it. You have to go out and play your best golf and play better than the guys you're playing against for 18 holes to get a point. Now you're not just playing for yourself. You're playing not only for your teammate maybe walking down the fairways with you or playing in the groups behind you; you're playing for your whole country. This year, there was a lot more pressure I felt like on our side, with having the new task force and with how we've just been getting trounced every single year. And to go and play the way our team did, especially the way I did at the end, it was awesome. Q. You played this course a few times. It's been really rainy the last month and a half or so. It's dried out a little bit the last couple days. Might rain tonight. But what has the rain done from what you can see this year maybe compared to past years of your experience here? PATRICK REED: Made the golf course a lot longer. You're not getting any firm bounces in the fairway. Everything is just stopping. The greens I would say are a little softer, but the balls are still -- I mean, you're not spinning anything back out there. There's a couple holes that you're getting that yank back, but that was the same in every year I've played. You know, there's just some of those holes that hitting into that grain, hitting into those holes, it's going to spin back. The big difference is there's a lot of holes that your drive is 30, 40 yards past where it normally is, and these past couple days, you'll hit a drive, it will land in the same spot, but it just won't get that bounce. So it's just making it a little longer, but besides that, the golf course is in great shape like it always is, and just going to go out there and might instead of 9-irons on some holes, you might be hitting 7-irons. Q. Does that bring the long hitters and shorter hitters, does that put everybody in the mix this week? PATRICK REED: Well, I felt like they have always been in the mix every week here, because when it's really firm and fast, some of the long guys have to play back to some spots, and some of the short guys will hit driver and get to that same area. Now with it being a little softer, the long guys are going to be able to get a little farther down there than some of the shorter hitters, but you're still almost playing to the same kind of spots. There's only a couple holes that there might be an advantage for the longer hitters and some holes that really, there's an advantage to shorter hitters because everyone is going to have to lay back to that wedge, and usually short hitters, their game is usually pretty solid. Q. Have you had a chance to visit with Rory about that Sunday at Hazeltine? He talked about walking off 8 green being totally gassed. What did that week take out of you? PATRICK REED: You know, we've talked quite a bit about it. We talked about it multiple events. Really, the biggest thing, is it didn't hit me until after. I was able to push through and stay at that high level the entire way through until when it hit me was right whenever I was sitting down at the press conference with the team. After the ceremonies, I sat down and we're there I think for about an hour in that room and I was just sitting there and I was feeling my calves and I'm just like, there's some pulsating going in my legs. I don't know what's going on; I barely could walk out of it. So it hit me later. Thank God it hit me later. It took everything out of me. I went home, had two weeks off and went back out to play Malaysia and China, and I was not ready to play golf. Physically and mentally, I could not pull the club back and couldn't swing. Lost all my speed, all my distance, and my mental game and thought process on the golf course was kind of shot. My caddie's was shot, as well. So you know, I learned a lot on knowing how to handle my schedule. I still played 30, I think I was on the road 33 or 34 weeks last year, and the year before that was the same, I think 35, maybe 36. So I just played too much. The problem with me is I love to compete. I love to get out there. I love to, I don't want to sit home. Even when I'm at home and even when I know I should be at home resting and I see golf on TV, I'm like, well, I should be there. I should be playing. I want to go out and play. But I learned a lot on kind of how to handle some things, because to me it felt like Malaysia, China and even whenever I got to Hero and Hong Kong, it felt like those events, my body and my mind were not ready. I was not ready to pick up a club and play. This last 3 1/2, four weeks I had off, it was good, because I was able to shut it down for two full weeks and then hit it hard coming in. Unfortunately I got sick. Q. Will you back off your schedule a little this year? PATRICK REED: (Pausing) It's hard to say. Do I need to? Yes. Am I going to? I don't know. We'll have to see how the year is going. It's just hard. I love to play. I know that number needs to get lower, but at the same time, I miss it too much being out on the road, grinding, especially at this time of my life with my daughter being young enough, the whole family travels. So I'm not having to miss time with my daughter, not having to miss time with my family, because they are always on the road with me. I know when she gets older, that's going to be harder. That's probably the time I'll start to cut back a little bit. But right now, I just want to go and play. Q. Given how tough you just said it was to come down from that match and given it was team and not individual, is it even possible for you to bring that guy to a major or a normal event; for us to see that guy, four rounds? Obviously you play well, anyway, but that's a different guy, isn't it? PATRICK REED: It is, but it is possible. I'm working on it. It's something that you just have to somehow tap into the right mind-set and the right part of your mind. I've been experimenting with things at home with my coach and stuff on how to try and get into that mind-set, and you know, Tiger obviously knows how to do it. But it's hard. It's hard to do. I'm trying to find ways to be able to do it, because yeah, I would love to tap into it again, especially when I'm on the road, and if I did that, I'd definitely have to play less, because mentally, you're just shot. But yeah, it's something that can be done. You just have to figure out how to do it. Q. Your talent indicates that there's probably multiple majors in your future. But if you had to end your career winning only one major, which one would it be? PATRICK REED: Oohh, oh, man. I'd have to say Claret Jug. I've always loved the British Open because of the difference in the weather, the different kind of shots you have to hit. To me, that tournament is won by the guy who has the most control, not only physically over his golf ball, on all different shots, but also mentally. Because you literally could step up on the first tee, and it could be 75 degrees, sunny, no wind. Then you could step up on the third tee and it could be 40 degrees, blowing 40 and raining sideways. And it's who can handle it mentally, for 72 holes, and also who has control of the golf ball that they can hit any shot. Because you can't go into that event and think you're only going to hit a draw or you're only going to hit a fade. Because if it's blowing 40 off the right and you're hitting a draw, that's turning into a 40-, 50-yard hook. And same thing if the wind is howling off the left and you're hitting cuts, I mean, it's just a big slice. You can't control that. So that's the one major and one event I feel like you need to have every aspect of your game on, and mentally, to win. Q. As Ben was mentioning, that guy we see at The Ryder Cup, when you think about that guy, how would you describe him in a single word? PATRICK REED: Crazy. (Laughter) I mean, just passionate. Every time he seems to come out, it's any time I'm representing a country, going out and playing with a group of guys, trying to bring something back to our country. Any time I can wear red, white and blue, it means a lot to me. I don't want to let my country down. I don't want to let my teammates down, and getting into an event like that, it's just, you go out there to try to prove yourself. It just brings out just the beast in me. I mean, I just come out and it doesn't matter. Everyone just knows, and all the guys know, they are like, all right, he's going to do his own thing when he gets to the golf course. He's going to probably pop in his headphones. If it's 20 degrees outside, he'll be in a short-sleeved shirt and we'll all think he's crazy, but he is crazy. He's going to go out and he's going to take on the world, literally. You know, it's just so much fun. Q. When you did finally talk to Rory after The Ryder Cup, what did you guys talk about? PATRICK REED: About how tired we were. About how much fun we had throughout that match. And then also just kind of what he was playing in coming up and what I was playing in to see when our paths would cross again. Feels funny, throughout the entire time, even though I gave him a bow, he gave me a shush; he was yelling in my face; I was yelling in his. We were laughing and talking almost the entire round. And it would have been really cool to see if they had the cameras on us from when we walked up to the first tee and just followed us the entire round, because it was a very fun banter back and forth. It was very respectful, and we both were having a great time. It really showed how golf is supposed to be played. It's a gentleman's game. You have to respect who you're playing. You walk up to the first tee, hats go off, you shake hands, enjoy playing with you, and after the round you do the same thing. It was a lot of fun. Whether he hit a good shot or I hit a good shot, we looked at each other and said, "Good shot." Not many sports are like that. It was a lot of fun. It was cool. ALEX URBAN: Thank you, Patrick. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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