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MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 7, 2018Patrick ReedAugusta, Georgia MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome Patrick Reed into the media room. Patrick, wow, what a day. You've held on to your second round lead, carding a 5‑under 67 heading into the final round. Two eagles, 13 and 15, and four birdies including three in a row on 8, 9 and 10. How have you been able to keep up your momentum for all three days, Patrick? PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing is just going out and playing golf. You know, trying to not allow the moment to take over me. Really just go out and play some golf and just hit golf shots. I feel like I'm hitting the ball well enough, I feel like I'm putting well enough; that I just need to go out and play the game and not worry about everything else and just play golf. Q. What's your mind‑set after Rory has chipped in for eagle and your lead is gone from the day before? What are you thinking walking up there? PATRICK REED: The biggest thing is I knew that I was in a good spot to at least make birdie on that hole to try to regain the lead. But I just know from that situation, I'm sitting in a good situation where I will still have one hole extra to play. So whether he makes birdie or eagle on a hole, I still have that hole to play, and really, it wasn't as much going up against Rory was it was going out and posting a good number, because you have so many of these guys that have played some really solid golf coming into this week and that were making a charge today; I just needed to get myself going and make some birdies and get it started, and I was able to do that on 8. Q. Rory was in here and seems very, very confident. He also seems very confident about playing tomorrow against you. How do you feel that dynamic is going to play out tomorrow? You've obviously been up against him before. Hazeltine will get brought up. But just you and him going at it tomorrow? PATRICK REED: It's going to be a lot of fun. Obviously we're both playing really solid golf, and you know, to be able to go into a final round on Sunday at the first major to go up against each other and go out and play some good golf, it's going to be a lot of fun to go out there. But really, I'm just going to do my thing and stick to my game plan and go out and enjoy my Sunday. Q. Will it help him more that he's won four? Does that factor into your thinking at all? PATRICK REED: Not really. I'm not out there to play Rory. I'm out there to play the golf course. At the end of the day, if I go out and I feel pleased with how I play, then, you know, it should be an enjoyable Sunday night. But really, I'm just going to go out there and enjoy the day, go out and play some golf and hopefully go out and shoot another round in the 60s. Q. So many guys are making a charge at you today. How often do you allow yourself to look at the leaderboard, or how aware were you of the leaderboard and the roars coming around you as they were making that charge? PATRICK REED: Well, I'm a guy that looks at leaderboards all the time, no matter what, whether it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. It wasn't anything new to me. I've always looked at leaderboards, and with having that rain and softening up the greens and slowing down the greens just a bit, you knew guys were going to make a charge. The biggest thing is, because I was in the last tee time, I had the last holes to play that those guys were birdieing. I knew that I still had opportunities coming up and to not get ahead of myself try to push too hard and go out and play some good golf and stick to my game plan. Q. Did you hear the roar when Rory chipped in for eagle on No. 8? And can you also talk about the atmosphere? Do you draw off the roars and everything that's going on? Do you draw something out of that excitement? PATRICK REED: Any time you hear a bunch of roars, you're going to get excited, especially if you feel like you're playing some good golf. I feel like I was hitting the ball well. Felt like I was doing what I needed to do. Felt like I was doing a lot of things right. The score really wasn't reflecting it early on in the round, and I knew at some point it was going to flip and I was going to get that switch. I felt like, I mean, of course, I heard the roar on 8, but then to birdie 8 and to make the putt on 9, to hear the roar on 9 and then hit a good shot on 10 and make the birdie there, I just felt like from that point, the crowds were just electrified and they were going. Just one of those things, you just had to ride the momentum and keep it going. Q. How important was your transfer to Augusta College in terms of your life and your career? And the second part of the question, does it feel like a home game in any way as a result of that? PATRICK REED: It's a huge part, to be able to go to Augusta College‑‑ when I was there, it was Augusta State‑‑ to be able to go there and play some solid golf and feel like I grew as a player. It's hard to say it feels like a home game considering we only played it once a year. It wasn't like I was coming out here every weekend and able to tee it up and play some golf. The golf course was still new to any of us that played at Augusta State. Really I feel like I'm just able to pull from the experiences from the past and be able to figure out the golf course from previous years and what I did in the past. But it's going to be awesome to come out tomorrow and play in the afternoon, especially the last tee time, and to have a lot of Augusta State guys out here cheering me on and hopefully go out and show them a fun Sunday. Q. Can you talk about what it was like being involved with Rory at that match at Hazeltine there and how that ranks in your career, and what does winning that match do for you going into the final round of a major in this position? PATRICK REED: It's probably one of the best matches we ever played. It was probably also one of the most exhausting matches we ever played. That first eight holes we played, there was so much emotion and so much good golf and kind of grind; that I felt like at that point, it was just kind of like, let's go and try to play some normal golf and try to get going. But, you know, really, I mean, biggest thing I can just pull from it is I was going up against‑‑ head‑to‑head with Rory and was able to put together a really good round, and when he tried to make a counter, I was able to always stay ahead and keep going. You know, really, it's completely different. You're talking about match play to stroke play and you're also talking about you have Rickie, Jon Rahm, Stenson, Fleetwood and Bubba right behind us. I'm not going to be there focusing on Rory or really focusing on any of those guys. I'm just going to go out and try to play the golf course and try to play some good golf. Q. How would you describe this fiery nature that you can play with and that we've seen at Ryder Cups, and how important has it been to your success? PATRICK REED: It's been really important. I feel like with that kind of fiery side of me, if I'm not playing the kind of golf I feel like I need to be playing, you know, if I hit that one shot, I can pump myself up and try to get going and try to flip that switch. Also, same way, if I feel like I'm playing really well, I almost feel like I can kick it into another gear and go even deeper. It's just kind of one of those things that I've been working on it and trying to tap into Ryder Cups more and more and try to play some solid golf. I feel like I was able to tap into it a little bit today, especially on that back nine when I get to 8, my lead's gone; I'm all‑square, and to be able to all of a sudden go birdie, birdie, birdie and get back up three; to bogey 12, but to bounce back with an eagle; and to make a great 2‑putt on 14 and then chip‑in for eagle after seeing Rory birdie 15, it's just one of those things that I was able to get into that mode and get into that momentum and just try to keep going. Q. How do you think the atmosphere will be here tomorrow, the final pairing at the year's first major here at the Masters, compared to that match at Hazeltine? PATRICK REED: It will be calmer. There's a lot of stuff that you can do at Ryder Cup that you can't do at Augusta National. (Laughter). It's going to be‑‑ you're talking about polar opposites. You're talking about a match‑play tournament and you're talking about a major championship. It's going to be electrifying. The fans are going to be ready to go, they are going to be ready to cheer for whoever is making putts, whoever is making birdies or pulling off shots. It's just going to be one of those days you just need to go out and be able to put your nose to the grind and just play some golf. Q. You mentioned last year's PGA as a confidence booster. Why was it such a boost to your confidence? PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing was on one of the rounds when I played, I hit three total greens and only shot 1‑over par. And to be able to feel like you played that poorly on ball‑striking and be able to salvage your round and then to be able to pull off a second‑place finish at a major, I felt like I left a lot out there and felt like I should have won the golf tournament. That just gave me the belief that, hey, you don't need to put four perfect rounds together to win out here, especially at majors. You can put four decent rounds, and if you are playing well, you have a good chance come Sunday. That was the biggest thing, just put in perspective, whether it's a major or whether it's a regular tournament, you can go out there, and as long as you can manage your mistakes, you can still compete and win golf tournaments. I think that was the biggest thing. And also, to make the kind of charge I did on the back nine, where I made, you know, a decent amount of birdies at PGA. Q. Secondly, I was just curious, what is different about you this week, whether it's mentally, physically, swing change, change in your putting grip; is there something that you're riding this week that seems different about you? PATRICK REED: Just playing golf. You know, every time I come to a major, I always think, oh, well, it's a major, and I try to put too much on it. But I'm just out here playing golf. I think that's the biggest thing. Mentally I'm just treating it like any other golf tournament, any other round. Just go out and do what I know how to do, which is hit the ball somewhat straight, knock it on the green and let the putter work. Q. Rory said earlier that he thought all the pressure was on you tomorrow. Do you agree with that? PATRICK REED: I am leading. I mean, I guess so (laughter). But at the same time, he's trying to go for the career Grand Slam. You can put it either way. I mean, honestly, I mean, I woke up this morning, felt fine. Didn't feel any pressure. Just came out and tried to play some golf. And I believe that's how it's going to be tomorrow. Wake up and just come out and play golf and whatever happens, happens. Q. It doesn't make much to do a quick Twitter search to find a lot of people rooting against you. Why do you think that is? Why are there fans that don't embrace you? PATRICK REED: I don't know. Why don't you ask them? I mean, I have no idea, and honestly I don't really care what people say on Twitter or what they say if they are cheering for me or not cheering for me. I'm out here to do my job, and that's to play golf. I feel like if I'm doing it the right way, then that's all that really matters. Q. Could you run through those two eagles, how you saw those shots and how you executed them? PATRICK REED: Well, the first one was on 13. It just started coming down, a decent amount of rain on 12, and it just seemed like when I stepped up to the tee shot on 13, I felt like I hit a pretty good drive, and normally down that line I would have thought the driver would at least get into the rough, and staying in the fairway, I knew it was going to play a lot longer than the yardage really said. I knew I was between 5‑iron and 4‑iron and decided to hit the 4 because you have to take the creek out of play. You can't keep it short. With a hanging lie, I got it far enough up where it wasn't quite as steep of a slope, and I was just trying to look at the tongue between the bunkers, just hit a hard 4‑iron and hope it lands in the right spot and hope it lands softly. I was able to kind of execute that shot and ended up getting up on that top tier, and from that top tier, I've had that putt so many times it feels like in the past, but normally it's for birdie not eagle, and it breaks a lot more than it looks. I was able to get it high enough and allow it to drip over the edge. 15, started raining again and kind of hit a cut driver off the tee and you know, I'm just kind of down there and talking to Kess and I'm like, well, if I hit a cut 3‑wood, if I hit it anywhere on the face, it's going to fly at least to the middle of the green and if I hit it solid, you know, might have a chance of going just barely over, but I feel like the way I've been chipping, that would be no problem. You know, I hit it as good as I could, a nice little cut right at the flag and actually I was kind of glad it was a little right because if it was at the flag it probably would have been in the water. Covered, it was in between the water and that bunker and I'm kind of on that upslope and was just trying to ‑‑ felt like when I walked up, I knew it was curling a little left. So just hit a nice little pitch and try to get within a three‑foot circle. It's one of those that kind of with the lie and kind of uphill, you knew you could scare the hole. But when I hit it, it was breaking so hard to the left, I couldn't tell if it was going to go in or if it was just going to burn edges or anything like that. But the fans to the right definitely let me know as it was tracking and I was fortunate enough, it was right in the middle. MODERATOR: Patrick, it was an absolute pleasure to watch you play golf today. It was awesome. Good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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