	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

April 25, 2018

Avondale, Louisiana

THE MODERATOR: We will go ahead and get started. Like to welcome the Patrick team of Patrick Reed, Patrick Cantlay to the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.

Thanks for joining us for a few moments; both of you guys having a good year. Both winners on the PGA TOUR this season.

Patrick, coming off your first start back since the Masters win, and Patrick, your win earlier in the season in Las Vegas, and a team that had success here last year: Top 15 finish, tied for 14th.

With that said, just some thoughts on being back here as a team and hopefully improving on your top 15 finish last year.

Either one of you can start.

PATRICK REED: Well, I enjoyed playing last year in this tournament. I thought the team event was fun. I like the alternate shot and best ball. It's a nice change of pace.

We played well. We didn't play well on Saturday, but we played well three of the days. I've been looking forward to coming back and having a chance to win.

PATRICK CANTLAY: I mean, I feel the exact same. It's always nice to be able to come back out and play, especially throughout the middle of the season, and play a team event. It's always fun.

And to be able to play with somebody that I played a lot of golf with growing up, to be able to get kind of reacquainted and play some professional golf with them, it's been awesome.

I look forward to the week. Hopefully we can keep that good playing going on, especially those three days, and have it for four and have a chance to win on Sunday.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. For Patrick, what's it been like since you won the Masters? What's the fallout been like and reaction, and how have you handled it?
PATRICK REED: Yes, it's been great. It's been a lot of fun. Yeah, it's been tiring, but it's something that has been, you know, a good change, good experience.

But there is nothing like being back out here and getting inside the ropes, playing with the guys, and going out and competing.

Just something I love to do is compete. To be out here back playing and have my partner out here, just go have a good day.

Q. Have you felt any different? Has it felt just different being out here? A lot of guys patting you on the back and that sort of thing?
PATRICK REED: No, I mean, I don't feel any different. Just another day on the golf course. Go out and try to take care of playing good golf and doing my job, which is go out and play the best I can and try to improve in golf.

No, of course it is different with just everything that comes with it. You know, the obligations and time management. Just a lot of extra stuff that you didn't have in the past, which, I mean, it's all great. It's awesome. But to be able to manage the time and get back to playing golf and get into our normal routine has been nice, because it's something you can't stay out of for a while.

You have to get back in it, get back grinding, and playing some golf. It's been lots of fun and I look forward to the rest of the year.

Q. On that, the time management stuff, have you sought advice from someone that has been there before or will you seek advice from other guys?
PATRICK REED: A lot of guys have told me, Just be careful with your time. Obligations are going to come in. There will be a lot of things in the past that you didn't have to do or didn't have in in the past that are going to come up.

First things first. You got to go out and grind and play some good golf and focus on golf, because the time you stay and not focus on golf will be the time you go backwards. That's nothing any of us want. We all want to improve and get better. Golf comes first. We got to go out and play some good golf and focus on that.

Q. What's it like coming back to Louisiana? Have you had any reaction from people from U High? They reached out to you after that?
PATRICK REED: It's awesome any time you can come back, you know, with going to high school at U High down the road and with my wife and her sister going to LSU. There is a pretty good following out here.

Can't wait for the tournament to start and get everyone coming out and seeing everybody. Hopefully both of us can put on a show and play some good golf.

Q. Couple more Masters questions. Patrick, how much have you been able to work on your game the past couple weeks with all the other obligations you've had in your life?
PATRICK REED: So I think the good thing was this was the time of the year that we were actually, right after Augusta, no matter what happened, we had a family vacation we were going on for the week after and I was practice Valero week to get ready for this tournament.

You know, the amount of practice has stayed the same. I didn't really do much the week after Augusta golf-wise. There's a lot of obligations and media stuff I was doing, so instead of taking a vacation we were doing that, which is fine.

But golf-wise nothing has changed. I'm able to stay on schedule and do everything I've needed to do, preparation and everything. I'm putting a lot of emphasis on that: I'm prepared, I'm ready, and I feel like the game is where it needs to be to continue playing some solid golf.

That's something that I take pride in, too, is going out and playing some good golf. That's just something I feel like I am in a good position to do.

Q. Where were you going to go?
PATRICK REED: Albany, down to the Bahamas. We will make it down there sometime soon.

Q. Patrick, with your post-Masters victory lap in New York City, was that an eye-opening experience for you, being on the Tonight Show and seeing a different level of fame?
PATRICK REED: It was definitely an eye-opening experience. I don't like heights, so I went to almost the top of the Empire State Building. That was interesting.

First time ever sitting courtside at a basketball game. Being at MSG stadium with Chris Rock and Aziz and 2 Chainz, Strahan, and all those guys kind of sitting next to you, you're just sitting there like, Wow. It was a pretty cool experience.

And then watching LeBron and the Cavs play against the Knicks, it was great. It's just something that everyone told me, Hey, expect not to get any sleep when you go to New York because a lot is going to go on.

It was tiring, it was long, but it was a lot of fun. We had a blast with it. Hopefully I can do that more often with winning more tournaments.

Q. Jordan said he went back and watched the entire round on Sunday on replay just to see how he played. Was it as good as it felt. All the stuff going on around him. Did you go back and watch the replay of your final round yet?
PATRICK REED: It's not on YouTube yet, so no. I haven't been able to.

Once it gets uploaded or once I get a copy of it I would love to watch it, because it's just something that you always want to kind of reflect on and kind of pull from.

To be able to watch it, it's easier to kind of pick those little nuances throughout the day and week to get the job done.

That's something that I look forward to, but I haven't watched any yet.

Q. Patrick, coming off top 10 in your most recent start, where do you feel like your game is right now coming into this week?
PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, my game feels really solid. I feel like I've been playing well. I played well in Hilton Head. Really struck the ball well. I feel like everything has been good.

I've been trending in the right direction, and I've been excited for this week for a little while now.

Q. For both of you, what do you think of the tournament's decision to allow walk-up music, and have you thought about what you're going to play?
PATRICK REED: I love music, so for me it's great. Doesn't bother me. I think the song we're going to do is AC/DC Thunderstruck, so should be a good one.

Q. What made you pick that?
PATRICK CANTLAY: Really driving in from the golf course this morning, Kessler had it on one of his playlists. I was like, Man, that would actually be a pretty walk-up song.

A walk-up song, it's not long. It's got to be short.

Just seemed good. I asked Cantlay what he thought and he was like, Yeah, sure. Perfect. I was like, All right.

Q. What do you two have in common?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I'd say we're both extremely competitive, and I would say that's one of the traits we both have that serves us both really well.

We love winning, we love competing, and I think it shows.

PATRICK REED: And we have the same first name. (Laughter.)

Q. Is it true you guys had Eye of the Tiger as your first choice as a walk-up song?
PATRICK REED: We did. We're in Baton Rouge. We're in New Orleans, basically Baton Rouge, Tigers. With our background, I thought it would be pretty good for the fans.

After I sat there and thought about it, there is not enough time to play it. It's got be a short kind of thing. We needed something that had a little more of a punch.

PATRICK CANTLAY: I thought it might have been the TW reference, but apparently not.

PATRICK REED: Have you been to an LSU Tiger game?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I went to Georgia, so I have not.

PATRICK REED: Need to go to a Tiger game.

Q. Cantlay, Jim Furyk is in the field in week. Do you view this at all as an audition perhaps?
PATRICK CANTLAY: I think every week is a little bit of an audition, you know. You're just trying to play well every week. I'm just going out and trying to win golf tournaments.

It's going to be fun to do it in a team format this week. Maybe a little extra if we play well. I'm just trying to go out and play well every week and let that take care of itself.

Q. Just for both of you guys, have you reflected at all on what kind of gallery you expect? What are you hoping for in terms of not just the size but the tone?
PATRICK REED: I feel like the galleries are always pretty solid here. To be playing with the defending champions with how we've played this year and also roots with being a part of LSU, I just feel like there will be a lot of fans out here. It can get pretty rowdy. We can use that to our advantage.

I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Any time you can come to Louisiana, New Orleans, around this area, they're passionate for their sports and for just seeing fireworks and good things happening. Hopefully we can give them a show.

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, last year I remember the fans being great. It's a fun track. You can make some birdies.

Go out and make as many birdies as you can and see if you get the fans jacked up.

Q. Today is National Golf Day. Like to know from both of you what attracted you to golf and why do you like the game of golf so much?
PATRICK CANTLAY: Both sides of my family played golf and still do, so growing up it was just something I always did. I like the struggle for perfection, I guess you would call it, that's associated with the game.

Feels like no matter how well you play, there are always a couple shots you could have played a little better or a few shots you left out there. I think for someone with an addicting personality, it's very entertaining to try and get as good as you possibly can, to leave the fewest amount of shots out there, and play as well as you can all the time.

It's fun.

PATRICK REED: Yeah, I mean, I feel the same way about the game of golf. It's the one time it's all up to you. It's you, the golf ball, and the golf course. You go out there and try to do the best you can.

Just the competitive factor of always trying to get better and trying to seek perfection, like Patrick said. It's something what all of us are trying to do. Something that kind of gets me going, just trying to always one up what I did. Whether it's last year, last week, last hole, last swing, just always trying to get better.

It's a game that definitely humbles you, and also, at the same time, it's one of those if you work really hard you can reach your goals.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297