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ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 15, 2018

Patrick Reed

Gullane, Scotland

Q. Patrick, just ask you first of all how's the experience been, the first of two weeks in Scotland. How has it been for you in terms of the overall experience this week?
PATRICK REED: It's been good. You know, I feel like I've improved a little bit on ball striking each day. Today just needed the putts to fall. I had a lot of quality golf shots, but I had two tee shots that ended up in the bunkers, which I mean you hit it in a fairway bunker here it's a penalty bunker. You know, you have to play it out, face it sideways or advance it 20, 30 yards and try to get up and down from a distance. So it's one of those places that really gets you ready for next week, and by all means you just gotta miss those fairway bunkers.

Q. So the wind swirled around the last few days. How useful has that been bearing in mind Carnoustie is coming up next week just to get used to that change in conditions?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, you know, the past two days were a lot tougher than the first two, with the wind pumping and going from a different direction on the front nine the first two days, it was basically a driver and a putt on every hole it seemed like. It was really short. And to switch and now all of a sudden have the short holes into the wind where you have to play some solid golf to try to make a birdie, it definitely made it more challenging and made it more close to what I'm going to see next week. So it's always nice to see that. Anytime the wind blows, especially over here, you know, you just get a little bit more comfortable, especially coming into a week like this.

Q. A little bit of fun before the tournament as well. You played in the hickory challenge. How was that? I think it was something you quite enjoyed.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, it was a blast. I've never hit hickory clubs before or an old golf ball like that. Hit it really solid, came off the face absolutely perfect. And I've always thought about trying to use some old equipment, kind of mess around at the house, and I finally had a spot that actually had the stuff, so I actually got a set and excited to take them home.

Q. I was about to say, I think you found a little shop here in Gullane, didn't you, and went and bought some clubs there?
PATRICK REED: Yeah. I can't wait to get them home and mess around at home with them. And it also will probably be a good training tool. Kind of keep you smooth. You can't swing those very hard or violently or the ball is going to go sideways. So at home I used to hit with a ^ wood anyway, but with golf balls these days and how firm they are, you kind of crack the faces and stuff. So now I've got some good golf balls and I'll be ready to go.

Q. How do you think you'd fare playing 18 holes around here with them?
PATRICK REED: Whoo. I'd say on Thursday or Friday that wind direction would be all right. But today it would be a bear. I might still be on the first hole.

Q. Patrick, you had a good week this week. (Indiscernible).
PATRICK REED: You know, it was a stress-free 67. I mean it was kind of boring. I made just a couple of birdies, four birdies, and they were all kind of straightforward. But I feel like I gave them a couple quality golf shots, thought I hit the ball pretty solid today. I only had two drives I feel like cost me. That drive on 18, hit the bunker and made bogey and the drive on 2, ended up in the smallest bunker I think known to man and made par.

Q. That's going for you.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, it is. Besides that, I hit a lot of quality golf shots. Unfortunately I missed four putts inside of 10 to 8 feet today and I missed two putts from about 10 to 17 feet. And then a handful outside that. So you know, it was close. If I had the putter going kind of how I did the first three days, 67 would have easily been like a 65, 63. But unfortunately it was 67.

Q. What do you learn, then, about this week, heading to Carnoustie next week and the preparation for it?
PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing is you just have to accept bad breaks, and at the same time you gotta capitalize on the good breaks. You know, I had one good break today, and I felt like that was really the only good break I had all week, and I didn't capitalize on it, I missed a five-footer for birdie. And I had a couple of other shots this week, I think it was like two or three of them that I felt like I hit really quality golf shots and ended up taking either a wrong bounce and ended up either in the fescue or ended up in a bunker. But you know, it's going to happen, but I think a week like this what it does going into next week is it prepares you that it's going to happen throughout the week. At some point you're going to get a bad break, and another point you're probably going to get a good break where you hit a poor iron shot and it ends up good or a poor tee shot and it ends up fine.

Q. This has been a different course than what you play week in, week out?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, completely different. I mean back home if you hit a draw and it's at the middle -- falling on the middle of the fairway, no matter how much it's turning it's going to stay in the fairway and that's not the case here. The ball has to be flying pretty straight, or if it is curving, it has to land on edges, and you still have a chance it might not hold the fairway. So you really have to have control of your golf ball, and at the same time you also have to have control mentally, because like I said, you're going to get either a wind switch in the middle of a shot and it's going to end up in a bad spot or you're going to get a bad bounce, and you just have to handle it. And I think that's the biggest thing coming over here is we don't see bounces like that. We don't see balls rolling 40, 60 yards, and because of that, you think you hit a perfect drive and it ends up in a bad spot, and that's where you gotta be mentally tough to win a tournament over here, win the Open.

Q. We'll see you next year?
PATRICK REED: That's the plan.

Q. Good to see you. Thanks again for your help this week.
PATRICK REED: Thanks.

PATRICK REED: It's easy to say that you're just trying to go out there and play golf and play like a normal event but when the week starts going and you start playing the event, you always seem to put a little bit more pressure on yourself, start grinding a little harder and try to force things. And that really hasn't worked for me early on in my majors, so I really try to make a point that, hey, just go out, play golf, have fun, and you know get into every golf shot and treat it just like back home hitting a golf shot. And I feel like I've done that pretty well for these last three majors. I've had some pretty good finishes, had a win there, and I think that's key for me is just not to try so hard like it's the majors.

Q. Would you over prepare as well when you get in there early and play six practice rounds or anything like that, or was it just more the pressure side of things?
PATRICK REED: No. I never feel like I can prepare hard enough. I mean you literally can put me on a golf course and be there for a month straight, have zero sleep and just do nothing but practice and I still wouldn't say I'm over prepared. But you know, I feel like the biggest thing is just kind of the hype of the week and as I'm there and as I'm getting ready, as I see scores kind of go up on the board, I mean you always see scores go up early, in the morning, especially the first round, first day, you'll see some low scores and all of a sudden you're in the afternoon you try to press. You try to go out and you're like, oh, I have to go shoot a low number, but I always see that the scores always kind of come back. At the end of the week, if you were to multiply it by four after the first day, you're not shooting 30 under par to win a major. So scores always seem to come back and are usually around a certain number. And with that being said you just have to keep that in mind that if you go out and shoot even, one, two, 3-under in the first round, you're okay. And I haven't really gotten that through my head until these past couple, and I was okay with shooting just a couple under instead of going and shooting 8-under and because of that it's put me in a good position coming down the stretch.

Q. I mean that's especially the case somewhere like next week as it happens, spread of tee times from 6:30 in the morning until 4 p.m.?
PATRICK REED: Oh, yeah. Especially you saw it yesterday here. Yesterday early morning people were just blitzing on this golf course. And then in the afternoon the scores were a lot harder to make. I mean a one, two, 3-under par round yesterday afternoon was a good score, and in the morning that round was not a very good round. So you know that there's going to be that kind of a draw, and you know at the Open Championship that there are -- you can get on the wrong side of a draw there. But like I said, it's -- you gotta just accept it. You have to handle it, and you just have to mentally push through and grind through it.

Q. And finally for me, I just wondered if you've seen any of the pictures or tweets coming through from guys who are already at Carnoustie, Dustin Johnson driving into the berm on 18, even Padraig Harrington driving into the berm on 18, it's so hard and fast.
PATRICK REED: So I played Sunday and Monday and I hit 3-iron and had 95 yards to a middle right flag on 18. So I'm not surprised that Dustin hit it into the berm on the drive. I'm actually surprised he didn't get it over the berm.

Q. You gotta be careful.
PATRICK REED: Yeah. So I'm not too surprised. But I don't know how the weather has been this week. I don't know if it's rained at all up there. I know the forecast showed one day it was a very slight chance, and if it didn't and it kept on being sunny and windy, I can only imagine because I was getting 100 yards a roll on four irons and three irons off the tee. So I can only imagine what it's going to be when I get back.

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