	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

SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 3, 2020

Patrick Reed

Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome our 2015 champion Patrick Reed into the interview room, firing a 7-under-par 66 today. If we can get some comments on your play.

PATRICK REED: Yeah, you know, it was a lot different from yesterday. Yeah, yesterday I just felt like I wasn't quite in the right mindset with the golf swing, wasn't really hitting quality golf shots, and I was able to talk to my coach last night, and today I had a clear picture what I needed to do, and for some reason when the weather got worse I seemed to get even more fine-tuned and even more into the game and was able to go out there, hit quality golf shots and the biggest thing was make putts.

JOHN BUSH: What's the key to staying patient on a day like this?

PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing is putting the ball in the right spots, and even if you're not able to get the ball where you want to, at least know where it is you're not going to make a big number on.

Around here, it's very easy to lose focus because of how wide the fairways are, and now they've widened some of the greens, made some of the greens larger to let guys just kind of free-wheel it. When the weather started getting worse it allowed us to focus even more and get more fine-tuned on the small things, and because of that, I was able to really get the golf ball going where I wanted to, and the putter was hot today.

Q. You know this place pretty well, but with the changes and the weather, was it a little unfamiliar to you today?
PATRICK REED: I think so far as the week it's been completely different. To the naked eye when you stand on most of the tee boxes except for like 3 and 10 and 9, they all look the same, but they play completely differently. The fairways are really soft compared to how they used to be, so you're not getting -- used to be just driver, wedge on every hole, now you're actually having to hit some irons into greens, and on top of it the greens have gotten a lot firmer so you can't just throw it right at the flag.

I think the golf course now, it's more of a golf course that you have to put a premium not only on ball-striking but where you want to land the ball, how you want to play the holes because it's completely different, and I like the change. I think it's great. I think it's a tough test, and it's one of these things that to start the year it's just not go out and ease your way into the game of golf, you've got to go out and start playing well.

Q. Patrick, how much of a carryover from that last day at the Presidents Cup did you feel or maybe not feel, once you got back home and tried to work on some things, I guess?
PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing was I was just trying to get back to how I was hitting the ball and how my golf swing was feeling at Bahamas and Presidents Cup. I felt like I was swinging really well, felt like I had control of the golf ball and I was hitting my lines.

Earlier this week and yesterday, it just wasn't feeling right. It just wasn't there. The ball wasn't going where it was supposed to. The good thing is my coach was able to look at a little bit of film yesterday and I was able to talk to him last night, and I got a clear picture now what I need to do with the golf club, how the body needs to work. I felt like I was getting in that groove of how I've been playing, and I was able to kind of hit the shots I needed to hit. When that happens it just frees you up and then the hole seems a little larger and the putts seem to go in a little easier.

Q. What did he tell you?
PATRICK REED: The biggest thing for me is mainly my timing. A lot of times I get a little loose and just a little quick, and it's kind of like, all right, settle down, just keep it nice and compact and just play the golf shot. You don't have to run into it. I think that's the biggest thing. I felt like I was trying to force it yesterday and trying to hit it too hard because I wasn't getting those firm bounces rather than just accepting it. I felt like that was the biggest thing is today knowing that the weather was going to be bad, knowing it was going to rain, knew the ball wasn't going to go anywhere, so just accept that; at least just make solid contact, hit where you're trying to go and then play it from there, and I think that's the biggest thing for me.

Q. Starting out today did you feel like you could turn it around? Did you feel like you could get yourself back into this tournament given your success here in the past?
PATRICK REED: I did. I think the biggest reason was yesterday was our best weather day, and at least looking forward and looking at the weather, I knew you had to go shoot something low. I was thinking you'd have to shoot something low yesterday and then try to grind it out the rest of the week. Unfortunately I didn't do the low one yesterday, but as I was playing today I felt really good. I was hitting a lot of quality golf shots, started making some putts and at that point making the turn at 4-under I knew if I got going on that back nine and get a low one out there I could get myself right back in this event.

Mother Nature is a funny thing. You never know what you're going to get. All of a sudden we were out there and it was calm for like 10 seconds, then all of a sudden it starts blowing and it rains sideways and then there was no rain. It was all over the place. Just kind of one of those things that you knew you had to stay patient but still be aggressive at times to get yourself back into it.

Q. On TV we noticed a shot for Justin Thomas from the fairway. He hit it, and his divot literally blew back into his shirt, and he had to clean off a little bit. Was there anything like that out there for you? You just talked about it, but how tough were the weather conditions?
PATRICK REED: It was really tough. I mean, the biggest thing about it was not only was it just blowing all day and then all of a sudden rain would come, but it would go from 20-something an hour blowing and then all of a sudden you'd get a gust to 30-something. You're sitting there, I had 119 yards into 10 today and I was right in the thick of it when it was really starting to blow really hard, and I hit a 165-yard shot and hit it pin high. You sit there, and I think the hardest thing is mentally getting yourself to sit there and go, okay, it's 119, long is dead, and I've got to hit this 165 yards because if the wind lays down just a little bit, that thing is going to be gone.

I think the hardest thing about weather, how it is, especially here, is because of how gusty it is and because of how hard it's blowing, you have to trust yourself on aiming way far away from flags or hitting way too much club or too little club to get to that number because it's tough. You almost feel like a British Open but with softer fairways.

Q. When you got here and first saw the changes, saw the new course, did you know immediately? Did you have to adjust how you approached thinking about scoring and some of the low scores we've seen here in past years weren't going to be maybe possible?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, well, so the first time I played this week, I played the back of every tee box and it was blowing a gale. I hit 4-iron into the green on 3. I hit 5-iron into the green on 4. I barely got to the fairway on 9 on the second shot. I hit pitching wedge into there, hit 6-iron into 10. I'm sitting there thinking, wow, even par is going to be a good score. You know, the thing is with this golf course, you can set it up so many different ways. You can move tee boxes, and you have to move tee boxes depending on wind. But when the wind blows around here, if you get going, you can shoot some really low numbers. It's just those days that you're a hair off that you have to be able to try to salvage it. It's not going to be a 20-, 22-under par tournament anymore. You're going to have to go out and play some good golf. It's one of those things that you have to go out there and try to get to 14-, 15-under par to win the golf tournament.

Q. Did you feel fortunate to not have a big number at 15?
PATRICK REED: Yes and no. Actually I hit that iron shot pretty good, and I thought for sure it was going to be -- that was going to be on the green on the front part, and it almost got knocked down out of the sky. And because of that I knew it was really close to that hazard line, and I was fortunate enough that the volunteer found it. At that point I felt like I lost -- between bogeying 15 and then missing a four-footer on 16, I felt like I left three shots out there just on those two holes. But it's kind of one of those things. That's the funny thing about wind. Even if you have helping winds, if it's helping enough, it could almost knock the ball out of the sky rather than allow it to go. It's just one of those things. Obviously you've got to hit it right, not at the flag, you've got to hit it to the right on that one because at least you have a chance.

Q. Have you ever lost to somebody and felt happy for them?
PATRICK REED: What?

Q. Have you ever finished second to somebody at a tournament and felt happy for them before you signed your card?
PATRICK REED: That is a loaded question. I sound bad either way in that answer. I don't know. I mean, I've always been disappointed when I finished second rather than winning a golf tournament. But yeah, I mean -- I don't know. It's hard to answer because, I mean, as a player and as a competitor you're always upset that you didn't win that golf tournament. You're not really focusing on who it was that won and that you're happy for that person or not happy for that person. You're more upset about you losing that golf tournament.

JOHN BUSH: Patrick Reed, thank you, sir.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297