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WGC MEXICO CHAMPIONSHIP

February 22, 2020

Patrick Reed

Mexico City, Mexico

Q. Business as usual, 67. How did you feel you played out there today?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, it was a little sloppy today. The good thing is I was able to get it around the golf course, get it in the right spots to give myself a chance for birdie. Yeah, just tighten it up a little bit more tomorrow, and the great thing is I'm in good position going into tomorrow, and that's all I can ask for.

Q. These fairways, is it harder to find them when they camber right to left and left to right?
PATRICK REED: A little bit, but the good things is it's starting to get firmer like it has been in previous years, so it helps knowing how the fairways are going to react and how you can just trust that the ball is actually going (indiscernible).

Q. A great bunker shot on 16. Tell us a little bit about that one.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, after such a stellar tee shot, I put myself in the right trees, I thought if I could get to that front bunker it would be good. It was a perfect lie, kind of on the up slope, and I knew how that green (indiscernible), so instead of using my normal club (indiscernible).

Q. Tomorrow you're playing with the last group. You can keep an eye on them. Do you have something to prove tomorrow?
PATRICK REED: No, I mean, I'm just going to go out and continue what I'm doing. Continue to put the ball in play, continue to get the ball on the greens, let the putter do some work, and hopefully come the back nine tomorrow we've got a shot.

Q. Do you feel like you had your B game today?
PATRICK REED: It wasn't as solid as I wanted it to be, but I still hit a lot of quality golf shots. I still hit a lot of quality putts, but there was a couple areas there that I feel like -- not really as much swing errors, just kind of mental errors, putting balls in the wrong spot, trying to be too aggressive on certain shots. That seemed to get me in a little bit of trouble. Instead of having a 20-footer for birdie I'd have to chip from off the green. It was close, but one back going into tomorrow, it's all you can ask for. Hopefully play well tomorrow and we have a chance to win a golf tournament.

Q. That being said, do you alter your strategy tomorrow?
PATRICK REED: No, not at all. You know, at least not in the beginning. Through the first nine or 10 holes, 11 holes, the strategy is going to be the same, but it's going to depend on how the golf course is playing in the morning, and at the same time watch the leaders and where you stand. You can play really aggressive and play yourself right out of this golf tournament, or do the opposite and play way too safe. I feel like I have a pretty good game plan for the front, 10, 11 holes, and I have an A and a B game plan depending on how we stand going into the back nine.

Q. How do you assess today?
PATRICK REED: Sloppy. Today was off. I felt like it was more off, not really as much my golf swing, but just kind of mental errors out there. You're always going to have a couple swings here and there that you wish you could have back. I got too aggressive on a couple holes and from that point I had to scramble and try to make par. When you do that, it just adds extra stress that you don't need on a round of golf.

But the great thing is at least it wasn't a bunch of bad swings that I felt like it was a swing error. It was just kind of thinking myself around the golf course. It's a very easy fix, and very excited to kind of be in the final group in a good position tomorrow going into the final round and hopefully have a chance late Sunday.

Q. Officially 16 of 20 this week getting up-and-down. That's a really solid putting week.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, I feel like I've been chipping well. I think the biggest thing is I've been putting well. Even with hitting good chips around here, the ball just seems to keep on trickling, so you're always having those three-, four-, even five-footers. I feel like I've been able to make those putts, and those are the crucial ones. Those are what keep you in the golf tournament. All I can ask for is to put myself in a position to have a chance to win on Sunday.

Q. Can you walk me through the second shot on No. 8, the window that you had and the shot you were trying to hit?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, so honestly, on 8, I felt like I -- so I think it was last year, last year or the year before I was right, in the right trees, and I had a window like that and I chipped out sideways -- well, not sideways but kind of an angle where I had a full sand wedge, and where that flag was I actually flew it into the bottom of the flagstick, came straight back off the front of the green, made double, and so my thought process there was, all you have to do is get the ball low and just kind of -- it's a pretty big gap. There's one tree that you have to miss but you can miss it left or right and it's going to run up there. If you miss left, you have a chance you might be on the green. So just punch a 6-iron, and for how far -- that tree was like 100 yards ahead of me. It's not that wide of a tree, and I just clipped the left side of it. Yeah, just the last tree got me. Luckily I was able to scramble and get out of there with a bogey rather than making a big number.

Q. I know you don't want to be in those situations, but when you have a shot that you have to be creative, do you think that brings out the best in you?
PATRICK REED: I do. I love being creative with golf shots. It's a little harder around here because when you're at altitude the ball doesn't really want to curve that much. So like the slinging hook or the big slice, the ball just seems to always try to move late. It doesn't want to go ahead and start turning. It's a lot more fun when you're being creative around here if it's a straight shot, not a big bender.

Q. What happened on 18?
PATRICK REED: I mean, I hit a 4-iron, trying to hook it around that tree off the tee, and I knew -- the reason I didn't hit 3, I knew if I hit 4 and it went straight, it would be fine, short of the bunker. It ended up short of the bunker, didn't hook around the tree, and at that point we thought it might be a full 57 from the number because it was like a perfect number for 57 to get to the -- like land on the front part of the green. But then the wind was kind of switching around, so we couldn't tell if it was quite in or quite down, and Kess goes, there's a backboard, so 85 percent 51. Playing the club that I thought was the smart play, and ended up just about an inch short, hit right in the bunker, and where it was in the bunker my feet were digging into kind of a hard spot, yet I knew there was sand, and it just gave out on me, and that putt was slow.

Q. When you have an opportunity on a Sunday to go head-to-head, if you look at the leaderboard, it's a lot of names, top players right now. I don't want to say you don't get up for other events, but does that get you a little bit more excited?
PATRICK REED: Always gets you excited, anytime you're in a final group playing with anybody. But whenever you have the top guys up at the top of the leaderboard, it's always more fun. You're going out, and now all of a sudden you've got the best guys versus the best guys going out in one day. It would have been nice to make par on the last so it would be head-to-head going into the last, but at the end of the day, I put myself in position that I needed to going into tomorrow to try to win a golf tournament, and that's all you can ask for now is to go out there tomorrow, hopefully get on it early, make some birdies early and not wait until the back nine to make all my birdies.

Q. Yesterday we talked about there was a lot of noise and maybe that's been a little bit of a distraction, but yet when it's come to your play, it hasn't really reflected that. What kinds of things have you done to prevent that from becoming a distraction?
PATRICK REED: The biggest thing for me is any time you go to the golf course, pop in my headphones, get to work, and just really get in tune with every golf shot I hit because at the end of the day you can't listen to what other people are saying, all you can control is what you do. For me, I just go out there and try to play the best golf I can, try to improve on and off the golf course each and every day, and if I feel like I'm doing that, then I'm living the right way and I'm working as hard as I need to be working.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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