KIA CLASSIC

March 27, 2021

Mel Reid

Park Hyatt Aviara Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. They moved quite a bit up today and made the course a little gettable. What did you see out there during your 18?

MEL REID: Yeah, I mean, there was a couple I don't know why they moved up. I don't know why they moved up 9. I thought it was a good hole anyway.

But, yeah, I mean, the only thing it did is made it incredibly slow. We were waiting a lot on every single shot, so that was obviously a bit of a downer.

But, yeah, these greens, the pins were kind of on slopes so you had to really get a birdie opportunity or you were having to make a really good two-putt for par.

Unfortunately I was more the person having a good two-putt for par. Again, played very solid. Putter was ice cold again. But again, just have to make putts in the afternoon. Like they just don't roll as true.

Yeah, I mean, in a good position, so we'll see.

Q. T2 heading into the final round is always a good spot. You get to chase. Is that something...

MEL REID: Yeah, going to have to against Inbee. She's got a five-shot lead, so I'm going to have to do something special to get it done tomorrow.

Yeah, I think tomorrow the game plan is to play aggressive and there is nothing to lose, and I'm going to try and get as close as I can to Inbee.

But she's an unbelievable golfer and she's going to be hard to beat. She doesn't make any mistakes. Yeah, I'll definitely give it my best shot.

Q. Anything you saw from her today? I know we talked about her yesterday, but anything that you maybe learned, took away from her today?

MEL REID: I mean, yeah, you don't really pay much attention, but she just doesn't do much wrong. Just very, very consistent, doesn't make any mistakes.

Yeah, that's why he's won a gazillion majors. She's one of the best player to ever play our game. Like I said you are going to have to probably shoot 6- or 7-under to even have a chance of winning tomorrow. Never know. Hopefully if my putter gets a little bit hot...

I feel like I'm hitting it good enough, so you never know. Give ourselves a chance anyway.

Q. If anybody can shoot 6- or 7-under...

MEL REID: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Q. You saved some putts I would imagine out there.

MEL REID: I mean, I've saved probably ten or fifteen putts over the last two days, so I'm hoping they'll all drop tomorrow.

Q. Drop tomorrow at or ANA next week.

MEL REID: Yeah, exactly. I wouldn't mind them dropping at ANA either.

Q. How did the greens transform through the day?

MEL REID: They're just bumpy. Like it's no disrespect at all to the greenskeepers. They obviously do the best job they can. Poana greens, it's hard to hit putts online. You know, you just trying to make a great stroke, but when you see it missing a ball right when that's just never the -- that you would never normally miss a putt from six foot right. Like it's feel that we're kind of talking about. It's just difficult.

You're paying attention to even one-, two-foot putts, whereas professionals we kind of just tap them in. So it's just difficult. I think just goes to show obviously the scoring was a lot better this morning, which is when the greens are smoother.

Yeah, just very, very difficult to keep online.

Q. From a viewer standpoint or amateur standpoint I guess, when I heard you say be aggressive tomorrow, I think if I'm aggressive I can throw up a big number really fast. Obviously you guys are professionals and you do it the right way. But when you are aggressive out there on this specific course, how easy is it to go one way or another?

MEL REID: It's extremely easy. Perfect example is 8. We did have a perfect 7 going into that green, but the wind was gusting into and the one place you can't be is short.

I hit a perfect three quarter cut 6. Takes one big bounce over the back and I'm struggling to get up and down.

So it's just -- like I said, it's a game of inches, and it really is around here, because you can get very, very screwed very easily without even hitting really bad shots.

So I'm going to have to try and take advantage of the par-5s a bit more. I'm not overly happy with the way I played them, especially with kind of my length and stuff.

So that's probably going to be -- if I pick a couple two or three up on the par-5s and then couple on par-4s, you just never know.