MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2021

Patrick Reed

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you assess your week?

PATRICK REED: Close. It's more kind of frustrating this week. I feel like I got nothing out of my rounds the first three rounds. Then today I had to scramble like no other. I felt like the warmup went well, hit a good 3-wood on 1, missed the green, then hit the fairway on 2 with a driver, then 4-iron off the tee on 3. After that, I only hit three more fairways the rest of the day.

I kept putting it in the wrong spots too. Can't put it in the bunker on 5. I did. Can't put it in the bunker on 8. I did. Can't put it in the first bunker on 18, and I did. I was having to scramble all day. The good thing is I was able to manage it and capitalize when I had an opportunity, and I was able to get myself out of trouble on most of the holes.

Q. You sound disappointed. Any positives you can take out of a top-10 finish?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, you know, it's a top-10 finish. I feel like I didn't play the greatest on a Sunday and still shot 69 around this place. Then at the same time, I feel like I left a lot of shots out there throughout the first three days.

The biggest thing is it never tastes good when you bogey the last. At least today I had somewhat of an excuse because I finally missed the fairway. The first three days, I hit the middle of the fairway and I ended up playing it 2-over par. Today was just kind of one of those days; I couldn't figure out where the ball was going to go off the tee with the driver. But besides that, everything else was pretty solid. I felt like I hit my irons well. I putted, I felt like, really well, besides the last one that normally being above that hole on 18 is really fast. Just happened to not quite have the bite in it and left it short.

Besides that, I felt like short game, putting and irons were where they needed to be today, but the long game wasn't quite there.

Q. Any good Hideki stories?

PATRICK REED: I hope he just one-hands the heck out of the rest of the round and hits everything about two feet. He's playing so solid. Just kind of looking up there at the leaderboard and kind of seeing -- since I haven't been able to see it obviously since I'm playing, but just seeing how steady he's been today has been amazing.

For a guy that wasn't hitting that many fairways with how much scrambling I had to do and how many five-, six-footers I had to make and stuff like that, it was tough. Being in the position he's at, the hole gets a little smaller being in the final group and also being in the lead, and on top of it, to see, I think, what -- has he only have one dropped shot today, maybe two? Besides that, he's just playing so steady and hitting the shots he obviously needs to hit because you're not seeing big numbers. You're seeing a lot of pars. You're seeing birdies still coming out of him.

I watched him hit a tee shot on 15, and just seeing how much control he had to hit a perfect cut down the right side of the fairway there. He's in control. It's his tournament to lose. It's not really anyone else's tournament right now. I mean, he goes out and does what he needs to do and just plays smart and steady, he's going to walk off with a green jacket.

Q. What did you hit on 2 to set up the eagle?

PATRICK REED: 4-iron. Hey, here's a really good positive. I'm going home with some crystal. I got my glasses.

Q. You eagled all the par-5s; did you know that?

PATRICK REED: Was 2 my last one to get? Nice. I didn't know that. You would think I would have eagled 2 at some point. I feel like that was the problem this week is I didn't capitalize on those par-5s, especially 8. 8 has my number this year. It got me, and three of those days, I played from the middle of the fairway and seemed to make a mess of it.

Yeah, it seems to kind of be the difference around this place is who plays -- who obviously plays No. 1 really well because you need to get your rounds off well, but who plays the par-5s at the most under and who handles those par-3s.

It's stuff I need to go back and tighten up. I have two weeks off to get ready and get back at it.

Q. 15, you were kind of forced up to lay up and get an easy birdie. Looking back, do you regret not doing that a bit more into the par-5s?

PATRICK REED: No, not really. I played 2 really well this week. I was 4-under par there. The one par I made was hitting in that bunker off the tee yesterday. But after that, 8, I was in position the entire time. I hit 3-wood one day, it was like 307 up the hill into the green, and it ended up -- I mean, I watched the highlights. It trickled over the back edge and ended up over the green on back right flag. If it's a revolution shorter than that, I have ten feet for eagle, and I make par.

I put myself in the perfect spots for the other spots on the holes and just didn't execute. 13, I don't know what the heck happened on 13. It was just a cluster this week. Yesterday I played it well. Obviously, hit 8-iron into the green and made birdie. Today I tried to make par. I hit a 4-iron in there to 10, 12 feet above the hole, and I'm like, all right, just get it started. Still hit it six feet by, and I had to make a six-footer.

I think the biggest thing was just executing on them. I put myself in position on almost all of them when I needed to in order to make birdie. I just didn't. That's the difference between winning a golf tournament, especially here, and then not winning it is executing on the shots you have to, on those par-5s, on making the clutch putt when you need to throughout the round to keep the round going and really minimizing the errors, and I just had too many of them.

Q. Patrick, separate of this specific week, we're doing a little story on caddie-golfer relationship. What do you rely on for your caddie in terms of preparation? How do you guys guy and conquer the yardage, et cetera?

PATRICK REED: Well, he's my brother-in-law. I don't really rely on him much, or he'd probably give me the wrong advice. With Kessler out there, it's awesome watching the way he's kind of developed. In the very beginning, he was still trying to get to know the ropes, and we went out and won the second week out there, but he kind of let me do my thing. Now he's got more of a voice. He's out there with me and figuring out the strategies we need and figuring out the right game plans.

His best decision he ever made was actually here the year I won. I had a great drive on 15, ended up just left center of the fairway. Kind of trees were in my way a little obviously, but I had a perfect gap to actually hit a 6-iron and actually go for the green if I wanted to. I was wanting to go because of how aggressive I am, and he would not let me. He was like layup. He was like, you're in the lead for the golf tournament. This is a time that we don't do this.

And I think that is the biggest thing, to have the relationship that him and I have, he can tell me things that probably other people can't, and at the end of the day, I know his best interest is to go out and play the best. I mean, he's family. So when we're out there, he's out there grinding.

I do yardages, but then after we find the yardage, he helps me figure out the best spot to leave the golf ball in order to pick birdie or an easy par.

Q. What about when your wife was on the bag?

PATRICK REED: She had all the say. I figured that out really quickly because the first two times that I went against what she said as a caddie, both times I'm sitting there with my head down kind of walking, okay, yeah, you were right because I ended up in the wrong spot.

It's kind of one of those things that, when she was on the bag with how much of a competitor she is, she was always trying to learn. She was reading everything, every book she knew about golf and everything, just trying to learn as much as she could in order to be, not only the best caddie, but to be the best support system out there. It's special having my first one with her on the bag, and the stuff that we did and the decisions that she had -- because everyone knows I'm a very aggressive player when I'm out there.

I'll go for just about anything even when you're not supposed to, and she always was able to pull me back. I think that's the biggest trait between her and Kessler because they know when to pull me back and when to let me go.

Q. With the win and finishing in the top ten twice in the last five months, do you feel like your knowledge of the place is growing? Do you feel more confident? Maybe you're always learning?

PATRICK REED: Right. You're always learning here. You never sit there and get really comfortable ever out here, but I definitely feel like I've learned a lot more about the golf course. I feel like I know certain lines, depending on wind and firmness of the greens, et cetera.

That's the thing about this place. You can have a perfect game plan and everything. It does not matter as long -- the biggest thing that matters, you have to have full control of your golf ball and full confidence and great execution. I feel like that's what this place does is it makes you vulnerable in the areas that aren't as strong as they need to be.

The good thing is you're able to learn from them and figure out what you need to go back and work on.