LIV GOLF INVITATIONAL SERIES: JEDDAH

October 13, 2022

Patrick Reed

Royal Greens Golf & Country Club

Press Conference

Q. You enter this week No. 3 in points. How much is that on your mind?

PATRICK REED: I mean, it's always in the back of your mind. Anytime you play in any tournament, you're always thinking about what results will do to certain things, but really, with the points, with what I did last year, put me in a position, set me up to where I could have that opportunity, and really the only thing this week is focus on each day and try to play good golf. If I go and I play well, that takes care of everything. It takes care of the team. It takes care of the individual.

That's just something that I've always preached to our team as well as just to my team on the golf course, is that hey, when we're out there, we're not sitting there worrying about positioning, this, that and all that. You go out and play the best golf you can, and if you go out and play the way you're supposed to, everything else will take care of itself.

Q. I wanted to ask you about rankings and majors. As a past Masters champion, would you expect to play there next year?

PATRICK REED: Well, of course. You always expect to be there being past champion as well as the categories with what comes for winning at Augusta. It's hard to answer really any questions about all that because everything is either a pending matter or based off the majors, haven't really heard anything from any of them yet. To sit here and speculate would be hard, and it would be the wrong thing to do. We just have to wait and see how it all folds out, what they say in order to comment on that and go from there.

Q. (On his treatment at the French Open.)

PATRICK REED: No, that was false reporting. Had nothing to do with the French Open. When I went over there, the players, the fans, the tournament, they treated me amazingly. It was an unbelievable time over there. Obviously I wish I had played better and did something, but no, they treated me really well, and that's just something that is unfortunate about how the media tried to spin that that week, because when I was over there, everyone was excited to see me. It was great there, being with the guys, being with the players, and seeing fans I've seen in the past.

No, it was a great week based off of fans, players and the people there at the golf course.

Q. Can I ask your thoughts on the course and the setup?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, you know, it's gotten a little faster than earlier in the week. Earlier this week it was really wet, really slow. I mean, what place wouldn't be slow and wet right now with how hot and humid it is out.

No, the golf course is getting better by the day. Greens are getting firmer and faster, which is what you expect. You always know the greens are going to be the softest and slowest on Mondays and Tuesdays, leading into it, and Wednesdays.

Once we get to tomorrow, they picked up a little speed today and I can see them getting faster and faster, and I feel like they're almost at tournament speed when previous years when I've played. The thing you have to worry about here is the wind. You can't get the greens too fast or the balls will start moving.

It's in good shape, it's just a different time of year and you have different conditions. You have softer conditions now whereas in previous years when it was played in January and February, it was cooler but everything was firmer and faster.

Q. Obviously you guys have knocked off the No. 1 seed. How would you describe this year in terms of the team competition, especially the Four Aces and the chemistry you guys have developed?

PATRICK REED: Oh, it's been amazing. The guys on the team are really out there grinding and playing hard, not just for themselves but also for the team. I think that's what's so unique about the formats and about being in this team play is in the past, you used to always be going out and playing and it was just playing for yourself. Now you're playing for something bigger. You're playing for three other guys. You're playing for the other caddies. It just gives you a little bit more motivation to go out there and play well.

I think that's the biggest thing is our guys, we seem to rally behind each other and get going, whether it's on the golf course or off the golf course when we go to dinners, just kind of hang out. It's just a completely different aspect that we have out here on LIV than we have had on any other tour.

Q. How would you describe Dustin's captaincy?

PATRICK REED: It's been great. Look at what DJ has done. As a captain, you're supposed to lead your guys, and that doesn't just come off the golf course. Also you have to lead the guys on the golf course. To sit here and already lock everything up before the last event, it just shows that he's not only doing his job off the golf course, but he's doing his job on the golf course. He's leading by example playing well, and we're all trying to do the exact same and kind of follow, and it would be awesome for me to go out and play well this week and have the Aces go 1-2.

Q. Because you did not play Scotland, do you have to play more on the European Tour to meet the obligation?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, so I've only played two because I wasn't able to play in Scotland. That only gave me two events. I'm not really worried about that this week. My team at home is kind of looking at scheduling, kind of seeing what's the best thing to do going forward.

I do know that because of the category that I'm in, being an honorary lifetime member but also being a past Masters champion, next year if I'm not able to fulfill my membership this year, next year I'll be able to play off of that category. The thing is going forward after that that you have to play and stay in certain categories.

It's been an interesting year, to say the least. I would have played a couple events earlier this year in the very beginning, but I just wasn't feeling very well health-wise to make that long a flights. I was hoping to be able to play Scottish because I'd be sitting here at three minimum, I'd be at three or four.

It's just one of those things that sometimes everything doesn't go accordingly to plan, and you have to adapt and adjust, and that's what we're doing.

Q. Did you decide not to play Dunhill or was that not your plan?

PATRICK REED: No, I was committed to Dunhill a while back, and then somehow -- we were looking into it as well as the European Tour was looking into it. Somehow I got decommitted and I wasn't a part of the event. Because of that, when I was over in France, they were nice enough to get me back into the event, but logistically it was really too hard for me because Kevin was caddying for me because Kess was having that week off. So trying to get him a flight last minute to Scotland as well as trying to find hotels and kind of get everything all in order, it was just too much going on, too stressful.

We opted to take that week off. But at the end of the day, I feel like it was the right thing to do. Body probably needed a little bit of a break because I was on a long run, and be able to go home and spend a little bit of time with the kiddos and hang out and also get my game a little sharper. I was able to kind of go out and play well last week.

Q. I don't know how much you follow the news, but there seems to be something of a confrontation this week in your country. (Indiscernible.)

PATRICK REED: It's hard to comment on that because I honestly haven't seen the news at all. It's such an awkward time zone for us. It's even hard for me to sit there and talk to the fam because I'm up practicing while they're sleeping, and when I get home I'm going to sleep when they're waking up.

I haven't seen really the news. Haven't really paid attention to anything that was going on on the media front while I've been here. But everything will work out.

Q. Next week you guys are going to be playing match play. Have the Four Aces started to discuss strategy, who's going to do alternate-shot, how you guys are going to team up, match up?

PATRICK REED: Well, I'm not going to give away what we're doing as a team, but I can tell you this much: We're all really excited and I can't wait for match play.

Q. I did a little research. Before the London event your World Ranking points --

PATRICK REED: I'm getting hammered.

Q. Today you're 56. My question is do you honestly think you're the 56th player in the world?

PATRICK REED: No, not at all. The only thing I'll say about all of that is the longer that you have competitive golf and competition with such great players and top players, the longer they're playing events that aren't getting World Ranking points, it just makes the World Ranking system insignificant. Let's be honest; it's not a true system if you're not counting all the events and having points for everybody. If you're competing for a golf tournament and they meet every criteria that you're supposed to meet in order to have World Ranking points, then they should be getting World Ranking points no matter what. It doesn't matter where you're playing, who you're playing, what Tour you're on, anything like that. If you're trying to say that we don't deserve World Ranking points, this and that, then it's a political battle, it's not an actual true system. Last time I checked, every sport you play, it's based off of competition and who you're playing, how strong that field is and who wins, and you're allocated certain things. It doesn't matter what tour you're playing on.