HERO DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

January 29, 2023

Patrick Reed

Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. 11-under for the tournament, positioned nicely. How do you summarise your day?

PATRICK REED: A little frustrating. Felt like I actually hit the ball a little better today. Had one loose swing there on 8 that made me take an unplayable.

But then I got on 17, I felt like I hit a perfect drive, looking at the line I was looking at. If anything, I was hoping it might have been a hair more right. I hit it so solid, might just go through, next thing you know, we find it in the palm tree.

It was an unfortunate break there, but at the end of the day, I felt like I rebounded really well. Whenever I got in trouble there, made double on 8 and bounced back with two birdies and same thing there on 17. I bogeyed 17 and bounced back on the last paragraph par I just need to tighten it up a little bit and just make a couple more putts. But the good thing is I played the par 5s a little better today.

Q. Can you take us through 17? Have you ever been stuck up a tree before?

PATRICK REED: The only other time I've ever been in a tree was in Malaysia. Actually there's a picture of Sergio and I underneath Kessler. He's up literally in the palm tree looking at my golf ball. You know what, I hit that tee shot, I didn't even see those palms. I felt like it was on a good line, just left of the green and I guess I just need to be a little more right or a little higher.

You know, it's an unfortunate break, but at the same time I hit the line solid. I hit it right down the line I was looking. That's all you're going to ask for. You're going to get bad breaks once in a while. You just have to bounce back from them.

Q. Admittedly you don't know the golf course super well. Do you think you can switch that into a positive, because sometimes when you know a venue well, you can get quite complacent.

PATRICK REED: Definitely, buts did at the same time this golf course, with how the rough is, there really is no complacency out there. Every guy, even if you've played here a thousand times, you know how brutal it is.

It's a demanding golf course. You have to hit the tee shot straight, or if you miss it, miss it in the correct spots but you still have shots because every hole out there here, there's not a two-way miss that you have. You have to miss it on one side of the fairway or the other. You can't just blast it over where.

As long as you -- even if you're not hitting fairways, you can miss them in the right spots and take advantage of this golf course, especially with all that rain we got earlier, it's still a little bit soft. So even in the rough, you can still hold the greens.