MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 12, 2024

Patrick Reed

Quick Quotes

Q. How good was that second round today in these conditions?

PATRICK REED: I mean, it was just steady. I think the biggest thing is you're going to hit some golf shots out of position, especially with the wind blowing this hard. You're going to get yourself out, so you have to kind of lean on your short game, lean on your putting. I was able to do that.

I felt like I left a couple of shots out there, but as a whole, I made some incredible saves today. I felt like -- honestly, I felt like I was hitting the ball and played better yesterday compared to this morning where I came out and just kind of -- yeah, I don't know what happened to that little 45-minute spread I had there.

But that's what happens. You come out here, you get a little loose, you get yourself in trouble, and got to hit the good chips and make the putts. I feel like I was able to do that, and got myself in a good rhythm there at the beginning of the round, especially around that 2 through -- even though I bogeyed 6, that stretch I hit it great. I hit the iron shot exactly how I wanted to on 6 and tried to get cute on the chip and ended up making bogey there.

But a little bounce-back by making a bunker shot on 7, and it just felt like it was one of those days. You had to grind out there. You had to try to figure out and pick your poisons on what you wanted to attack, when you wanted to try to play safe.

I felt like that's one thing Kess and I did a lot better today is we managed that a lot better. A couple holes where I would normally would hit driver I didn't today, and even though I left myself a little farther back I made sure because of how the wind was blowing that I put myself in a position that I could still attack the green.

Q. How good were you feeling after yesterday's round and then you come this morning and it's a shock to the system?

PATRICK REED: Definitely a shock to the system. It was a gut punch for sure. But no, I was feeling good after yesterday morning. I hit the ball well, missed a couple putts I felt like I should have made. Biggest thing yesterday was I kept leaving myself above the hole. I kept telling myself every time I come in here, like hey -- 15 feet below the hole is better than eight feet above the hole, and I felt like I was eight feet above the hole all day.

When I came back out this morning and felt like the warmup was good, I just started there on 15, I was just in the left rough, had like 65 yards out of the rough there and made par there and made a poor swing on 16. That bottom left pin, I was on the right. I was up top. Unless you're making an eight- to ten-footer you're not going to make par there, and I missed the second putt.

17, one night 17 on this golf course is going to disappear, and I'm going to be the one that does it, because that hole, I hit a perfect drive this morning, hit the iron shot exactly how I wanted to, and I was closer to 18 tee box than I was 17 green.

Those things are what drive me nuts is hitting quality golf shots and walking off with bogey.

18 is just kind of like all -- moral of the story last week, just catching some bad breaks. Ended up in whatever that big-leafed tree is on the corner, ended up like in the tree. I was at the base and there's a spot that fits a perfect-sized golf ball, and my ball was in it.

I had to take an unplayable. I had to drop so far back because two clubs wouldn't have got me anywhere. I had to drop so far back, I had to hit 3-wood, then had to hit left of the green and easy double there.

I mean, bad break there, felt like I played 17 exactly how I wanted to and the iron shot that I felt like I didn't hit that great on 16, and it's a quick 4-over par.

The only thing I could say, Kess told me, hey, you're doing a lot of things really well, you did a lot of really good things yesterday. Let's go hit like 10 golf balls for the 15, 20 minutes I had and let's reset the system and you'll be fine.

Started off again on 1 and hit driver there and hit 5-iron and flagged it and ended up a yard short coming down the hill. But it felt good to hit two really quality golf shots, especially after what happened right before. I felt like that really jump started me to kind of go out and be a little -- try to put a little bit of pedal down today, this afternoon. Just with how hard the wind was blowing, it felt hard to go out there and shoot really low.

Q. How much time did you have in between after you walked off 18?

PATRICK REED: I think it was like 35 or 36 minutes or something like that.

Q. Is that better to have a quick turnaround after --

PATRICK REED: If you're playing really well, yeah. Yeah. If you're cruising, of course you just kind of roll right into it. It definitely woke me up. After getting back from the shuttle and figuring out -- getting the whole family and stuff, getting in the car, by the time I got home, ate, everything got settled and after taking a shower, it was 11:00. That 4:50 a.m. wake-up call is early.

When you start the way I did, you go from thinking you're a little tired to wide awake. I mean, it's kind of one of those. You'd like to get out there, obviously, after kind of a finish like that and try to hit a couple quality golf shots and forget about it, so I think that helped. But also at the same time I feel like I've been doing a lot of things really well and hitting the ball solid, so it's like, all right, let's leave those three holes as a fluke and let's get it back. I was able to do that and really just didn't get back as far under par as I wanted to overall and on the day, but I was able to climb back into a position that I feel like I can deal with and live with.

If the wind stays how it is, I don't know how low they'll be able to get to, but 4-under, double digits, I don't know what the weather is supposed to be like tomorrow, but if it's blowing and I'm going off in the morning, you just never know.

Q. Are you still feeling confident you can make a run?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, obviously you'd feel a lot more confident if you were a couple under par, but I think now I'm just kind of at the mercy of seeing where those guys are. But at the same time, we are at Augusta National. Anything can happen. I've been here before where you feel like you're out of it, and then the next thing you know you get hot, make some birdies. Those guys make a couple mistakes.

Look, I was cruising, and all of a sudden I come back out and I was 4-over in three holes. It can happen. You just never know. If that happens early in a round, kind of shakes them up, you just never know. It's one of those things.

I feel like we're hitting the ball well enough and I'm playing well enough that I can make a run, and I think that's all that really matters. As long as I believe I can make the run and have a chance, then who knows what's going on this weekend.

Q. Conditions like this, you were saying -- how much does experience count?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, it's one of those things you just have to believe in what you're doing. Even if you're wrong on the wind or club or whatever, you have to have full confidence in it, and I feel like that's something that Kess and I have made sure we did all day today is that no matter what we were doing, whether it was what we were hitting off the tee, what shot we were hitting, just full commit, and if you're going to go down, go down swinging. I think that's the biggest thing. It's very easy to get guidey when it gets windy like this, especially around a golf course like this, and when that happens, Augusta National just absolutely will destroy you.

I feel like that's the thing; we went down and we committed to every single golf shot throughout day, and I felt like I had to, especially after that finish yesterday. Well, this morning.