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WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIPMay 3, 2012Patrick ReedCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome Patrick Reed. Patrick, you got it to 6‑under today. If you want to kind of talk about your round and then we'll have a few questions. PATRICK REED: Well, it was pretty‑‑ this round was all because of the confidence I've had for the past month that's gone on. I mean, to be able to get into the Valero, through sponsor exemption and then playing extremely solid there and then playing in a Monday qualifier and making it through to Louisiana and finishing 5‑under the last day on Sunday at a PGA TOUR event, it just gave me all the confidence in the world coming into today and also this week. Just with how I was hitting the ball and how I've been hitting the ball, I felt like I could really attack, especially with the driver off the tees. A lot of guys were hitting 3‑woods on holes and I was still taking driver. So I was just getting closer to the green and being able to keep it in play. I had a lot of wedges in my hands, and when I had that, I capitalized on it. Whenever you can do that you feel a lot more confident. Next thing you know, 6‑under and tied for the lead. MARK STEVENS: If you want to kind of go into detail on the sponsor pick at the Valero Texas Open and then you Monday qualified for the last two weeks. Tell everyone what that's been like traveling across the country and trying to get into fields. PATRICK REED: Well, my butt is getting flatter because there's been of a lot of driving and a lot less sleep, and it's just been very tiring. We had to go down, and unfortunately I didn't sign up for Athens, the Nationwide Monday, because I wanted to qualify for the Nationwide, so because of that I decided to go down to the Valero because I had a shot at getting a sponsor exemption. But that was all a last‑minute thing. I mean, that's basically what jump started this whole entire run. I played very well with the putter, hitting a lot of good lines, and watching how many dropped, I felt very confident after that. My fiancé came along for the ride in San Antonio and Louisiana, so we ended up getting in at 2:45 in the morning, had four hours of sleep, had to get up the next morning for the Monday, shot 4‑under and had to go into a playoff so we actually had to play 20 holes. I hit an 8‑iron to two feet to make birdie and to get a spot. Because of that, I played in Zurich, and on the last day I was playing really solid, and unfortunately I just wasn't capitalizing, wasn't making a lot of birdies. I went to the back nine and hit it on fire, five birdies in the last eight holes, and that gave me more confidence. My agents got me a flight out of there to get here, got here at midnight. We stayed in Greenville, so we had to drive an hour and 20 to the Monday qualifier. Q. What was the tee time? PATRICK REED: It was 12:45, so we had a little bit of time. But I mean, still, once you get off a flight and get everything settled, we just didn't really get a lot of good sleep. We went in there, and luckily she read the putt correctly on 18 because if she wouldn't‑‑ I thought it was breaking left and she said it was breaking right. I wasn't making a lot that day, so I went with her read and read it dead center, and here I am sitting here. If not I would have had an 11‑man playoff for three spots. Q. What did you shoot? PATRICK REED: 65. Going into today I felt very confident, hit a lot of great drives which set up for a lot of good opportunities to attack flags. Putter was working, and had a 66. Q. Your fiancé is your caddie? PATRICK REED: Yep. Q. Out here, too? PATRICK REED: Oh, yeah, fiancé is my caddie. I like it better that way. She's so positive and just with the whole thing, I get to spend time with her, and with her being so positive, just our team is amazing because if I hit a couple bad shots I'll start to get down on myself and she'll pick me right up immediately and won't allow me to self sabotage my round or any hole. Q. Right after you guys won the second NCAA title in succession, which would have been about June? PATRICK REED: June or July. I think June. Q. Last summer? PATRICK REED: Right, last summer. Yeah, turned professional and got a spot into St.Jude for my Tour debut. Q. Does your fiancé have a golf background? PATRICK REED: She played during high school and then when she went to college she actually went into nursing, RN, and health administration, so two bachelor's degrees. Q. Does she help you with course management? PATRICK REED: She does. She's amazing at reading greens. I wouldn't expect it, but she read the putt perfectly on 18 at the Zurich on Friday when I was at 2‑under, and we were looking at the board, the cut was going to be either 2‑ or 3‑under, and I was sitting at 2, she read a 12‑footer absolutely perfectly there. I couldn't really see it and the next thing you know I was able to play the weekend. Q. You're playing against the varsity this week absolutely. The fire power is all here. I'm wondering what this does for your confidence level. It's 18 holes and you played terrific and all, but still, you're tied for 1st on a leaderboard at a tournament right now that's got the heavyweights. PATRICK REED: It does. I mean, the confidence is definitely there, and I feel like the confidence has been building week after week just because I'm improving every day. First PGA TOUR event, finished 35th. Last week I finished 24th. But how I had to do it last week, I had to shoot 5‑under the last eight holes. So I mean, just the solid play has been going on and just solid play today. It just feels like if I keep working on my golf game, keep improving on my golf game, I can play out here. This tournament especially, just seems like the field has gotten better and better as the week has gone on. Last week I had Bubba, Luke, I had to deal with those guys. This week I have Tiger, Phil, Rory, Westwood. You're sitting here just like, okay, just week after week getting better. Can't wait until the next PGA TOUR event. Feels like I'm going to have 64 of the top 64 players are going to be there. So I mean, it's just building confidence and also just building my comfort level, able to see those guys and playing against those guys. Q. Are you tired at all? Are you running on adrenaline? PATRICK REED: We're basically running on adrenaline. We're pretty tired. Actually I'm not really getting to practice a lot after and before rounds here, trying to conserve energy because we've been running with our heads cut off it basically feels like for the past month. Just going to basically keep the mental and physical strength for whenever I'm actually playing on the course. Q. Before San Antonio were you playing any other Mondays or other Tour stuff? PATRICK REED: Actually I spent the beginning of this year working on my swing since I changed swing coaches, and things have been getting tighter with my swing. I just geared up when I had the Tour event to do the prequal for San Antonio, and then after that I was just going to go do the Nationwide. Those things fill up so quickly that unfortunately I wasn't able to do that. But at the same time it kind of feels like it's a blessing because now I'm out here on the PGA TOUR playing. Q. That was quite a bit of time off from competitive golf. PATRICK REED: It was. I actually played a charity event down in Trinidad and Tobago, like a charity pro‑am, and played very solid down there, and before that it was final stage of European Tour Q‑school. Q. When was the charity event? PATRICK REED: That was January 1st through 7th. Yeah, I've had a lot of breaks in between there, but I've put in a lot of good work on the golf swing and also my game just to fine tune it. Q. Did you have any status on the Challenge Tour? PATRICK REED: Yeah, I have conditional status, but we went‑‑ Q. It's a long way to go. PATRICK REED: Yeah. I felt like I'd rather stay here and play, I mean, because especially with how I feel like I've been playing and how I've been hitting the golf ball, I feel like there would be no reason why not to try to make it out here on the Nationwide or the PGA. Q. (Inaudible.) PATRICK REED: We'd definitely be taking more flights, but at the same time it would boost my confidence even more just to see myself improve. That's the whole thing we're trying to do, just improve week by week, and if I do that, then I'll be able to hopefully top 10 and be able to not have to do Monday qualifiers. That would be nice. Or hopefully get a sponsor's exemption so I wouldn't have to do Mondays. Just the whole goal of this year is just keep on steady and play steady golf. I feel like I can one of these days hopefully holding a trophy. Q. I'm sorry I haven't had time to look up the pedigree. Did you rack up a lot of credentials at Augusta State? PATRICK REED: Fortunately we were Division II so we don't have a conference. I had a lot of top 5s and top 10s. I had, I think, two wins, and then just 6 and 0 match play at NCAAs. I beat Peter Uihlein twice, beat Georgia the last round, beat Harris English to win the tournament. Q. Was it the last match? PATRICK REED: Last match, last ones on the golf course, it came down to our match because it was 2‑2, and I beat him on the 17th. Q. 2 & 1? PATRICK REED: Yeah‑‑ it would have been 3 & 1. Q. Have you seen him yet? PATRICK REED: I have. I've seen him a lot. It's a friendly rivalry. He's a good friend of mine, so a lot of the times that we'll see each other, there's a lot of small talk, saying hi, and if I'm ever around a couple of them, like if Brian Harman and him are around I'll give them a "go Augusta State" just to remind them. But unfortunately there hasn't been many times that it's happened. MARK STEVENS: Just for the record, can you give us the name of your fiancé? PATRICK REED: Justine Karain. MARK STEVENS: Thanks for your time, and good luck the rest of the week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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