	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WGC MEXICO CHAMPIONSHIP

February 21, 2020

Patrick Reed

Mexico City, Mexico

Q. Patrick, when you're on a roll, what's going on in your mind?
PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing for me was just get the ball on the green. It seemed like the putter was working, especially early on. It felt like I was hitting the ball solid, and even though I didn't birdie 1 and 2, I had great looks. I felt like I put a perfect roll on, and to get the first one to drop on the 3rd hole, after that I just knew that the putter is working, just give it opportunities. On a golf course like this, you get the ball in play off the tee, you're able to kind of attack with irons, you're going to have a lot of looks.

Q. Nine birdies on the card, tied for the most in your career on the PGA TOUR. Let's go to your tee shot at 3. What did you see here?
PATRICK REED: This was a perfect 90 percent pitching wedge for me, and with a front left flag, it was a nice little draw in there for me, so it was kind of a green-light special.

Q. Now your birdie putt at 4.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, I had the putt in the past, I knew it was dead straight even though it looked like it went to the right. I just trusted it and looked in the middle of the hole and got it started on the right line.

Q. Are these the kind of greens you need a couple of years to look at to get used to?
PATRICK REED: I think so, for sure, because what you see is not what you always get here because of how high we are and because of the cut of the hole, which always changes.

Q. Here's another one at 6.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, this one was big. I hit a poor tee shot on 5 and was able to hit a good wedge shot in there, and Kessler told me to read a little break in that one, and it went right in the heart.

Q. Now the other side of the golf course, here's a long one at 11. You're smiling.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, that bunker left on 11, not the ones by our hole, by the other green, I consistently hit into it, and of course I hit in there today and got it out and was able to get up-and-down.

Q. How about your second one here at .12?
PATRICK REED: I pulled it a little bit. I thought Sungjae's ball was not in our way, and us being on the clock, I went ahead and hit, and luckily I was able to make this putt because if it doesn't hit his ball it's in there really tight. It was another putt that was just kind of straight up the hill, and I was able to get it on line.

Q. Let's finish it out here, moving on to the rest of the golf course, here at 17, what did you think of this?
PATRICK REED: I knew this putt didn't break as much as it was supposed to, and just kind of one of those other ones that was playing -- the more I've played this golf course I knew was definitely just right outside the hole, and it was two feet short. I was worried that it wasn't going to get there, and seeing it go in the front edge definitely gave me the spark I needed.

Q. How are you able to compartmentalize, block out the noise from outside the ropes and compete like this against the best players in the world?
PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing for me is I just work so hard at it. My team and I work really hard, and I'm not going to lie, just the whole thing on the outside distracts us from our ultimate goal, and that's to go out and play great golf and continue to try to improve every day on and off the golf course. As long as you're doing that, then you're living the right way. So at the end of the day, you can't please everybody, and I feel like I'm doing everything I need to be doing to continue to strive in the game of golf hopefully on and off the golf course.

Q. What are the secrets to these greens?
PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing, any time you're putting on poa is good speed. You know, the hard thing about these greens is as the day goes on they get more bumpy and bumpy, and the only thing you can do is put the right roll on it, the lines you see, and as long as you have good speed hopefully you can use the entire hole because you're going to hit some good putts that are going to miss, and you're going to hit some bad putts that are going to go the right way. The last thing you want is to keep giving yourself three-, four-footers coming back to two-putt.

Q. Would you call this golf course quirky?
PATRICK REED: Not really. Well, that's a hard one. I don't think from tee to green it's really that quirky. I think on the greens you need to have a little bit of local knowledge because there's a lot of putts out there that look like they go one way and they could go the opposite. I think it's just kind of one of those golf courses you need to get to play a little bit more, and it's more kind of green related rather than anything off the tee because there's a lot of holes -- there's two ways to play every single hole, a very aggressive way or you can hit driver and cut corners or it's to lay-up to a number that you like. But besides that, it doesn't seem like you hit quality golf shots down the fairway they're going to miss fairways or hit quality shots on the greens they're just going to kind of roll off greens. I feel like from tee to green it's really fair, and on the greens you just need to have a bit of local knowledge.

Q. How excited are you about this weekend?
PATRICK REED: Oh, I can't wait. Any time you come to an event like this or really any event and you get yourself into contention going into the weekend, it's always fun. It just kind of gets you going, and just continue hopefully the solid play and give ourselves a chance late Sunday.

It was definitely a great day on the greens. I felt like yesterday I hit a lot of quality putts and had a lot of burned edges, and today I felt like the difference was I left myself in the right spot, and I just went with my first read. Kessler and I, we agreed to go with our first read. We didn't second-guess or anything like that, and the one time we did second-guess it was on 8, and we happened to miss. It was one of those things when you get on greens like this, it's very easy, especially on poa, when they get bumpy to second-guess with the greens, to be like, is it that much or is it a little less. We just decided to be really firm with our reads today, and when you're really sure about where you want to start that golf ball, it's very easy to hit the right speed, and that's the biggest thing out here is not leaving yourself three- and four-footers for par.

Q. Talk to me about the up-and-down at 16, how big that was for your momentum to carry through to have a chance at the course record.
PATRICK REED: It was huge. I didn't really know where the course record was, and honestly it wasn't really on my mind. The biggest thing was just to continue the momentum from making some quality birdies there on 15 and 14 and to just kind of continue the momentum going forward because I was disappointed with the way I finished yesterday with bogey on the last, and so today to be able to make that putt on 16 and then to make the one on 17 just allowed me to carry the momentum going into the weekend.

Q. How do you do that? They always say it's tough to back up a great round of golf.
PATRICK REED: Well, that's the thing; tomorrow is a new day. The biggest thing is just to go home tonight and grab dinner, kind of just reset. Tomorrow is a new day. You don't even think about what happened today going into tomorrow, and you just kind of move on and go out and continue making quality golf swings and continue making good putts because these are the type of greens when you get on poa they get bumpy in the afternoon where you're going to hit some good putts that are going to go in and you're going to hit some good putts that are going to miss, and you're going to hit some bad putts that are going to go in. You've just got to roll with the punches and keep on going and not let anything bother you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297