PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 16, 2026

Patrick Reed

Aronimink Golf Club

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Patrick Reed is with us now at the 108th PGA Championship. Patrick, to start, your thoughts on your third round today.

PATRICK REED: A lot better than yesterday. No, I mean, it was steady. Got off to a decent start. Feel like I drove the ball, even, though, numbers-wise, I don't know what the numbers were like on fairways hit, but I feel like I drove the ball better than yesterday. Because of that, I was able to attack a little bit more, and you know, for the most part, missed in the correct spots where I still had opportunity to attack the hole and kind of get up-and-down and save par.

I think that was the biggest thing today compared to yesterday is I was able to kind of keep the momentum by making the pars on certain holes and at the same time capitalizing on most of the birdie opportunities that I had.

Q. The fact that nobody can really get away here, and it's been like this since the beginning, does it tell you that this good? I mean, good for you and good for the competition, no?

PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure. It definitely helps me out. I mean, we don't want someone getting too far out ahead. I feel like this is one of those golf courses that, yeah, you might see a 5, maybe a 4, or maybe a 6-under par round, but this golf course is challenging enough. The greens are so severe and so fast that, even when you hit them close, you have to putt defensive. When that happens, it's just hard to make a ton of putts.

Really, with where the pin locations are, even with it playing hotter today, so the ball's going farther, it's still hard to get every iron shot close. I mean, the greens are firm enough that you're just not able to spin them quite as much, so the ball's bouncing, and you're trying to use ridges to get the ball to the hole. So you're going to have a lot of 15, 20-footers, 25-footers. When that happens, just the percentage of makes go way down.

Yeah, it's a great test. Hopefully the lead doesn't get too far out there because, when it's a congested Sunday, not always great for the competitor, but it's great for fans.

Q. Chris Gotterup talked yesterday about how the wind brings out some more creativity in his game, having to flight shots and shape shots. Is there something you particularly focus on when you're playing in conditions where it's 10, 15, gusting over 20?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, definitely, when it's windy, you have to learn how to flight the ball, but also sometimes hit it high to try to hold something or work the ball into the wind.

No, I feel like whenever it's windy like that, especially when you have greens like this, you have to be creative. You have to play golf. You can't sit there and focus on technique and be a robot. It just doesn't work when you have conditions and greens like this, because there's so many ways to kind of get the ball close to the hole, but a lot of times working it in the slopes or trying to bounce stuff up or things like that around here seems to be a little bit better than trying to fly it to the hole, just because they're so firm, the ball's just going to bounce, and you're always going to be above the hole all day.

Q. You were right up near the lead at the Masters after a few days, didn't go your way exactly on the final. Just wondering what you've been able to take from that or what you feel like you need to do differently tomorrow that didn't go your way at Augusta?

PATRICK REED: Well, at Augusta, I think the long -- it felt like the longest putt I made was about six inches on the weekend. I made nothing on the weekend. So really felt like I was hitting some great putts there, felt like my speed was actually really well on the weekend. It was just kind of one of those things, the ball just didn't go in the hole.

What I really took from that is I felt like I was doing what I needed to do. I was hitting the ball well. I was hitting a lot of good iron shots and hitting a lot of quality putts. Really, I take a lot of positives from Augusta.

Really, coming into this week, the game feels solid. Yesterday I felt like it just wasn't that great, but you're always going to have one of those days. Hopefully I got that out of the way, and I felt like today was a lot better. Hopefully tomorrow we can get off to a quicker start.

Q. Maybe it's just recency bias, but in the last couple hours we've seen a lot of short missed putts. On this course in particular, is that -- can you be susceptible to that with some of these locations?

PATRICK REED: The pin locations are difficult. There's a lot of just slopes near the flags, a lot of change of direction near the holes. At the same time, I mean, it's sunny. It's been windy for three days. It's getting crusty out there. The greens are getting faster and faster.

It's just one of those, when you have slopey, fast greens and you also add wind on top of it, if you're 15 feet away, you're playing 2 feet of break. Then all of a sudden you get to 4 feet, 5 feet, and now you're sitting there going, okay, is this where it changed back? So is this a little flat, or is this going to keep snapping?

Just it makes it a little bit more challenging, but at the same time, the good thing is I'm not the only one that's been struggling with it.

These greens are tricky, but at the same time, if you hit a quality golf shot, really the biggest thing is, if you leave yourself below the hole, you're going to be able to attack it. But it's not fun having those 5, 6, 7-footers above the hole all day.

Q. A lot of our discourse is trying to understand this place. Does it play like a different major championship course in the past? Some people are saying that these are pins like Shinnecock, but it's a course that sets up like something different. Does it remind you of anything, or is it a completely unique test?

PATRICK REED: Oh, man. The thing is I don't see Shinnecock in it at all. Yeah, you see the slopes on the greens. You see slopes at Shinnecock. But there are so many flags this week that are either right on a crown or right in a valley where the ball -- I mean, just if the ball's two feet from the hole, it could go a complete different direction, or it could go from straight uphill to downhill. It makes it so hard on putting.

I mean, the rough -- the rough is almost -- I mean, I can't really say a U.S. Open. I mean, it's close. I've had a couple lies I've stood there and I can only advance 50, 60 yards. But then you get some that sit up.

It's just different. I mean, I think that's the easiest way. It's a different challenge, and that's the cool thing about it is it's on its own.

But the great thing about all the golf courses we play, no matter where it is, whatever major championship we're playing, if you're hitting the ball well and you're putting well, you're going to be able to handle anything. We're the best players in the world, so when they throw a really hard challenge at us, that's when the top players are going to show up.