THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome our hometown hero, Mr. Patrick Reed, from 4Aces GC. You shot an awesome 5-under today. Tell us a little bit about your round.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, it was a steady day out there. Felt like I did what I had to do today. But still felt like I left some shots out there. It's always nice to birdie the last hole to carry that momentum into tomorrow.
Q. You're obviously from Houston; are you used to this weather because that's all anyone is talking about is this brutal 100-degree day. How did you manage out there?
PATRICK REED: It doesn't look like I'm used to it, but I'm definitely used to it. You expect it during the summer here to be hot and humid, and the great thing about Houston is the winters are nice. As a golfer, it's a great place to be able to train and practice, especially towards the off-season, and this time of year we're always used to traveling, and when we're home we're grinding away early in the morning because you know how hot it can get.
Q. On the first tee you had a little cheering squad over there. Did you feel the support from the Houston fans today?
PATRICK REED: It was amazing. It was amazing seeing all our family and friends and all the support coming back out from Houston. It definitely gave me a lot of energy today to go out there and go shoot a number for them and play well and hopefully go out this weekend and continue that momentum going in, and who knows late Sunday have a chance to stand on the podium and get a W.
Q. Patrick, there were 41 guys under par today. Did you feel like that's the way this course was going to play this week?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, you know, I'd say Monday and Tuesday around here the wind was kind of picking up. It was blowing a little bit. When the wind dies around here, especially when it's this hot, we're going to be able to shoot a number. We're going to be able to attack this golf course. It's one of those that when the wind is down, you've got to be able to take advantage of it. It looked like when I looked at that leaderboard that a lot of guys did.
You expect guys to go out and shoot low numbers. Ball is traveling a long way. So the golf course is going to play a little shorter that way.
Because of that, we're able to kind of attack with shorter irons. But this golf course, you can't fall asleep on it. It can bite you pretty quickly. As long as you're hitting some quality golf shots, you can really take advantage of it.
Q. You guys were in here the other day and you talked about hitting the reset button to a certain degree. Individually did you feel like there was something to kind of hit the reset button for, too?
PATRICK REED: For sure. It was one of those things that earlier this year I felt like the scores weren't reflecting a lot of things I was doing. I felt like there was a couple things I needed to work on, but as a whole I felt like I was playing better than I was scoring.
I knew halfway through the season with this back half and starting at home, it's one of those, it's like, let's reset, let's start the second half and go out and start fresh. I felt like I got off to a good start today. Still a couple things I could have cleaned up today throughout the round, but as a whole to go out and shoot 5-under par around any golf course is always solid, especially getting off to that start.
Hopefully we can carry that into tomorrow, clean up a couple things and go real low.
Q. I'm curious, how many times have you held up a trophy here in Houston?
PATRICK REED: In Houston? Never.
Q. At any point, at any tournament, any pro-am --
PATRICK REED: I held a couple of junior trophies and amateur trophies, but as a professional, we always played the Shell Houston Open, and never won the Shell but played pretty well here in the past. Just trying to take those vibes coming into this week, and feel like it worked off today, and why not hoist a trophy at the end of this week. It would be my first in Houston.
Q. What do you think it would be like to hold up a trophy Sunday night?
PATRICK REED: It would be unbelievable. It's amazing holding any trophy, but to be able to do it in your hometown in front of all your family and friends would be amazing.
Definitely would kick off the second half of the season the right way, so hopefully we can go out and do what we're supposed to do the next two days and have a chance late Sunday.
Q. You said you were more energetic than apprehensive going into this weekend, and you showed it your first few holes. Do you feel like that energy can continue? Can you sustain that energy throughout the rest of the tournament?
PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure. It's hot, obviously. It's going to drain some energy. But at the same time, this is home. I'm used to it, and the energy that all the hometown fans bring, you just feed off of that. I feel like the game is in a really good place, so my confidence level is up, and energy level is high, and we're ready to go. We're ready for the weekend, ready to get rolling.
Q. Speaking of the weather, being from Houston, it's hot. You still have to prepare for that. Does that take anything away from anything? Preparing for that heat, does it do anything to you?
PATRICK REED: No, I'm so used to practicing here and used to playing in this type of heat that for me you just have to stay on top of your hydration and your rest. You leave everything out on the golf course when you're out here, so then it's crucial once the round is done to get back up on the hydration, recover as fast as you can, just get ready for tomorrow.
I think that's the great thing about LIV is we all start at the same time, so we all have the exact same amount of time for recovery, have the exact amount of time that we can spend off the golf course.
It gives everybody the opportunity to go out and start the same way. It just depends on who does the right way and who doesn't.
Q. How many friends and family are here?
PATRICK REED: There are a lot. There are so many. Thank God for my wife. She was dealing with tickets all week and has allowed me to just go out there and play golf. It was amazing stepping up on that first tee and throughout that golf course and seeing all the family and friends out there supporting, especially in this heat. For them to come out -- it's hot. For them to still come out and show that support just means a lot, to me, to my family, and mostly everyone that we know.
Q. Can you walk us through the iron shot at 18? And the activation on Wednesday with Austin and Friends, how cool was it for the 4Aces to be a part of that?
PATRICK REED: We'll start with the second one because that's more important than the first question. To spend time with your son and all those kids was unbelievable. It was so much fun for us as a team but also me individually to spend more time with you and your family was unbelievable. Just to show them what it's like to be out here is awesome.
To sit there and just see how happy they are and how excited they are just about life and just being somewhere is unbelievable. It puts life in perspective for us.
It was awesome. It was one of the best hours of the week, and definitely will be the highlight of the week for sure.
No, actually that last shot on 18, we've been hitting a couple shots left this week, today, and Kess was sitting there and telling me, hey, what do you think about hitting a fade with iron shot. I'm sitting there going, wait, you're supposed to hit a fade to that right pin, and we stepped up and hit a good one there on 17 with a fade 5 and I got up on 18 and hit 7-iron and started it right where it finished. Started right there, trying to hit the fade back there, held it into the wind a little bit and ended up in a perfect spot.
It was nice to be able to hit the tee shot and take that on and hit the draw and then turn around and hit it the other way. You know how much I've been working on that one. To be able to pull it off and hit it perfectly pin high and have a good look at birdie is nice, especially to cap that off.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports