THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome to LIV Golf Dallas media center our second-round leader, Patrick Reed of 4Aces GC. You shot a 4-under 68 today. You have a three-shot lead entering tomorrow's final round. This is your first 36-hole lead on LIV Golf. What's your mindset as you chase your first LIV win?
PATRICK REED: Really the mindset is the same as it's been all week, just go out, feel like everyone is starting at even par and try to win the day. I think the biggest thing for me is I feel like the golf game feels pretty solid. Everything seems to be tight and where I want it to be. The biggest thing is going out there and not trying to press, not trying to force anything and really just go out and try to win the day as if it's a Monday qualifier.
Q. We talked about this yesterday in terms of you win tomorrow this would be your first professional win in Texas. It would be a pretty special victory for you, wouldn't it?
PATRICK REED: Yeah. To get my first LIV victory as well as doing it in my home state would mean a lot. But really, at the end of the day, instead of trying to focus on what happens on the 54th hole, it's stay in the moment, stay in the present. Like I've done on most of the tournaments whenever I've had success and I've won, I don't think ahead, I just think about what I'm trying to do right then and there because golf is a funny game; you start thinking forward, it seems to not work. You start thinking behind you, that doesn't work either. You have to stay very present.
Golf is such a mental game at this point that you need to make sure you're thinking correctly and focusing on every golf shot.
Q. There's a lot of shot makers atop the leaderboard. It's a 7500-yard course. What is it about Maridoe that favors you guys?
PATRICK REED: Well, I think you have to play with what the golf course and that shot gives you. You can't just hit draws on every hole, can't hit fades on every hole. You have to work the ball and use ridges, use slopes to get the ball close. The greens are just firm enough and it's just windy enough that you can't just hit a draw to every one or a fade. You have to start using the big access to the greens. That's what makes this place unique, that's what makes this place challenging that you can't just aim and shoot. You have to start really thinking your way around this place.
Q. The Aces also have the team lead. You guys came into this week with three podium finishes in the last five starts. A couple of new faces, obviously, from that first year, but do you feel like the Aces are getting back to that 2022 form?
PATRICK REED: I feel like it. I feel like the guys are starting to take care of business, play some solid golf and really it's one of those things that you have to go out and play well as a team. Every guy when you count four scores has to play well and we haven't had that yet this season. We'll have certain guys play well one week and then next week it won't be.
I feel like we're all motivated at this back part of the year to get going and getting back on top where we belong. This would be a good start.
Q. On the 13th hole you had a wayward drive and an indifferent second, so you found yourself having to get up-and-down from 70 yards from a fairway bunker. That shot kept you in the round and kept things going in the right direction. Talk about that shot.
PATRICK REED: Yeah, I hit a poor tee shot there and ended up having a really bad lie. I just hit pitching wedge. I opened the face of my pitching wedge just trying to get it out of the rough and the lie wouldn't allow it. I made a mess of the first three golf shots, ended up in that fairway bunker, and the funny thing is during the pro-am I had that exact bunker shot but from like 100 yards. These bunkers are good enough where the ball sits up on top so you get a clean lie, you just have to pick it really cleanly and I was lucky enough to not only make solid contact there but to hit my number.
I felt like that definitely kept me in the round, kept me going. Especially after birdieing the previous hole, the last thing I wanted to go was go to a par-5 and make bogey. Those are the kind of momentum swings that you have to stay focused on the present because it would have been very easy to look back at the drive and then the second and the third that clipped the tree and kind of just sit there and be upset about the hole rather than staying focused on that bunker shot.
Those 50- to 70-yard bunker shots aren't fun. I don't care where you are, they're so hard. To have two of them today and get one of them up-and-down and make par with, those are crucial parts of the round that allow you to move forward and go on to the next hole.
Q. As a native of Texas, being from here, what is it like being in the heat? Do you feel like you have some sort of advantage being used to it?
PATRICK REED: I mean, it's hot. It's hard to get used to it. We got lucky this week even with how hot it is. We got lucky that there is a breeze and it's windy. Last week when I was in Houston back at home, it was just as hot if not a little hotter and more humid and there was no wind. I don't know why it does that in Houston. Got used to the heat, was getting a little bit comfortable with it, but at the end of the day, when it's hot, it's hot. It's hard to really get that used to it.
You just have to really try to stay focused because it's very easy to start getting your mind wandering rather than focusing on what you're trying to do when it's this hot outside.
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