Q. Patrick, course conditions have changed a little bit from last week, obviously, plus it blew about 20 to 25. How difficult were the conditions out there and how good is that 1-under-par round?
PATRICK REED: Well, I'm actually very frustrated about the 1-under-par round, especially with the kind of start I had, being 4-under through 6, having a good look for birdie on 7 and not converting, and really I didn't really miss a golf shot on the first two on 9 and then I just kind of misjudged the wind and went up -- really there's only two spots you can't be, you can't miss it right in the water but you can't go long, and I hit it right down my line, misjudged the wind, it went long in that back bunker and you're dead, and I proved it and made double there. Yeah, it was close. I mean, it was close on the back nine, as well. Only had one or two loose swings on the back nine. Only one of them cost me, but it cost me big, cost me a double again.
I just need to clean up the big numbers. First one I felt like was more kind of distance control, and really besides that, I felt like it was really only one or two loose swings out there.
But the golf course is definitely playing tougher than last week, which is what you expect from you get faster and firmer greens, thicker rough, and then Mother Nature decided to play a role today and have it blow 25. Felt like almost 30 at some points. Downwind on some of the holes, you can just hit forever; the ball just won't stop.
Q. Even with how good the agronomy staff is here and Mr. Nicklaus and everything he does, are you still surprised in a few days it was able to go from what it was last week, the golf course, to what it is today?
PATRICK REED: Honestly, not really. I kind of could figure kind of how it was last week, seeing how much they were kind of watering, getting the greens softer. You never really had that thud sound that you normally have here last week, and so with having pretty dry conditions on Monday through Wednesday, you knew that they could double cut, start rolling greens and not watering as much or you're going to get it really firm really quickly. That part didn't surprise me as much as I would say the fairways. The fairways got really fast. Last week I felt like a lot of my tee shots were just kind of hitting and stopping, and today I get on 14, and Kess is over there saying I think it's a 4-iron, and I'm like, I like 5, just to make sure we keep it short of the hazard, and almost hit 5-iron in the hazard. You saw it bounce and roll 40 yards farther from where it landed.
I think that's the biggest adjustment was just kind of getting the ball to stay in the fairways rather than bouncing and just kind of bounding through a lot of them. You already knew the greens were going to be fast and firm.
Q. What was the biggest challenge with the wind today? Was it just knowing that it swirls a little bit or just judging some of the gusts?
PATRICK REED: I think that was the biggest thing for me today was the swirls. We're stepping up there -- 14 Kessler was halfway down the fairway when I was hitting my wedge shot into the green, and he's trying to see what the flag is doing because that flag was kind of -- it looked down off right, yet there's a flag over on the left on the grandstands that was going off left, and I'm throwing grass and it's hitting me right in the face, so you're just sitting there trying to figure out where that wind is and what it's actually doing because it's huge here on positioning. You can hit to eight feet on some holes but if you leave it in the wrong spot, if you don't make the putt you're going to have four feet coming back. I think that was the hardest thing. I felt like we managed it pretty well early on, and it bit me twice today, and both times it hurt me pretty bad.
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