Patrick Reed On His Meticulous US Open Prep + Why He Hates Making 5s

Patrick Reed On His Meticulous US Open Prep + Why He Hates Making 5s
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The Masters champion arrived at Shinnecock Hills last Sunday and even played in a members tournament

Patrick Reed On His Meticulous US Open Prep + Why He Hates Making 5s

Masters Champion Patrick Reed has come into this week's US Open slightly under the radar, with the likes of Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose et al most fancied this week at Shinnecock Hills.

Reed's preparation for The Masters was quite remarkable, and when you look at it you realise just how deserving a champion he was.

He spent 16 hours on the golf course at Augusta before the tournament week had even started and hit around 3000 putts in one day according to his coach.

Has the Texan prepared the same way for the US Open? Quite possibly.

In his pre-tournament presser today, the Masters champion revealed that he got to Shinnecock last Sunday... 12 days before the tournament. He has played every day barring Saturday and even teed it up in a members competition.

"I got here Sunday night. Last Sunday, right after Memorial. And I played in the member tournament on Monday, and I played every day except for Saturday. I took Saturday off and, you know, just been out here grinding, enjoying the area, and just having some fun," he said.

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Asked why he got there so early? Logistics.

"Really, the biggest thing was, you know, we were going to come up right after Memorial anyways to play and probably go back Wednesday. But then our team sat down and realized, well, that's a lot of flying to fly Wednesday all the way back to Houston, then turn around and fly all the way back, you know, a couple days later.

"So we decided to stay. We flew up the family, and, I mean, I basically prepared the same exact way I would at home, but instead here. And it's always nice to get a couple more rounds on a golf course you haven't seen before."

Reed spoke on a number of topics such as his hunger to win more majors, how he gets recognised in the streets of Houston whilst wearing his everyday clothes and why he still hasn't signed an equipment contract.

"Really, for us, we felt like all the companies make absolutely -- make great equipment," said Reed.

"But to get all the -- all 14 clubs and a ball to match up perfectly with a player is very hard to do. I mean, there's always something in your golf bag that you feel like might be better with a different piece of equipment than others.

"Being able to sign with Nike and join the Nike team, it allowed me to free myself up to really fine tune and figure out what I feel like is the best equipment and is going to allow me to go out and play the best golf. Before that, I was able to mix and match and find what I felt like is going to allow me to consistently play better golf, day in and day out."

Reed was also asked on whether the two par-5s at Shinnecock, both long in length, would play as proper par-5s where players would be happy with par.

He wasn't having any of it.

"I don't like any 5s on the scorecard, whether it's a par 4, par 5. I mean, I try to make 4 or 3 or even 2 on every hole.

"So, you know, to me, it's not -- I mean, when it's a par 5, it just means I have one more shot I can hit in order to make a birdie. And, you know, I've always been -- I've always been, you know, wired to be aggressive, to play par 5s, to treat them as par 4s and try to go make par that way or a birdie on a par 4.

"So I try to stay as aggressive as possible."

"I do not like 5s on par 5s," he reiterated.

Patrick Reed gets his US Open underway at 12.51pm with fellow Masters winners Zach Johnson and Charl Schwartzel.

For all the latest US Open news, check the Golf Monthly website and follow our social media channels

Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV