DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome Patrick Reed to the virtual press room at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.

Patrick, as always, we appreciate you taking a few minutes for us. Making your second start here in the event. If we could just get a couple comments on what you've seen of the course and how you're feeling about being back here this year.

PATRICK REED: The golf course is amazing. It's in immaculate shape. Back in '17 when I was here I thought the golf course was in really good shape as well, but they say it's the best it's ever been.

It's always nice to come back to Mexico and play down here. The fans are always really excited and really get behind sports and get into us coming down and playing. So I'm excited for the week. I feel like I'm playing some solid golf and really just looking forward to the week getting started and getting ready to hit the ground running tomorrow.

DOUG MILNE: And speaking of the solid golf, I talked to you briefly yesterday about your finish last week in Bermuda. If you could, just kind of talk us through that final round, and obviously you're certainly capable of those numbers, but where that round came from. And did something kind of connect or click for you to result in the tie for second?

PATRICK REED: Really, I felt like that round was there all along. It was more ever since I've been back from being sick, I just have not been in I guess playing mode. When I'm on the golf course, it just seems to have a couple mental mistakes that I had to kind of get through that I normally don't make when you're out there consistently playing. That's really the big reason why I've kind of gone on a run of playing now is to get back in that groove of playing golf and not playing golf swing. It was only a matter of time. I was hitting a lot of quality golf shots throughout the weeks, it was either a putt here or there that doesn't go in that keeps momentum or a crucial up-and-down that you don't get to keep that momentum.

There seemed to be too much of that going on earlier this year and now I feel like we're back to how we're supposed to be playing and really the rhythm I need to be, which is kind of go more on offense, focus more on going out and making a bunch of birdies rather than going out there and trying to figure out a golf swing.

DOUG MILNE: I always like the way you reference "we" when you talk about Patrick Reed. That leads me to the question to how the family is, how everybody at home is, and anything new and exciting going on there?

PATRICK REED: The family's great. They're missed all the time now with Windsor and Barrett both being in school so they can't travel quite as much, but it's always awesome being able to go home.

I was able to go home Sunday night after Bermuda, go home, see the kids and hang out with them and hang out with Justine. Being able to have those, just even if it's one day where you stop in, those days to being with family is unbelievable. The family's doing awesome. Can't wait to hopefully play well here, have a chance to win on Sunday and go home, and next week being a home week, being able to spend the whole week with the fam.

DOUG MILNE: Just one last question for me and we have a couple quick ones from some of our media folks. What is your schedule? You mentioned next week. What's your schedule like kind of the rest of the year and into 2022?

PATRICK REED: So obviously here and next week at Houston, and then after that we're definitely playing Hero and trying to figure out whether I'm going to play RSM or not. That's kind of up in the air at this point.

If I stay inside the top-50 on the Race to Dubai, I'll probably head over there and play in Dubai. Really, after next week it's a little fluid. We have a bunch of different avenues we could play, or might stay home and have some time with the family and work on some things. I've seen these past couple weeks, it just really all depends.

Q. Patrick, I'm writing about the evolution of golf and golfers. I would like to ask you what you think about the way the introduction of new technological tools has changed the landscape of professional golf.

PATRICK REED: Yeah, I think the evolution that golf has, it's been a major shift with every decade. You see guys getting bigger, strong, faster, balls going farther. Technology's getting better, so faces are getting larger. If you mis-hit a drive nowadays, with the technology, you don't have as great of a miss left or right as you would back, say, 20 years ago when they used tour balatas and smaller headed drivers.

So I think technology is actually helping the game not only as athletes, but also to really fine tune everything. You have devices now, a TrackMan, Quads, Foresight and Flightscopes, things like that that tell you and give you all your data right then and there so you're not having to sit back and try to figure it out by your eye. You have a machine or a device that's telling you what to work on.

I think everything is kind of progressing as everything does, and evolving and making the game I would say easier to understand. It's a really hard game no matter what. Doesn't matter what kind of devices there are, you still have to make the golf swings, but it's easier to understand what's causing certain things. I think because of that, it's allowing golf to kind of continue to strive and continue to improve with as everything else is kind of improving, almost staying one step ahead.

Q. And which countries do you think are at the forefront regarding the use of the technology in golf?

PATRICK REED: Oh, man. That's hard to say because here -- when we're on the PGA TOUR, whether we're here in Mexico, whether we're in Asia, when I play on the European Tour, everywhere I go around the world, everyone has this technology, everyone has the TrackMans, everyone has the Quads and the Foresights because all the players are bringing it.

I think the biggest thing is having access. I feel that's one thing that everyone could do a little better. Golf's a very expensive game, it's a very secluded game, so it's hard for children or people who can't quite afford it to go out and practice and play and improve on it.

Because of that, I feel like there could be more academies and more accessibility to golf courses for children and for others to help grow the game of golf and utilize the technology. Or even not even have to use the technology, but allow them to go practice, allow them to go play and get into the game of golf. I think that's the biggest hurdle that we have in the game of golf is more accessibility because of how expensive this game is.

Q. Patrick, you're a player, international, that likes to go play different parts of the world, Asia, Europe, obviously here in Mexico. Why do you like it so much to go to different type of places and how do you compare all the places that you've gone to play in Mexico? You've won the WGC the last time it was played in Mexico. How do you compare and what do you like of playing around the world?

PATRICK REED: I was always wanting to play worldwide and be known as a worldwide player because not only do you get to visit all these amazing places and see the different cultures, different people, but also to grow my game.

You know, you go over and you play links style golf over in Scotland, things like that, the ball's played on the ground. You have to learn how to play in 40-mile-an-hour wind, you're hitting a lot of golf shots.

In the United States it's ball more in air; you're trying to carry the ball because the greens are softer. And you have all different grasses from Bermuda to Paspalum to Zoysia to Bent to Kentucky Blue and things like that that you need to learn how to play.

And I always thought to become a complete player, you have to be able to play around the world and learn how to play in different conditions and really just allow yourself to get comfortable being uncomfortable. I think that's the biggest thing for me. To be able to improve and to get better, you have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations, whether it's going to places in a different time zone on such short notice or playing golf at a different place that you've never played before that is also a different type of golf. You know, links style, hitting the ball in the air, playing at altitude and things like that.

Q. What sticks out on your mind about Mayakoba? I asked the same question to Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka. You all -- what have you liked so much and you think why these guys come back multiple times, not just one time, multiple times you keep coming back here to Mayakoba?

PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing is, first off, the golf course speaks for itself. It's a great golf course. You have to hit so many different golf shots and you have to use everything in your entire golf bag, every club, every shot whether it's draw, fade, hit it high, hit it low, soft shots, full shots.

Then after the golf, the people and the support that the fans have had when we've been here have been amazing. They've opened up their arms to us when we come here. They're always very friendly, very generous and really come out and support. I think that's one of the things that separates the event, which is why a lot of guys come down and play is because of not just the golf course always being in good shape, but also the people are great.

Q. I was just wondering how you decide to filter information, whether you like to, you know, read about golf a lot, watch a lot of golf, scroll social media about golf, or when you're off the course, if you're really just keeping it old school and sticking to yourself?

PATRICK REED: So what I like to do is when -- so for a tournament week, for example, if I'm out on the road, when I'm done with golf and practicing, I'm done with all the golf. It doesn't matter what it is. I'm now in recovery mode kind of getting ready for tomorrow.

The only thing I'll do is maybe look at Shotlink to see where pin locations have been in the past, things like that for tomorrow and things like that, and look at the yardage book obviously.

Outside of that, I don't really watch or read or do anything that's golf related because I'm there trying to focus on what I'm trying to do right then and there, and that would be to kind of recover for the next day and kind of get ready for tournament play.

When I'm at home, I spend all my time with my family. I don't really sit there and watch or read golf because when I start watching golf on TV, then I start dissecting it. I start going into player mode, start trying, oh, this is how we normally should play this hole or that. That's my time to kind of get away from the game and really just kind of give all my time to my kids, rolling around on the ground, playing games, spend time with them.

Q. Is that something you've had to kind of learn over the years or a process that you've worked on, or has that always basically been the case? It's hard sometimes if you read something and it throws you off, then maybe you say, oh, I don't really want to do that in the future, that's not helpful to me. Has that ever been the case?

PATRICK REED: No, for me I've always done that once I've gotten on the PGA TOUR. Once I got out and playing professional golf, because of how much I had to play early when I was chasing the Mondays and doing all that, my schedule was pretty hectic and I needed to try to find time to get away from the game. Because when you go home, even if you have one week off, you might have one or two days you don't play any golf or do anything golf related, but then you're right back out working, kind of getting ready and preparing for the following week.

There needs to be that time and that balance to not have golf on your mind and thinking about golf or really dissecting golf throughout 24 hours of the day.

You know, with having the little ones, it's very easy for me to spend time with them and kind of get away from the game. Really now it's kind of been routine. I focus on golf when I'm at the golf course and when I leave the golf course, now it's time to be a dad, be a husband and be a friend, kind of hang out at home.

DOUG MILNE: Patrick, we had a gentleman who was having a tough time logging in. He just wanted to know about the topic of making golf a more global sport, what types of things are important for you. Obviously I guess playing more around the world. What are some of the things that would help you think make the game of golf a little bit more global?

PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing is going to the countries and going to the areas that golf isn't really popular in and might not be economically wise for certain people or certain areas, and that's where I think if we could have events in those areas to go out and grow the game, show the kids how fun golf can be and really do things off of just golf tournaments to allow kids to get out and play, allow people to get out and play and not sit there and feel like it's a burden, whether financially or a burden time-wise. Golf takes a lot of time, but at the same time you don't need to go out and play 18 holes to kind of get hooked, you just need that one solid golf shot and then you're looked and you want to do it again. It just seems to keep on sticking with you.

I think that's the biggest thing is making golf fun, allowing kids to get in and have the accessibility for having people to go out and play.

Q. Really bad question for you, Patrick, since you're not a guy that plays 12, 15 times a year, but how do you go about making a fall schedule, how much you play and where? How do you do that?

PATRICK REED: So, normally for me with being a part of the European Tour, I would go overseas and play some of those events as well as playing on the PGA Tour, but this year with having that six weeks or that break where I didn't play much with being sick and being in the hospital, I decided I wanted to play as much as I could in the fall just to get back in playing mode.

Normally you try to play a couple events in the fall just to kind of stay sharp on the playing side, but use that period of time to also get yourself ready to go for Jan 1.

Q. The other thing, kind of a popular topic these days, how driven are you by money?

PATRICK REED: I'm driven by trophies.

Q. Money a factor at all?

PATRICK REED: Driven by trophies. If you go out and play well, right, and you consistently do what you're supposed to do on the golf course and have a chance to win every week and you go out and you win golf tournaments and win trophies, the money will take care of itself.

Q. They do give you money for that.

PATRICK REED: A little.

Q. And listen, this is a broader question not specific to you, but if there was ever such a thing as guaranteed money, in whatever form I'm not sure, do you think that would affect the competition at all?

PATRICK REED: What do you mean, like an appearance fee?

Q. No, not appearance fee, but if you think about it, the way you guys are paid in like team sports --

PATRICK REED: Okay.

Q. -- and if you were guaranteed your money, a big part of your money for the year, and again I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about kind of the landscape of PGA TOUR golf or professional golf, do you think that would have any effect at all on the determination, on the competition, anything like that?

PATRICK REED: It's hard to say. No, I can't really speak for a lot of the other players, but me, I've always been so driven by winning golf tournaments and having a chance on Sunday and getting that adrenaline that you get that money can't buy. You get that adrenaline going and those juices flowing when you're coming down the last seven or eight holes with the chance to win a golf tournament, that's what I live for, having those kind of moments, having a chance to win and hopefully closing them off at the end to be able to hoist a trophy.

I know the more you play like that and the more you have a chance to win and the more trophies you win, the money obviously from the tournaments come, but also the sponsors come and all that kind of falls in line with it as well. For me, it's just focus on trying to play the best golf you can and really do that.

Q. But Patrick, if you go back to your Monday four-spot days, was money an issue back then for you?

PATRICK REED: Oh, yeah, money was an issue, but it was also one of those where if you go out and you do what you're supposed to on the golf course, then you go from that tight spot to feeling a little bit more comfortable and allowing yourself to free up and not worry about every putt or every shot, about the money and more about trying to win a golf tournament.

Q. Did you ever get excited -- again, younger days, did you ever get excited about a paycheck?

PATRICK REED: It's hard to say whether -- I mean, you're always excited whenever you get a big paycheck. I mean, of course.

My biggest thing, so for the Mondays, Justine and I, when she was on the bag it was, okay, if we made the cut, we would go out and have a nice steak dinner on Friday night. If we didn't make the cut, it's PB&Js and let's get ready for the following week.

Obviously money's going to play a factor because if you're missing every cut, you're not going to go out and have these nice dinners and everything. For us, it was more about playing well, and if you played well, reward yourself by, you know, whether it's a dinner, whether it's able to play the following week and kind of go and attack.

Really, I've never been, and my team, we've never been money driven. We've been more about going out and performing and playing some good golf.

Q. Hold on. If you made it through Monday, what was for dinner?

PATRICK REED: We weren't even really thinking about that because we were too busy focusing on now we have Tuesday only to get to know the golf course because Wednesdays were pro-am days.

Q. You had player dining.

PATRICK REED: Yeah, player family dining.

DOUG MILNE: Patrick, that's all we've got for you. We always do appreciate your time and certainly wish you a lot of luck and hope to be talking to you right here again Sunday night.

PATRICK REED: Thanks, Doug. Appreciate it.