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BARRACUDA CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 30, 2014Padraig HarringtonRENO, NEVADA DOUG MILNE: All right, Padraig Harrington, thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Your third consecutive start here at the Barracuda Championship. You've had a chance to see the course. Just some thoughts on the condition of the course as you're making your way into round one tomorrow. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, it really is a beautiful place to come and play golf. It's an interesting golf course. I think the Stableford point system has really helped it out, no doubt. I think it's an exciting course. It offers some risk/reward. The altitude throws a real spanner in the works when it comes to your clubbing and things like that. So I think having a format like Stableford ‑‑ we play the same sort of stuff week in, week out, so it's nice to play something different. Definitely this is the venue for it. So overall, a good, fun week. DOUG MILNE: With that, we'll open it up and take a few questions. Q. How would you say the course is playing so far? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You know, I got to say it's probably playing a little longer than past years. Fairways are a little softer at the moment. I don't know if they're going to dry out in the course of the week. It's in excellent condition outside of that. Really isn't any difference from year to year. You know, so it's just a little bit softer, that's about it, from other years, but playing really nice. Q. You think the weather will factor into that? We're going to get some afternoon rain. Does that favor the long hitters, short hitters? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You know what, the forecast of ‑‑ are we talking like today? You know, that's not rain. I heard maybe storms every afternoon, but if it's more lightning than actual rain, I don't think it'll have any affect whatsoever. At the moment you would think‑‑ there are two interesting things from a long hitter to a short hitter. A long hitter is going to gain more with the altitude, but it's really hard to control your distance the harder you hit the golf ball. So some of the shorter hitter who hit it lower, they won't have to factor in anywhere near as much altitude changes. So it's debatable which is better. I played a practice round the other day and I hit my tee shot on this particular hole maybe 50 yards past my playing partner. Like he hit it in the middle of the green and I flew the green with a wedge. It's just a little bit awkward with the change of altitude how hard you hit the golf ball. So, yes, it could play it's either hands basically is what I am saying. It's not a given. Q. We have a title sponsor up here now. Talk a little bit about what that means to a tournament. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, you could see it in the event already. Barracuda come on board. They've really worked hard here over the years. Last couple years I've been here they have done a great job of making this event very personalized for the players. It has a really nice feel about. You can see when the title sponsor comes in everything is upped a little bit. You know, as players we can see that and notice it. I've got to say they have done a great job over the years here of making the players feel really welcome. You know, as much as it's against Bridgestone and a big event, they do a great job here with the players to make them feel special. Q. I think it was '07/'08, '08/'09 when you had those kind of really spectacular years. Can you get back to that level again do you think? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I could do, yeah. It's certainly possible. Who knows? I'm playing great golf, but I'm not quite delivering on it. It's all about getting the attitude right. Certainly there is no doubt I peaked in 2007, 2008, and then peaking again for sure, you know, and it's certainly possible that I could. Just to have wait and see. I'm doing all the things I can. Doing it all right. Try and stay patient and let it happen. Q. Did you start last year with a specific strategy? Did it evolve through the rounds? PADRAIG HARRINGTON:  I think the more I play here the more I feel like‑‑ which would not be my normal‑‑ you got to be aggressive off the tee here. Other golf courses I tend to be conservative off the tee and aggressive into the greens. Here I think you got to be aggressive off the tee, because the golf course is quite long. If you start laying up and laying back because you're afraid of a bit of danger off the tee, all of a sudden you've got‑‑ you know, it adds up. For whatever reason, you know, you could lay back on the 1st and all of a sudden you're hitting from 220 yards on a downslope into a green that runs away from a you. If you hit driver down there between the bunkers, you know, you're hitting pitching wedge in there. So you've got to be more aggressive. I think that's what I've learned over the years here. You got to take much more of a chance off the tee to make the approach shots so much easier; whereas if you start laying up‑‑ the golf course is quite long. As I said, without run anyway it's quite long. I certainly don't want to be hitting into all those greens from 200 yards, even though it is at altitude. DOUG MILNE: Okay, well, that's it. Short and sweet. Best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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