	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TURKISH AIRLINES OPEN

November 1, 2016

Padraig Harrington

Antalya, Turkey

Q. Do you have a new self-belief after winning?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: No. I had it before I won. I think I pretty much have it all the time, anyway. What I found after I win is you get an idea what other people are thinking. The amount of people that kind of, it was a surprise, and maybe it was a surprise that I won but not in my head. Every time I tee it up I think I'm going to win. That's what I'm here for. Mightn't be the truth or mightn't be reality, but I've got to believe that. It was a bit of a surprise, I suppose, other people's reactions but in my head, I'm still the player I always was, if not a better player.

Q. You know that nobody will now be surprised this week, were you to go on to win. Does that change your attitude, your approach?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, clearly winning back-to-back, is difficult. I've done it a few times. So, yeah, possible.

I think my attitude doesn't need me to win this week. It needs me to take the same approach I took into Portugal and keep doing that every week and be patient and wait for the wins to come.

You know, that's really what it's all about. It's not trying to necessarily distinguish one week and put all the pressure, this is the week you're going to do it. It's trying to approach every week to give yourself a number of chances and working the odds, if you keep giving yourself chances, you will get a win.

Q. Were you always going to come to the Turkish Airlines Open, or did you have doubts?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: I was meant to be playing Vegas this week. I was going to play Vegas, three on the PGA TOUR at the moment, but clearly, you know in, terms of getting my World Rankings and things like this, these are the bigger events. These are the ones to come to. Now that I'm qualified and well qualified to be in all three of them, I thought this was the good run to come to.

Q. Are you conscious of Race to Dubai?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm 43 now and I think I was in the Turkish Open anyway, if I was only in the one event, I don't see the sequence, but the fact is, I'm in all three, I can come down here and move along.

As I said, if I play well in one of the three weeks, there's substantial World Ranking points. It would be a nice bonus. I need to get back in the Top-50 in the world to get into the Masters and other events like that.

So these three weeks are a great spring board if you do play well.

Q. Did you have any reservations on the safety angle?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: Obviously I considered it. I think for me, I played golf all through the 80s and the 90s, the late 80s and the 90s, I played most of my amateur career, and I was happy to travel up to Northern Ireland where they would have also said they had troubles, as they called it; issues. I don't know if that makes you kind of -- kind of gives you a little bit more confidence, maybe. Might be a false confidence. You understand that there's a much bigger picture than you as an individual, and so yeah, from those experiences, I've never really mind traveling anywhere in the world. There's some places we go at times that can be a little bit dodgy, but we always know when you get there how well things are organized, how well things are looked after, and obviously in a week like this, you can see it when you're here, it's top class. There obviously is a little bit of doubt coming down here, but when you're on the ground here, it seems idyllic.

Q. You look around, there's glorious, warm sunshine. What do you make of the course?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: It's perfect conditions for golf down here. They really have -- all the courses I've played, but this course is really good. It's an ideal sort of ground conditions, weather for producing top-class course in great condition and they have done the job well here. It's a big, modern test. I think all the players will enjoy this sort of test but it's certainly a pretty stern test out there, that's for sure. It's a big, long golf course, and we will be looking for this nice weather to help us along this week.

Q. One of the tests is hitting from the roof at the 16th. You've done that; what do you think?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: I like it. You know, it doesn't really -- it is of interest to you guys. For us, it's an elevated back tee. I suppose I've hit off the cliff, the 19th hole in South Africa, where you hit off the side of a mountain. That's a little bit intimidating.

Here, no, it's a nice tee shot. It's an elevated tee shot. You get to look down on the fairway and it certainly adds to the hole.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297