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TURKISH AIRLINES OPEN

November 4, 2017

Padraig Harrington

Antalya, Turkey

Q. Round of 65, 72 and 64, can you explain yourself for me?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: You know, obviously I don't know if I can to be honest. Yesterday's round was a mixed bag of good short game early on, and then played great and struggled with my short game and made a few mistakes.

Today was just solid all around. I holed a few good putts. So, yeah, look, today was the same as yesterday, except today I holed a few putts and yesterday I missed them. So they probably should have been both 67s.

Q. Early in the week you said to me you didn't expect 20-under to win here because the course gets more difficult when you're in contention. Just elaborate on that because that was an interesting comment.
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, that was a little bit my day, because I would start well -- haven't been up there so often of late, and yeah, there's a lot of shots on this golf course that if you're not doing okay on the golf course, you can get away at.

When you're worried about making a mistake on top of trying to hit a good shot, they get a lot tougher. There's a lot of water. 9, 10 are extremely difficult. I think they are difficult at all times, but for the leader of the tournament, you get very cautious because if you hit it in the water, you can take double-bogey or triple-bogey. Miss it right, the worst you're making is a bogey.

Yeah, it's that sort of golf course. It's a lot easier when you have nothing on the line.

Q. You mentioned you haven't had that many chances to win in the last four or five years but you have taken the ones you've had. What's the secret to doing it?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: I do read the situation well. I definitely play better when my back's to the wall under a lot of pressure, but I don't play very well on a Thursday morning compared to a Sunday afternoon.

Yeah, I quite like the idea of -- I'd love to be in contention with nine holes to go. Basically that's it. I love that position. If I mess it up, so be it. I'll embrace whatever happens. And I think true experience, I can read the situation well.

So I'm in good stead coming down the last nine but it doesn't mean -- I'll be nervous, I'll be fearful but maybe that will play into my hand.

Q. Just 21 putts today. Was it the putting that was excellent or the approach, tee-to-green, that was excellent?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: The game was good today. Only missed the first fairway, so that set up a lot of good play all the way through.

Yeah, 21 putts does tell a little bit of a lie because I was on a lot of fringe. I putted in two or three times from the fringe.

Yeah, I did putt well. I was happy all the way through my game. There was not too many weak parts today. Maybe I could have hit a few better wedges at times.

Q. Thursday was a good day. Obviously yesterday a little bit up-and-down. Is that a sign of how tough this golf course can be?
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: I think it's an awkward course; when you're in contention, you can get a little defensive at times. With everybody else firing at pins, I think if you get defensive, people love that, and that's what happened to me yesterday. Things didn't quite go right for me but maybe I was a little bit too cautious and everybody else freeing up, you could see some good scores like I did today.

Q. A runaway leader yesterday but shows this of golf course, it's compacted up nicely and you're in contention going into Sunday.
PÃDRAIG HARRINGTON: I did say to my caddie at one stage when we were going around, you know, Nicolas was 16 and every time we looked up he was going further forward. I said, "It would be a great tournament if Nicolas wasn't in it."

Thankfully he's decided to come back to the field. Funny thing is he's still got a great chance of winning the tournament from where he is but certainly there's a lot more people who are going to have restless nights because Nicolas has come back.

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