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DEUTSCHE BANK - SAP OPEN TPC OF EUROPE

May 22, 2004

Padraig Harrington

ST. LEON-ROT, GERMANY

GORDON SIMPSON: Padraig, well done. Another round of 68, and I think you'd have settled for the putt that Trevor managed to make at the last and you just let it slip, but otherwise in good position for the last day.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I would have taken the round going out, good position for the last day, yes, all of those things. But, I feel like shots are hard to come by on Sunday. You don't like to give them away easily on Saturday.

You know, I definitely feel like I left a few of them out there today. I feel like I'm still in the pack, where, you know, if I holed a few of those putts, I would be out there in front and a couple of shots closer from the rest of the field. At the moment, I know I'm going to have to go out there and do something good tomorrow.

GORDON SIMPSON: You did start the back nine with a bit of a rush, didn't you?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I played well on the front nine, very well, actually, and I got frustrated a little bit on 8, then hit a bad shot on 9. I got myself together then going down 10. I obviously made birdie on 10. I think I holed about the longest putt of the day about 15 feet. Followed that up, I chipped in on 12, which was a big bonus.

GORDON SIMPSON: How far did you make that?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I was front edge of the green, so it was I think it was like 24 yards.

13, I hit it stone dead, 5 iron. Hit it to eight inches or something.

15, I hit a driver, lob wedge to six feet.

So, it's one of those rounds that you're thinking, you know, shots are hard to come by on Sunday, why let them slip on a Saturday. I certainly feel like I feel asleep on the tee shot on 17. It was, you know, kind of a nothing tee shot. At least that's the way it felt because you couldn't reach it in two. Just lost concentration and got in trouble and I missed from about 12 feet for my par. Obviously the putt at the last would have it would have saved the day, but, no, it didn't.

Q. How long the putt on the last hole?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Six feet.

Q. You said got yourself together, how did you do that? What did you say to yourself?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Just talk to yourself and try to remind yourself what you're trying to do. You know, it's easy to go into your own little world out there and sulk a little bit and get down on yourself. Just have to give yourself a little talk to, what's happening. I realize there was 27 holes to go in the tournament, had a little look at the leaderboard and saw that nobody was running away with things, and just said, there's plenty of time to get back into this tournament.

Okay, turned around very quickly, but as I said, I was giving myself 27 holes. I wasn't trying to do it I didn't feel like I had to do it straightaway. As it turned out, I certainly made quite a rush there, and feel the opposite now after 18 holes, I feel like I could have even done some more.

Q. Not to get ahead of yourself, but how good does it feel to be in this position and defending tomorrow?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm not even thinking about that. I'm trying to just manage what I'm doing now, trying to fit in a little bit of practice and what I need to work on for tomorrow. I'm actually thinking about what I'm going to eat for my lunch, rather than trying to defend tomorrow and win. That's a long way ahead of myself. I'm certainly not going to go there.

Q. Inaudible?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: That's the sort of stuff I've always tried to do. It's the stuff I would have learned over the years. It's something I'm good at, definitely. And it was definitely well needed at that time because I was you know, after playing so well for the first seven holes and having lots of chances to be only level par after nine was definitely a big disappointment.

You know, you could see it, so it was I'm sure plenty of players would be happy to be level par after nine. So it was a question of getting my act together and keep going for the back nine.

Q. How tough was the wind today, because for a while there, I think there was very, very few people under par on the front nine?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Believe it or not, it depended huge amounts on the temperature. If the sun came out, the wind didn't feel like it was a strong wind. If the sun didn't come out, it didn't have had the effect. The temperature makes a huge difference to how the wind affects the ball. For all last nine holes, it backed up, or technically the last six or seven holes it warmed up quite a lot. The ball was traveling quite nicely through the wind, whereas I'm sure early on, if you were teeing off at 8:00 this morning, it didn't seem like the ball would go very far and would you have to make a big windup to hit it and that would not be very comfortable in the cold. When it warms up, things get easier. So the wind was it was a reasonable wind, but depending on the temperature, really affects how it plays.

It has an effect, but it has even more of an effect in the morning when it's cold. Once it warms up, a warm wind doesn't have anywhere near the same effect as a cold wind. That's why I'm saying. It sounds like it dropped a little bit on the back nine, but I think that's because the temperature rose a little bit. It always feels nicer with a warm wind.

GORDON SIMPSON: Okay, Padraig, I think your lunch definitely beckons. Thanks very much.

End of FastScripts.

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