THE 149TH OPEN

July 16, 2021

Padraig Harrington

Mixed Zone

Q. A very good round for you today, your best round in an Open at Royal St George's. You must be delighted to be around for the weekend.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I just scored as bad as I could. Yeah, look, mixed emotions. I am delighted. It does look like that will make the cut. I would like to be a few shots better. I would like to be five, six shots -- hey, look, if we're on a wish list, I'd like to be 10 shots better and the lottery numbers.

But you know, it is what it is. It's good to be there at the weekend. Happy to be there for the weekend, but a little bit disappointed with my own expectations.

Q. It was a very solid back nine apart from the blip at the last. It was a vintage Harrington.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I hit a lovely tee shot down the last. It's just warmed up, and the wind was off the right, and I managed to move it a good five, eight yards left to right. If that was like a -- when we started out today, there was no way I could have cut the ball back into the wind. Just a difference in temperature makes a huge difference in how the ball flies through the wind.

Yeah, it just caught me by surprise. That was the first hole we'd seen it where the wind wasn't really having the effect it was. It was blowing pretty hard with it being cold early on, it meant it had a -- I hit 9-iron out there one hole, like it was going 118, 119 yards, so you can imagine how much wind is causing that.

Q. Can you just explain how differently you played today, if at all, to yesterday? What was the big difference? Certainly according to the statistics you holed a few more putts. Talk about the conditions of the golf course, as well, and what you might expect from it over the next couple days.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: So pretty much what I said already. Yeah, I struck the ball really well yesterday. I didn't hit it as well today, but was smart enough, and I putted very well today. I holed several six-footers today. I don't think I holed anything yesterday -- well, I holed two putts on 8 and 9 yesterday. I holed a lot more short putts today than I did yesterday, but clearly two longer ones yesterday.

Yeah, look, my expectations were higher than that, but when you've struggled in the first round, it's always good to come back and shoot a good number. It should make the cut, even though conditions have substantially changed in the last half an hour. It was cold and the wind was having quite an effect early on. Now it's warmed up, the ball is moving, it's going through that wind.

Yeah, quite a difference. Hopefully it's kind of -- that's The Open. It's disappointing to be on the wrong side of the draw yesterday and today, but you know, that happens at times. The leaders are coming from my side of the draw, so I can't complain too much at this stage anyway.

Q. Can you talk about the two lads you played with, as well, that The Open is The Open, and give people opportunities to play in a great event, Sam Forgan and Brad Kennedy, two guys that would have been dreaming of this I'm sure.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Brad Kennedy is a seasoned player, 12 years on the Tour in Japan, nine wins. He was unlucky, actually, I would think to miss the cut. He had a number of three-putts that I would suggest were surprising to him today.

Obviously Sam Forgan was -- he's on the "Road to the Open," is that the documentary? Something like that anyway. Very good ball striker. Like a lot of these guys, lacks a little bit of belief in his game. Good solid game. That's really the difference.

He hits it as well as anybody or a lot better than a lot of players out there, but it's just a belief in his game. We always say that in any range you can find loads of guys out there, and it's the ones that believe that do the scoring.

For him, he should take away from this that he's well capable of doing it, it's just a question of believing, being comfortable in this position.

Q. It doesn't look like the weather is going to do you much of a favour. Do you think there's a low one in you? Do you think you can make a move up the leaderboard, get closer to the leaders?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, well, I'm confident coming into the week. You know, if I hit it as well as I did the first day and putt it as well as I did today, well, that would end up in a low one, yes, so there is a low one in me. But I'd need at least two of them, two big ones.