SLYNC.IO DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

January 29, 2022

Justin Harding

Emirates Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Ending the round with a few-shot lead, how pleased with your day's work?

JUSTIN HARDING: Yeah, I'm quite happy. I thought I played quite solid. It was a difficult day to be fair, and it some tough legs to get at. There were times when I didn't quite put the ball in play, and I couldn't really go anywhere near them. The one bogey made was from long range with the putter, a bit disappointing but would have loved to have snuck one coming in, 17 or 18, but I was happy with those.

Q. How important was experience out there, because you were two ahead at the start, and two behind after 11 holes and had not yet made a birdie. A younger man might have said, well, I need to press and catch up because I'm losing ground, but you didn't and stayed patient.

JUSTIN HARDING: I think it's just that type of golf course. It's one where, you know, what if you do miss a couple shots, you can make some bogeys. The greens are tough. They are concrete but when you are chipping into them it's difficult to chip them up close. You find yourself making 4- or 5-footers all day long.

There are a few holes that you have need to get three, on the front nine, as we spoke about early, a couple of strong par 4s and 15 and 16 are two that you need to get through on the back nine, and I didn't take advantage of 17 or 18 today. But I'm quite happy with it, and yeah, go again tomorrow.

Q. You're in pole position to win your first Rolex Series Event, but wow, there's some good players chasing down. Give us your thoughts.

JUSTIN HARDING: It's a pretty big field. Look, at the end of the day, I've just got to go out and keep doing what I'm doing, and make a couple birdies and shoot 70, 69, something like that, and make them shoot 5- or 6-under par, credit to them.

Yeah, just another day at the office, really, to be fair.