MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2022

Padraig Harrington

Quick Quotes

Q. How are you feeling going into this?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, good. It's Wednesday. I haven't hit any bad shots yet.

Q. Fair enough. How's it playing given all the -- we've had a lot of rain the last two days. How does it feel?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: The course is great.

It was a pretty good practice round on Monday when it was firm and fast, good preparation for what we might expect on Sunday. It's firming up as we're going along.

This course every time, it doesn't matter what you do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, there's always something on Thursday that you can't prepare for. It's just impossible to prepare for every outcome when it comes to this golf course.

You have to accept you're going to be presented with a few situations and you've got to adapt at that moment.

Q. The changes that you've seen this year, what do you make of how the course looks a little different?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, length never does any -- makes no difference to any of us. I think I prefer the driving hole on 5, which I hadn't seen. I prefer the driving hole, 11 is definitely a lot easier off the tee. Tougher second shot, but only marginally tougher -- it's only tougher for a bad shot, which is good.

Any change where you don't make it harder for a good shot but you make it harder for a bad shot is a good change, and 11 is a perfect one for that.

Yeah, I like 15 too. It's a tougher tee shot now, and you really do have to get it down the right. Since I've been here, there's a few limbs that seem to have come out a bit more; 15 is one; 13 for sure; 18 is always very tight; 17 is a particular change.

I've never seen a limb overhanging 17. Back in the day when Eisenhower Tree was there, you had to hit a high one on 17, now you have to hit a low one to keep it under the limb. That's one of the biggest changes.

Q. I forget my memory. Have you ever been grouped with Tiger here?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No.

Q. Have you ever played with him anywhere?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: That's really an embarrassing question. Have I ever played with Tiger Woods.

Q. I mean in a Sunday round.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I've beaten Tiger in playoffs. I've beaten him down the stretch. I've played with him plenty of times, yes.

Q. I was referring to Augusta.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Augusta, no, I haven't been grouped with him. I can't remember actually if I was grouped with him in Augusta would be more of a statement.

Q. How does the mood change when he is in a group?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's much easier to play with him than play behind him.

Q. Why is that?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Because everybody is watching Tiger. He's actually one of the easiest guys to play with over the years. He's a very simple guy to play with. He plays golf. He says good shot only when you hit a good shot. There is no messing around, no rubbish about it. I've always found him very easy to play with.

As I said, it's very difficult if you're the group ahead of him. It's very, very difficult because the crowds are watching him and they're moving on to see him. When you're playing with him 20 deep, you can't hear a thing because there's so much going on. It's always been a good draw to be with him for sure.

Q. How does it feel to have the patrons back this year?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I wasn't there when they weren't there.

Q. From having tournaments that --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I only know it with the patrons, so, yeah. I don't think I played any -- I don't know if I played any of those COVID events when there was no patrons. I took that time off. Certainly this is as I remember.