HORIZON IRISH OPEN

July 1, 2022

Padraig Harrington

Mount Juliet Estate

Quick Quotes

Q. Start off with your golf today. You showed character there, doing what you did.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Look at the first two days, I should be 8-under par. I played fine and there I am, but I never thought I was struggling to make the cut until I actually was struggling to make the cut but I played comfortable. I hit a curly shot on 4, made bogey, three-putt the 5th, and all of the sudden, I didn't hit a good shot at 8, went long and made double-bogey had to take a penalty drop -- 7, I should say.

I went from nowhere, from thinking yeah, I could get myself to 6-under par and well in this tournament and now then I'm struggling to make the cut which is kind of the way it's been for last number of years.

Clearly I suppose after the back of last week, a bill more positive. I hit two great drivers up the eighth hole, like it was playing really long. Didn't hit it up nearly pin-high and chipped it up to 15 feet and holed it. Then on 18 I hit a nice tee shot, wedge in -- thought the tee was was on the fairway and the second shot would get over the hill but I gave it a good run at the hole and in she went and good things are happening.

Q. The drop on 7, I couldn't quite make it out, where was the ball?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Underneath in the tree. Underneath the root of the tree, two-clubhead drop to the side.

Q. How important is it for you to be around here for the weekend?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Obviously enjoying the crowds. I hope they were enjoying my play. So not too sure how many of them are going to get up that early in the morning but yeah it would be nice if I'm still here. I think making the cut on the mark at times, you'd be going home, but at the Irish hope it's worth it, and with horizon, it's nice, look like I'll be here for the weekend.

Q. I know you made some comments already about Keith's statement and there was a line here about someone who had signed a commitment to play here and over in Portland?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: And who would that be?

Q. You didn't name who it was.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Are you asking me to name who it was? Well, you know as much as I know.

Q. But I don't know. Do you know who it was?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah. Honestly, I read the statement. My head is a mess. I thought from what I briefly read, I thought all this was known. I didn't know this was new news. This was three- or four-weeks=ago news. This is certainly what was expected and known -- I thought this was -- I really think this was -- I thought this was old news.

I'm surprised that it's blown up today as news, and that's why I need to go and read it. As I always say, friends of mine have gone to play there. I'm comfortable with them gone to play with. I have no issues if they made that decision. I think there's great money there. Like it looks like they are here to stay; the rest of golf is starting to focus on themselves and making themselves better. The PGA TOUR and European Tour statements are starting to focus on their tours and as far as I'm concerned, let LIV go and do their thing. I think it's good for golf having competition and other tours, and I think there could be room for it, too. I don't have a problem with that.

So I do know that everybody who went, like they expected this. They might have wished something different but the expectations would have been -- they might have hoped for something different and from my perspective, I think from a general perspective, the players who haven't gone who certainly would have, could have gone feel the sanctions haven't gone far enough, hundred per cent, the European players feel the sanctions haven't gone far enough.

But I wouldn't want them ever to be banned from playing majors. I'm comfortable with that, whatever way you want to look at it, there's certainly separation and might take five, ten, 15 years before that separation is normalised, who knows. Certainly not going to -- certainly not going to be normal for a while yet, but I certainly wouldn't advocate them not being into the majors. If anything, I think it could make the majors bigger and better having the best players come around from all around the place and only play together in the majors is a good thing.

I don't think the sanctions -- that's golf. The majors are golf. I never want to see the majors affected. The best players should play. But tour life, there's huge friction between the PGA TOUR and European Tour back in the '80s and some of Greg Norman's issues from that period of time. There was some friction in the '90s. Things started to come together more in the 2000s. There was a separation at that stage, and now there's another separation and it will take time but I can't believe anybody didn't expect the separation that is there in the game.

But it's good for the majors. I think that's about it, yeah. I don't have anything else to say on it.

Q. I think what provoked the letter from Keith was the letter from the LIV guys saying that they "care deeply" about The European Tour. Do you think you can care deeply about The European Tour and go and play for LIV?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I actually do. I think we do things in life, many things we do in life, and we can have absolutely competing interests but you know, they could care deeply for The European Tour, there's no doubt about it. Some of them have grown up playing The European Tour and they like it. So I don't have a problem with them, with guys saying they like playing in Europe, and they have got to know that there was going to be separation. As I said, most of the players who are left behind would think there's not enough sanctions.

But as far as I'm concerned, yeah, of course they can. Everything isn't black and white. The guys have gone because there was an incredible amount of money on the table. No other reason. No other reason. It's not going to make their golf better. It's not going to do anything more that they could have done playing anywhere else. They have gone for the money, and there's great money on the table. They are professional golfers, and everybody has got to make that decision.

For anybody, nobody really knows how -- they have their own skin in the game. There's some tale, you look at Brooks, one week he's gone, and he obviously got an offer and from what he said, he got an offer on the Monday that he couldn't refuse. It's hard to see until the offer is there.

I have no problem, and those guys are going to remain my friends. I certainly have no issue with what they have done. I would think it's odd that they weren't expecting this because I'm not even that much on the ground in these thing, and I would have thought that this was very evident from weeks back what the sanctions would be.

And a bit of rivalry won't do us any harm at all. As I said, in 20 years' time, we could have a match between the LIV Tour and the PGA TOUR.

Q. You said you would like to see everybody play together and make the majors bigger and better, but some of these players won't qualify for the players unless there's an adjustment to the World Ranking system.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Exactly what I said. I want to see the best players play in the majors. So they need to figure that out. I don't believe that -- the majors are outside the tours. I believe they stand-alone as a top. I don't believe that anybody should be restricted from playing in a major golf tournament. Whoever deserves to be there, whatever ranking they have to figure out, they should be -- the best players should play. It's completely different than your allegiance to a tour.

So yeah, I wouldn't push the sanctions against majors, no.

They need to figure that out, whatever way, but I want to see -- it's going to be pretty cool, you know, like from the outside, it's soon enough now with the open coming around but in two or three years' time, you know, you'll have Rory going up against DJ and the only time you're going to get to see them do that is when there's a major tournament, and that would be pretty cool for the majors.