THE 150TH OPEN

July 15, 2022

Padraig Harrington

Mixed Zone

Q. How do you feel? Got off to a great start.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I did. It was a good start.

Q. Was it the putting?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Just a bad day.

Q. Just a bad day?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah. Drove it on the greens. Put you on a lot of -- yeah, pretty typical day on the greens, to be honest. But I have been putting better.

Q. You have.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I have. I do get some good days. Oh, well, just puts you under a lot of pressure when you're putting badly.

Q. Had you recovered physically? You were pretty shattered last night.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I seem to be fine, yeah. Who knows, but I did seem to be fine.

Q. And the start, looked like you were right in the mix.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I was in a good place, yeah.

Q. Do you get excited by that when you start with a couple of birdies?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm kind of okay with it. I wasn't overthinking it too much. Yeah, it was all okay, to be honest.

Q. After the first couple of mistakes, misses on the greens, did you sort of think, well, we can get it back. And then just the (indiscernible) put the kibosh on everything?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Kind of. It was one of those days. A couple of bad drives early on didn't help for the rest of the day. I hit a couple of bad putts. I couldn't figure out -- but it didn't matter what I did after that. If I hit a perfect putt, it would miss.

12 and 13, effectively two penalty shots there off reasonable shots. Yeah, it's one of those days. You know the day when you -- you know the time you're making bogeys. Another time you get a bit of a break and you make a birdie. I would say everything that could possibly be compounded was compounded today.

Q. (Off microphone)?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's always like that. It's been happening like that the past ten years. I've seen it plenty of times before. I'm not stressing it too much. I've seen plenty of good stuff in the last period of time on the greens. I've been playing well, and there've been some good days on the greens. I'm not going to worry about it.

Q. There's always next week and a major next week?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: There's always next week, yeah. A horrible thing.

Q. Did it feel quicker today, the pace of play? There was a lot of chatter yesterday. Was it quicker, or did it feel different?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, it did. There was no warming up today. Yeah, it's a tough course for pace of play. Do they go earlier with the tee times? Do they reduce the field?

It would be tough if they reduce the field because it might be past champions who get the ax (laughter).

Yeah, I didn't say that. It's a tough golf course for that.

Q. It's for people to sit and watch golf for six hours.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: What about us? The problem is, you're putting a lot of times from 40, 50 feet. That just takes time. Very rarely, it's not 20 feet (indiscernible) that's happening. It's 40, 50 feet with a couple of mounds, and you're putting up to 5 feet. You're waiting on the following green and the other green. Clearly it's not a golf course built for this sort of thing in that sense.

But I suppose it's open for somebody -- whoever's going to win is going to have to deal with it. You have to be very focused because there's a lot going on, a lot of people moving into position and doing that. You want to keep your head down and do your thing. A lot of golf shots landing on greens when you're playing, that sort of stuff.

It's something that the winner will have to deal with very well this week and doesn't get too -- you certainly don't want to be looking around you. There's always something to find to make you have to stand off. You're better off putting your head down and doing your thing out there.

Q. David Carey, do you know him well or played with him?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I know a little bit about him. I followed his career quite a bit. I know somebody who knows him reasonably well.

Q. What advice would you give him? He's 5-under par coming in the last three or four holes. He's probably here for the weekend, first Open. What advice would you give him?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I told somebody to back him --

Q. We backed him.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: First round, though. I thought he'd win leading after the first round. You know you get these guys leading the first round.

Q. We have him backed for a top 20 finish.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You're credentialed. You can't bet on golf.

Q. Delete that.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No, he is suitably -- the traits he has are what make a successful professional golfer.

Q. Nice.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: How well did I say that?

Q. He's his own man.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: He's his own man, yeah.

Q. He went off and decided, I'm going to be pro. I might as well be a pro now and go at 17 1/2.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: The traits he has are very helpful for being a professional golfer.

Q. You know everybody's ball speed. Do you know his ball speed?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, he can keep up with me. He's very fast. On the range there -- it's hard to tell the monitor on the range. He is pretty quick.

Q. What about going into a weekend of the major, first major, how should he handle it? What would you suggest to him?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I think he's got the traits that he might just think that this is his place, and that's what you've got to do. Look, the guy shot a couple of times in the 50s. That takes a lot to do that. I think he has -- as I said, he has the traits that are required for golf.

Q. What are those traits?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: He believes in himself. He backs himself. He's pig headed. He does his thing, which is very, very good for being -- you know. He backs himself, yeah.

Q. And you're not surprised that he's made the weekend?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No. No, I'm not.

Q. Does it hurt more missing a cut in an Open here than anywhere else, or does it just hurt generally missing the cut?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It hurts missing the cut. It hurts missing (indiscernible). It hurts missing when you were 5-under par. Do you want any more hurts?

Q. Best of luck next week.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Thank you.