KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2023

Padraig Harrington

Quick Quotes

PGA Frisco

Q. 4-under today and 12-under for the championship. How are you feeling going into the weekend?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, I'm happy to be where I am. I feel I kind of missed a chance today. When you're going out for your second round and you're still on top of the leaderboard and you're hoping you can shoot a low one and get away from 'em. Hoping I could go out there and shoot another -- hope, I suppose -- but another 8-under par and get to 16- and all of a sudden try and get away from the field. When you're leading that's the best thing to do.

It didn't play like that. It was a bit constrained, I would say. Yesterday was a very easy 64. Today was a harder fought 68.

Q. What have you done well the last two days that you hope continues in the next two rounds?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Just generally the game has been good. Clearly all parts of it. All through my game has been very solid.

Q. Would you take us through that the three birdie run there on your first nine.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, the par-5 I hit a nice drive down there and I had -- I had 197 to clear the left-hand side, like 210 to the flag. It was warm at that stage. I thought, well, this would be a big 7. I hit a three quarter 6 and hit it pure over the green. Chipped it, nearly went in the chip. Left it on the lip. So it was a nice birdie. It was a safe birdie in some ways. You do that when you're leading the tournament. If I was chasing I probably would have hit the 7-iron. But you got a lead, you think, oh, just be a little bit cautious.

The next hole I hit driver and I hit it well but got a lot of spin on it so it came up short. 15 yards short of the green. Actually, I hadn't contemplated I would be in the rough, I was happy to be in the bunker and I was actually in the rough and I played a really nice chip shot, but it was going by, hit the flag and again stayed on the lip. It could have dropped. But I was happy that I hit the flag.

And then 18 I hit a nice drive and an again 6-iron. Little bit cautious. Kept it left of the flag as you would expect into the greenside bunker, only 25 feet from the hole. So it was a pretty easy up-and-down from there. So that was a nice run. I missed a 3-footer on the 1st for birdie which kind of, I don't know if it halted me or what, but, yeah. I drove it through the fairway on the 3rd. So didn't make birdie there.

Had a few -- I made a good par putt on the 5th. Hit an okay shot in, but it went in the bunker and I ended up holing about a 12-footer for par. Then I played the rest okay coming in after that.

Q. New place and there's a lot of danger out there and you kept bogeys off your card for two days in a row.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, there is. You know, there is a lot of danger out there, but sometimes -- like I hit my first three tee shots down the left rough because there's hazards down the right. That's what you do when you're leading the tournament. You kind of got to get away from that as well.

As I said, I needed to -- it would have been better if I went out there trying to -- you know, it's hard to do, but you want to be a little bit freer and take a few more chances. But sometimes when you're leading you just get a little bit cautious. That's why, I suppose it happens all the time in golf, it's very, very difficult for a leader to move away from the field. It's easy for the field to chase 'em down. Because there's a bit of freedom. They have nothing to lose.

So obviously I have another 36 holes of that coming up, so it's going to be a long weekend for me.