U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2023

June 16, 2023

Padraig Harrington

The Los Angeles Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You've done your calculations, and it looks like you missed making the cut two out of three, sort of chance of making to make the cut.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Okay, that's good news. We need a bit of sunshine.

Q. So it's 61 percent projected, so let's try and be optimistic. How are you feeling right now? Hard but good day's work.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Look, the damage was done yesterday. I hit a lot of good putts yesterday that didn't go in the hole. Okay, I come out there freed up a bit and I holed some putts, but then you're always on cut line. I tried so hard, and I had good chances on I think 11, 12, got very unlucky on 13.

Like the lad said, good drive to me on 13, and end up like having to chip out.

Then I had a good chance on 14 and 15.

So four good birdie chances.

And I was and even 16. I ran my putt -- ^ ran five good putts because the hole because I knew if I could get one more birdie that means those last three holes, yeah, they're tough, tough, tough holes.

Obviously missing a 4-footer on 17.

Then I was forced into a downhill putt on 18 having a go at even another 4-footer coming back. Yeah, look, it's a tough finish. You would prefer to be finishing the other way around if you had the score, but, yeah, my damage was done yesterday.

But I did play very nicely today and yesterday. I played -- probably a couple of slack irons yesterday; they weren't there today. But I probably hit it better yesterday.

Q. Conditions out there today?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Tough, tough. Much tougher. They have lengthened the golf course substantially. Firmed the greens up a little. They have used some -- I don't know if they have changed the pin positions from what they had intended, but with the longer golf course and the firmer greens, those pins certainly were difficult.

Q. You seem to be working your way into this; is that fair to say? You really want this weekend of golf?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, you know what, every major I ever come to nearly, except for the ones I was winning, I wish I had a week more. I did some good practice at home, but I kind of lost my way there the last couple of days.

Yeah, I wasn't quite ready for it yesterday morning. Hopefully I get another couple of days here and my -- certainly my mindset is on two weeks time at the Senior major.

Q. So about two years ago when you were fourth in the PGA Championship you were 49, and you were in that vein of still being a PGA TOUR player who hadn't gone to the over-50 seniors tour. But now that you're on the Champions Tour and obviously senior majors are very important to you, you won a U.S. Senior Open, that's the reason you're here. What do majors like this mean to you?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, you know, I still think I'm a player. You know what? I'm a lot better than I was two years ago when I finished fourth at the PGA. I putt a lot better than that, my game is a lot better, I hit the ball better.

That was a big week probably a bit of an outlier that PGA. I wouldn't think it would be an outlier for me to do the same again. So I am in a lot better a place than that performance two years ago.

Q. I remember you saying only last year at the Masters you're not here just to make the cut, but obviously making the cut is important because you won't be around for the weekend. What are you here for then in terms of your ambitions?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I think at this stage I want to go out there and shoot good scores so that the next major I feel comfortable in the environment.

So that's where you're at. Making the cut is not going to define anything in my career. I really hope I make the cut, but I want to go out there and play in a major and shoot some good scores.

That builds confidence, so that when I come back to the next major I feel comfortable in the environment.

Q. You've said to me that you think that there is a fourth major in you and obviously everybody looks at the Open Championship the fact that you're a links specialist and there's nothing really that differentiates you from one of the top contenders, if you're on your game that week, other than obviously believing that you can do it. So you must be gaining a lot from your cut made and good performance at the PGA, your hopefully cut made here and good performance here going into Hoy Lake?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I like the way you're thinking. My preparation for any major is -- it's all about me be being a little bit more disciplined and sometimes yeah I just, every time I'm her I remind myself I got to do a better job the next time.

So hopefully when it does come to the Open Championship this will be a little kick up the backside that I got to get my preparation right. You come to these majors and it's amazing, it comes down to wedge. I probably had about over two days I probably had nearly 12, you know, probably, 10, 12 wedge shots.

You think these golf courses are long but it really comes down to how good you hit those wedges. Sometimes you neglect that part and I do need to be a little bit stronger than that going into the Open Championship.

Because, again, as much as you always think it's about this perfect ball striking, it's more about making the right decisions at the right time.

Q. Again, with the proviso that you make the cut, hopefully, this course will likely get stronger and harder over the next two days. USGA have already hinted towards that and they have more than hinted towards it in the way they have setup the course today?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: They have anything they want out there on that golf course. Yes, they could set it up very easy and today they have gone back, made it a sterner test. They have a -- I'm sure yesterday they didn't know what they had, because the first time here in a long time that they were a bit afraid that they could set it up too difficult and have players, especially a great first day, and the first round of a U.S. Open is always the slowest round of the year, so they would have been afraid of setting the golf course up difficult.

Obviously now they can see, hey, we can put a little bit more into it, so, yeah, I would be expecting a little tougher over the weekend, but again, you know that the ideal scoring from a players' perspective about 14-under par. Start getting down to level par the players are saying, hang on a second, this is a bit tricky.

Obviously you start getting 10, 12-under par; now the USGA won't be happy. So somewhere between 4 and 8. The fact that guys got to 8 they're certainly going to try to hold those guys back and have a winning score in sync he will digits.

Q. You said before the tournament that you might give a body part for 4-under par score at the end of the four rounds. That is 6-under over the weekend, two 67, is that doable for you?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's doable. It's not going to win the tournament. They're not giving up body parts for that anymore. No, that was negotiation before the start of the week.