U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2023

June 17, 2023

Padraig Harrington

The Los Angeles Country Club

Quick Quotes

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I try and stay away from those expectations. Most of my golf now, which is the way it should always be, is about managing me. I'm not really trying to worry too much about everybody else. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing, mainly mentally.

As I said, the last couple years on the Champions Tour has shown you when you're in contention it shows up a lot, and I've seen the error of my ways.

Even this week, again, I wasn't as good as I could be, but I see some good stuff. Physically I'm capable and I know what to do mentally, I just sometimes -- it's a bit of a stumbling block to get myself to do the good stuff mentally.

Q. You had a wonderful up-and-down at the first. You're thinking birdie off the tee, but you're happy to walk off with 5 in the end. Was that sort of the catalyst for what happened later?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, as I said, I hit a lovely third shot in, and to be honest, I walked down there, got a lovely lie. It was a nice break. If you make 6, you're probably correct that a lesser man would struggle after making 6 at the first. I don't know where I'd put myself in that category.

But yeah, gave me some nice momentum. I made a good up-and-down on 4, as well. Missed a chance on 5. Got a little unlucky on 6 with the ball plugged in the bunker. That took a lot of the next shot out.

At that stage, as I said, the ups and downs at that stage, it seemed to be that way all day. A couple of good up-and-downs, a couple of missed chances, great to make an eagle at 8 and really kick-started the round and then I had plenty of good chances all the way through until -- 16 is a difficult hole. I tried to put it into the fairway, and if you miss the fairway, you're a long way back if you do that. Maybe tomorrow just let it go on the wind and try and get it down there.

It's a tough hole. All the last couple of holes are tough holes because you are caught between trying to poke one down and leaving yourself a lot further back or try and hit one and take a chance -- if you hit the fairway, you have a much more reasonable second shot.

It's quite a good setup. I think it's an excellent setup. We were going out there today wondering would there be a bit of bite in it, would there be a bit of fight back. But it was a good setup.

I think the one thing you've got to -- if you produce a golf course in good condition, like these are probably the best greens we've ever putted on in a major. I'm telling you, these are just a pure bent surface which is beautiful to putt on. If you produce good greens, you're going to get good scoring.

Q. Tomorrow, what are your ambitions? Obviously probably victory is out of sight, or maybe you don't feel that way --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm just going to play, same as today, I'm just going to go and hit every shot individually. I know it's cliche and all that. A lot of it is actually, I hate so say, it's a bit of practice, just seeing if I can go out there and keep my head mentally in the game. I do some terrible stuff when --

Q. Details?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Perfect example, on 18 I'm aiming up the left-hand side and I am trying not to hit it right. Where did I hit it?

Q. You succeeded.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I've never not succeeded on every shot I've ever hit in my life. Never not hit a golf ball where I've wanted to hit it. Never, ever. Golf ball has always gone where I've wanted to hit it. My whole life, never failed to hit it where I wanted to hit it. Just a bit of a mental -- sometimes I change my mind.

But that's just more practice. It really is. Go out there, and as I said, I'll stand on that first tee and I'll pick a line off the first tee, and I might go -- I could probably try and hit it at the Beverly sign with a bit of a fade in a right-to-left wind, and the whole concept is I don't change my mind midway down and try and not hit it right or try and not hit it left. If I stuck to my guns, I'll hit a good shot, and if I don't, I'll hit the other shot. It is 18 holes of practice.

I'm sounding like I'm making that as simple -- it is as simple as that. It's just 18 holes of mental practice, which I just can't seem to recreate that on the range, so I have to be on the golf course to do it.

Go out there tomorrow, and the less I get in my way, the better I'll be at the next major.

Q. You hit it as close on 15 as anybody. What's the strategy there?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: There's a lovely upslope just left of the pin. As long as you go about four or five yards left of the pin, there's a nice upslope.