THE 151ST OPEN

July 22, 2023

Padraig Harrington

Mixed Zone

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Nice finish. Yeah, better to do par-5s when they're into the wind and not downwind. There you go. You never know.

Q. Conditions good for scoring?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No, it is pretty nice, yeah. The weather since the rain is gone, it's been a little different wind, but I think in general pretty good for scoring, yeah.

Q. You had some chances early on.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's not like I hit bad putts, but links greens can be quite flat, and so I'd be doing better if they were on one plane, bigger breaks -- I'm hitting a lot of putts that I just don't seem to be able to get it right.

But thankfully I've kept hitting good putts, so that's a positive. When they're not going in and you keep hitting good putts, it's a good thing.

Yeah, missing a lot of chances. Not creating much momentum. Trying to stay patient.

I was hoping to go out there today and after the last two days get the run that I didn't get those two days and maybe make three or four birdies in nine holes and all of a sudden you're back in the tournament, but it wasn't to be.

Q. Do you start thinking about next week already?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm thinking more in general actually about my game, to be honest. The last couple of weeks I've seen some substantial pickup in my game, improvement, and I like what I see.

I'm very happy with the -- I was trying to get ready for this week and started last week, and yeah, it was some good improvement in my mental game, and I feel good about it.

I feel committed to keep going down that road, and I see some positive results ahead.

Q. The schedule you said would change --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm going to play next week, but I do think I'm going to play a few more in Europe. As I said, it would seem a bigger deal to try and win a European event than a Champions Tour event.

Q. Switzerland --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm in good enough form to do that, yes, I think that would probably be -- I know Switzerland has never been a happy hunting ground for me, but I like it up there so we'll go enjoy a week in Crans and see if anything comes of it.

Q. I think you're the oldest man to make the cut this week.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: The beauty is that I'm not aware of it.

Q. Age to you is irrelevant, isn't it?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Completely irrelevant. Yeah, no, I don't think of age at all. Not in any shape or form.

Q. That will change, by the way.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I think of it when I'm getting out of bed in the morning, but I don't think of it in golfing terms. I'm trying to compete, and as I said, I feel I can.

The only thing that's held me back for three days is some good putts not falling the right way at the right time.

And that's links golf. You can often have a putt travel in that right lip and if it's your week it falls into the hole, and if it's not you week on the links it falls out.

That's just the nature of the greens -- they tend to move like that because there's different planes.

The guy who's holing the putts doesn't seem to be able to miss. I holed probably an eight-footer on 15, and it was just outside the hole and just got to the left lip, and then it kind of horseshoed around the hole and into the hole, and at no stage did I think it was going to go into the hole.

You know, I wasn't even hoping it would go in the hole. I was just looking at it where is it going to miss kind of thing.

Q. That's the kind of thing we think of.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: When they're continually missing, you assume that the next one is going to hit the lip and miss, too; whereas when they're continually going in, you don't even second-guess your read.

It's like I said, the one I won a few weeks ago I had a putt on 17 from six feet or something. I could have turned my back on the hole and it was going in. Didn't matter what my line was, didn't matter what the read was. Some days they go like that.

Now I've had three days where I'm struggling to find my way into the hole.

Q. If you're one of the guys looking at the leader at 10-under and you're maybe under par going into the weekend, you have 36 holes to --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Look, I think you've got to go out there and play your golf for a few holes and see how you're getting on. I certainly don't think you can go out there -- if you're 1-under par I don't think you go out there and think I've got to shoot 9-under par for the first nine holes.

You get a feel for if you're playing well, maybe get a little more aggressive. If you're playing okay, keep it steady for a while.

I don't think you need to panic is what I'm saying straightaway. That doesn't mean that Brian Harman isn't going to get to 20-under par. It just means the best chance you have is just stick to your game and keep yourself in there. You're just not quite sure whether 6-, 7-under par could be a good score here this week. It's just not clear.

As I said, Brian could get to 15-under par and all those 1-under pars have no chance, but he could also have a careful weekend which a leader would often have and shoot like two 72s, and all of a sudden 8-under par is a lot more doable for those 1, 2 and 3s. And it's nice conditions.

I do think the conditions -- I do think the conditions lend themselves to those 2- or 3-under pars shooting -- somebody is going to shoot a 4-under par there. Brian will really have to think to himself -- if he can get to 15-under par for the weekend, he takes the whole field out. That's the way he's got to think, nobody can beat him.

Whereas if he stays around 10 he'll probably win. If he drops a few back to 8 or 7, he's giving a lot of people a chance.