THE SENIOR OPEN PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 28, 2023

Padraig Harrington

Royal Porthcawl Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Mixed emotions, I'd imagine. You've climbed that leaderboard, taken three shots off the course, but how do you feel after that 68?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, it could have been a lot better. Obviously 5-under through eight, a little bit of mud on my ball on 9, and you know there's an out-of-bounds left of the green. And I just worried about it and blocked it right, and didn't hit a good chip and didn't hit a good bunker shot and didn't hit a good putt.

Then I started playing well again. Hit it pretty close for a number of holes, the next five holes, had some good chances. Then I think 16 was tired golf. Bad decisions. Tired decisions I made on that hole. I can see it. Yeah, just tired.

17, not far behind it. You know, it was nice to make an eagle down the last and get something out of the round. It would have been very frustrating obviously just to shoot 1-under, but it was a day I could have -- I shot 3-under. Certainly is a day that I rue that I didn't shoot 8-under.

But you know, maybe there's one on the weekend. I certainly, yeah, I made a lot of tired decisions the first day and some more today, so that worries me. I need to recover for the next two days.

Q. When you say "tired," is this --

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I've had a long couple of weeks. It's not -- you know, it's not just playing all the rounds. When you're playing in a major, you're trying that little bit harder. You're grinding that little bit more. I was doing quite nicely in Scotland, so also, again, you put that much more effort in, a bit more tension in your body, let's say.

So there were two long working weeks. The weather was tough enough. The wind was tough enough. I would say, yeah, I could see it today, just, you know, got a little bit agitated on 16, and just made some really poor decisions.

Q. A couple of those holes were not really an accurate reflection of how you were playing today. Do you leave those in the past and start fresh tomorrow?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I didn't do much wrong on 17 at all. As I said, that was the bogey, and the two doubles, it was bad short game in there. Same as yesterday. Yesterday I started with a double, which kind of set the tone for the day. I missed the green terribly but I actually chipped it over the green from the edge of the green. Don't do that too often.

Yeah, look, it happens. You work hard for those last couple of week the, and I definitely can see it. I can see it easily on 16. Easily agitated by the bad lie and then I just compounded the error, and that's the sort of thing you do when you're tired.