THE SENIOR OPEN PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 30, 2023

Padraig Harrington

Royal Porthcawl Golf Club

Quick Quotes

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, look, it was one of those days, you just try and always sticking in there, sort of thing.

Disappointed with 14. Obviously you know, got lucky with the putt on 16, but a tee shot was more the fault there.

Obviously 17 and 18, as usual, back to the wall, I seem to hit golf shots, which why didn't I do that the first 16 holes. You know, if it becomes urgent, I seem okay. So yeah, nice.

Disappointing on the real time, I had that 20-footer to win. You've got to take those opportunities. You've got to really give those a go, so that's -- I'll look back at that and really feel like I should have run that. But obviously the one on the first playoff hole could have gone in but that would have been a decent break.

Obviously second shot then on 18, second time around, sometimes that happens to me. I'm trying to hit a three-quarter 9-iron, and you get over the ball and you're focused on the shot and end up hitting a normal 9-iron, which is too much. So that was disappointing in the end.

Q. Is there adrenaline in the playoff?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: No. No. That was just -- you do at the odd time, you're so focused at your target. I end up hitting that second shot. It was a three-quarter 9-iron for me. It was not a full 9-iron, and I ended up hitting it pretty decently up in the air.

Yeah, it was a nice shot but not the right shot for the situation.

Q. The chip we'll have to ask you about. What were you thinking there? Obviously Ronan handed you putter to begin with.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: No, that was to fix my pitchmark. So, I had a tuft behind it, which you know, meant I wanted to, I would have played a chip-and-run if the tuft wasn't there.

So when there's a tuft there, you want to hit it as far as you can in order that the tuft doesn't come into play. I just quit. I was really trying -- I was using a 58-degree and trying to hit, middle of my stance, and really hit it. And sometimes when you're thinking of hitting it, what do you do? You quit.

It would have been nice if I could have played a little chip-and-run back into the wind. It's never pleasant to chip-in with a lob-wedge into the wind. Unusual for me.

But I chipped really poorly all week. All week, I had a terrible time. I don't think I've ever played a tournament where I've chipped this badly. I took several double-bogeys where I would normally be taking pars.

So it was a bad week with the chipping. So disappointing there. It happens.

Q. Coming in, you were the favourite. How do you assess the week?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I played tired golf all week. I got off to a bad start. Like I look back at the week, like I double-bogeyed the first hole from the middle of the fairway from 140 yard out, double-bogeyed it.

Like I think what's -- what I take from the week, what's annoying is I seem to only play well when there's an urgency, which is a little annoying. You know, I finished up this tournament tied, and by God, will I sit back and go, you know, the first three days, I left half a half-dozen shots a day out on the golf course.

Not today. Today was brutally tough, as I said. It would have been nice to get a better start. Then we played nicely in the middle of the round, giving myself some decent chances for birdies.

14, you're just not familiar. Got 150 yards down a hill and I'm actually trying to play a shot that, you know, you haven't played in 30 years probably. I'm trying to hit a 6-iron 130 yards. Like I'm probably coming out of the trees. Without the trees in my way, actually should have used that as a better visualizer and hit a bad shot there and duffed a chip.

I don't know how the putt didn't go in on 16, but I don't know if that really mattered, because obviously Alex, we would have ended up tied no matter what if you know what I mean. If I got the putt on 16, Alex probably would have parred 17. You know the way that happens, or he might have birdied the last in real time.

I think for me, it's not giving my putt in real time on 18 a run. And then like my long putt, especially when I see the short putt I hit there, it broke, you know, quite a bit, at least from the middle of the hole to outside the left hole is the short putt, it went dead straight, the last one. So it was -- yeah, those are the breaks.

Q. The first putt in the playoff, might have been the best putt you hit today.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: By a mile. You know, what I putted well today. I didn't have -- I hit a lot of good putts, and I knocked in my short putts.

But yeah, like if I walk away from this week, I probably -- I hit a tentative put on the 72nd hole, you know, which, yeah, look, you can't -- you've got a chance to win the tournament. You've got to take a chance that you're -- you've got to hit a great putt, and in the end of the day, instead of trying -- I was trying to not hit a bad putt and I should have been trying to hit a great putt.

Some of that could be tiredness, too. As I said, all week, I haven't been -- I chipped poorly. I just haven't been myself. So I'm hoping that's not anything -- God, if I chip like that again, oohh, that was a bad week chipping.