THE 152ND OPEN

July 18, 2024

Padraig Harrington

Mixed Zone

Q. Did you need to draw on all of your experience for those last holes?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I played okay, even for the first couple of holes. I was a bit unlucky on the 1st. Bunker shot should have stopped, and it went four feet by and I missed it, which wasn't great. Good chip on the 2nd.

After that I played very solid all the way. Kept it in play very nicely, hit lots of nice shots.

It's always going to be difficult to get it really close. It was disappointing on the last for that one to lip out. Would have been nice to get back to level-par, maybe the three-putt on 16 from off the front. A couple of those, I would have liked to get it back to level-par. Certainly felt I could have.

Maybe I'm just a little disappointed with the score at the end.

Q. You just mentioned the way the course is playing differently today with the wind. Were you expecting that change to come?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, we all knew it was coming.

Q. How did it affect you? How did it affect the play on the links?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It was hard to comprehend how short the ball goes when the weather is bad, like hit 6-iron out there when it's 150 yards, you're trying to get it to -- think you can get it on at 165 and you're hitting 150. So that happened a few times.

Just got to get it in your head really, when the temperature is down and a little bit damp, the ball doesn't go into that wind. Like I hit a nice shot into 5, and it came up short in the bunker. I thought I'd comfortably carry it, and it bounced into it.

That's links golf, isn't it? You have to adapt and adapt as quick as you can.

Q. It's a real Open test today, isn't it?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, it was a good tough test, I've got to say. Yeah, the start was a little awkward, and as I said, I could have -- 16 and 18 there could have turned it into a very nice round. Anything level-par or better would have certainly been a good return for today.

Q. You sound a little disappointed that you're not a little bit closer to the top of the leaderboard. Because yesterday you were saying your game is still working on a bit of technique.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: As I said, I just left a few out there, like that three-putt on 16. I hit a beautiful shot in, and I was a little unlucky it didn't scoot forward on 18. The ball just fell off the lip from the high side rather than in.

Yeah, it should have been -- could have been easy a 1-under from where I hit it coming home. I was in a lot of good places coming home. 13 I missed. 15, I didn't hit a good pitch in there. I definitely could have made, you know, a few more birdies for sure.

On the way out, it was difficult, and you had to knuckle down. But on the way home, there was certainly chances. 1-over is a poor return for today, yes.

Q. You're off early tomorrow, but not too early. Can you see yourself maybe (indiscernible)?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I just play every shot as it comes. You try and figure it out at the end of the day. I'll get up in the morning and approach it the same way, hit each shot and see what happens.

Some days they go in and it's all happy days, other days it's a little tougher. I won't be doing anything different tomorrow. I'll be just playing my game.

Yeah, it's not like we're expecting to get out in the morning and there's no wind or something like that, and it's not like I'm playing at 6:00 in the morning or something like that. I don't see -- in my head, it's just going to be the same all day tomorrow. I don't see that coming out early -- it's not like the greens putt any better in the morning than in the afternoon. It's kind of all the same here.

Q. Given the change between yesterday and today, can you see it changing again at the end of the tournament as well in terms of the conditions?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I don't know. I don't look at weather forecasts. Just don't. Whatever I get in the day, whatever shot presents me, I can't control that weather, so I don't worry about it.

Q. You don't mind that weather. Other people don't like it.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I like nice sunny weather. I know where you're going with it, that there's no doubt you can -- I played with Davis today, and he was certainly -- even though he does come from a windy golf course, he was pretty lost early on in that wind, but we all were.

There will be a few people scratching their heads this evening thinking they really don't understand links golf. It was just a weird day. Really the ball wasn't going. Even the guys who are well used to links found it a difficult day.

Q. Just one from me. If I walked onto 13 and said, I'll give you 72 if you walk in now, would you have taken it?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Probably would have at that stage, but it wouldn't have been a fair reflection of how I played after that.

By the way, nobody gives you anything in golf. It doesn't matter what you wish for.