PNC CHAMPIONSHIP

December 21, 2024

Padraig Harrington

Patrick Harrington

The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Every time I looked up, Paddy was making big putts. Did it stay like that all day?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, we had a good day. I wiped out three tee shots. Hit three foul balls. He hit some great shots to really keep us going. Hit a lot of -- like this is the first year we've played somewhere that my son has been the stalwart that got us where we are.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: I got a few here and there but I think --

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: We both holed putts.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: I had good lines the whole day, and you followed me in a few times.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: He hit a lot of good pressure shots. When I was out of holes, he kept the ball in play. So to be honest he made it a lot easier for us today.

Q. Is there any part of your competitive side ease at all?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: No. Just more stress. We're enjoying it but you know, you're trying. You don't want to mess it up. But we are enjoying it, yeah. It's a good atmosphere.

Obviously things went well today. So it was easier to enjoy. But you know, I think that's kind of nice for us. We finished fourth one year. But this is the first time we've been playing at the top of the leaderboard, which is nice.

Q. And you made a bogey, too, didn't you?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: We did. We made a bad bogey. I hit in the rubbish. Paddy hit a nice drive in the hole and then I hit a bad chip and missed the putt which sometimes happens in this game. It wasn't a hole you would expect to make bogey but it was quite a tight tee shot from off the back there.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: Hard to putt up a score like that when you have made a bogey especially early on. I think we got on the train after that, eight in a row.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Made eight in a row, which was nice. We could do no wrong for a while.

Q. It's a great mustache and I'm curious if the father could ever pull it off.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: Have you not seen his Movembers? I only wish I could grow handlebars like he does.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I have done the odd Movember, yes. But no, I don't think I could handle that. I think his mother and father are not commenting.

Q. This is your sixth time playing, what is it that keeps you coming back and how much pleasure do you get knowing that PNC have signed it until '32?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It's a sought-after week now. Everybody wants to play. There's guys disappointed. I know from my perspective, my two sons are trying to divvy up when they are going to play, who is going to play. They are both very keen for when I get to 55 because I go up a tee box.

Yeah, look, it's one much those --

PATRICK HARRINGTON: For alternating years, that's my year.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: See, they are already arguing over it. You know, it's a way of -- the encouragement to get out there and play golf and have something to focus at this time of the year is brilliant. To be able to play with your -- either son is fun.

You're very proud when they hit a shot. It really is, you know, whenever they do something that's -- like Paddy hit one down 16 today, and it was as good as any pro could hit. He hit it on 13, drove it 30 feet from the hole in the front bunker. It pitched there. I was going, yeah, that's really nice. It's nice when you see your son do something like that.

Yeah, it brings out a lot of joy for the dads. A little bit of stress around the event, too. But I think you wouldn't miss it for the world.

Q. And are you feeling -- now in your fifth time, maybe a little bit less nervous?

PATRICK HARRINGTON: I kind of know what's going on during the week a lot more. I don't know, like, less stress, more nervous, I would say. I think I kind of knew I was a lot better playing coming into this year. Dad's had three really good years. I'm trying so much harder to hit nice shots into the greens and stuff like that and give us opportunities.

Obviously you know, when we are making birdies all the time, it's just -- it takes -- you get less nervous but also more nervous. Like standing up on 18, it helped a lot you hitting but still.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, it's nice to be on top of the leaderboard. As I see it, the good shots are more common now, and they are very good.

So yeah, just as he said, we feel like we can actually compete, and that obviously brings its own level of anxiousness and nervousness. When you know you can do well, you want to do well.

Q. Like everyone says, it's showing what happens inside the ropes, and if you're actually standing on 18 and you're at the top of the leaderboard, generally you know what your dad has felt at times when you probably thought, Oh, he's got it wrapped up?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It's harder when there's two of us because you're playing for somebody else. I think when you're on your own, you're accepting of what happens and you just keep going.

I think when there's two, you don't want to mess it up for the other, and that can definitely make it tougher.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: I hit it in the water on 17, and I definitely saw you sweating (laughter).

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I changed clubs, everything. From, I'm going to draw it on the pin here with a 7-iron, to I'll chip it with a 6-iron and cut it back into the middle of the green.

Put it like this: You took at chance -- hole-in-one out of play. I wasn't even going near the flag.

Q. This is your fifth time playing?

PATRICK HARRINGTON: This is my fifth.

Q. Of all the times you've played and all the times you've gone to tournaments when you were younger, how many of the other family members do you know?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: He's good. I have to give -- what's his name, he knows them all.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: I think he's talking about the pros.

Q. No. I'm talking about the amateurs.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: The amateurs we play with in the Pro-Ams every year, we played with one of the PNC bank guys, Terry, a few years ago; and we played with him again this year, and I remembered his name and his son's name.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: He's good with all that. Is it the pro's sons?

Q. That's what I meant.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: We played with John Daly II and Brady Duval a few years.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I think what's interesting is, you've gotten to know other players sons much more through this event than the Tour, much more. They are going through the same things. You see them meet up and shake hands and you can see it in their hands that, yeah, you're feeling the same as me here. There is a bond between them, and it's much more relaxed.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: It was different for me, as well, being the fact that we didn't live here. So I wasn't maybe on tour as much. It was, like, the summer I was on tour, rather than I think like a lot of the other families, particularly in this event obviously live here and live in Florida, and it's easier. Like, they see each other every week when they are traveling.

Q. Is there a process on how you decide who plays and which year?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Exams at the moment. Whoever has got exams, timing. Paddy didn't play there because of exams.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: Finals.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It's absolutely based on exams.

Q. As you get older, how is that going to change?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It will be a long-drive competition. That will decide it in the future.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: I'm good for now.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: You're good.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: I gained about 13 miles this summer.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: They will have to push it now.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: It helps a lot that it's a week later this year. Like I would have had an exam last week if it had been --

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Freddie's son-in-law, or stepson, he was doing an exam yesterday, was it?

PATRICK HARRINGTON: Earlier in the week.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Look, it's all about trying to fit that in and picking it based on that. They will both get a run.

I was fascinated last year, Ciaran, the first shop he hit in a competition was off the first tee here last year. Never, ever played in a competition.

Q. And how was it?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: He hit it down the middle.

PATRICK HARRINGTON: That's always a nice shot.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Paddy did, as well. All good.