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VOLVO MASTERS

October 27, 2006

Padraig Harrington

SOTOGRANDE, SPAIN: Second Round

Q. Got off to a good start and didn't finish it off. How satisfying to finish it off today?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, obviously I kind of had a blip again in the middle of the round, a couple of 3 putts and all of a sudden I'm back to level par and I feel like I'm struggling, but made a very nice birdie at 14, birdie at 17.

Feel good about the score. Obviously depends a little bit on what the field does today, but I'm hoping they don't run away from me, and if they don't, five shorts isn't too far behind with 36 holes to go.

Q. Give us a sense of conditions, a very different day.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It was tough out there. The ball wasn't traveling at times. Yesterday I hit 3 wood, 8 iron to 9. Today I hit 3 wood again and get home with 4 iron from there. So four clubs longer without much changing except it was cold. I.

Think the cold really took a lot of distance out of the ball. Obviously the forecast is windy and warm so, I don't know what it's going to be like for the rest of the day, but if it stays cold, I think the cold weather is making it very difficult out there.

Q. You obviously come in here with a dual agenda; how do you feel halfway through?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, my dual agenda is looked after by winning the one and only agenda of winning the tournament. So I don't really need to worry about the Order of Merit. I just need to keep myself in contention and hopefully nine holes to go, thereabouts, and see what happens from there.

Q. What was the difference between the two rounds, was it the putter?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, you know, I holed a couple of putts holed a few more putts than I did yesterday, I would have said today was a nice a couple of 3 putts was a nice, average day on the green. I wouldn't have said I went berserk or anything like that.

So I had a bad day, an average day, hopefully I have two good ones left in me. Not even numbers, I think I probably had more chances yesterday. So it's about holing putts like I did on the last, 10 foot putt there. I just had an acorn behind my ball so I wasn't sure how it was going to come out. To hole the putt for par makes a lot better. It seems one shot means a lot in that sort of situation when it's the last hole.

So little things like that make all the difference. I had a lot of chances yesterday that went astray and today I certainly took a few more, made a very good chip out of a divot chip and putt on 9 out of a divot. That was a good chip and a putt. I hit a really nice second shot that pitched up short and trickled back down the hill. I was hooking a 5 iron around the tree and it was nice good get up and down there. 8 and 9, two good chip and putts.

Q. It looked like it was going about 20 feet past the hole and suddenly the brakes went on.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Just good contact. (Laughter) You're going to get scathing wet weather in Spain, so instead of being able to chip it with a pitching wedge, I had to go with a lob wedge and hit down on it a lot. I knew it would spin like that.

Q. Manufacturing more shots with the conditions?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It wasn't that windy. You didn't have to manufacture a lot of shots. There wasn't anywhere where you felt you couldn't control the ball in the winds. The ball just wasn't traveling into the wet wind. There was nowhere you felt you had to hit at times you have to convince yourself not to try and overdraw or over cut the ball in the crosswinds because at times the wind is very light out there. If it was sunny out, you'd hardly being paying any attention to it. But it's just the cold weather into the wind, it's just not traveling.

Q. Would you like the conditions to remain as they were today?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I don't really mind actually. I was quite happy yesterday when it was nice weather, I'd be quite happy tomorrow regardless of the way the weather comes out. I am comfortable in tougher conditions, especially when the greens are soft.

So, yeah, I would be happy enough with this for the weekend. But if it doesn't, I don't mind either.

Q. A couple of players have come off and said there should be preferred lies out there with it being as soft, did you have any incidence of mud on your ball?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Not even close. Every lie was perfect.

Q. Except the divot.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, but when you have yourself in front of the green and the ball is bouncing off the fringe on the way back down, the only thing back down, the only thing that's going to stop it is some sort of impurity. I knew if it got into the fringe, I'd have a nice, soft lie but it just kept playing billiards off it.

Q. Can you get aggressive over the weekend around here?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Play the same way as I've played. Today or yesterday's round, tee to green would be adequate, well and truly would be better than adequate. If I hole a few putts on top of that as I did today, you know, if I go bad, it would be a very good day.

Q. 9 or 10 under par if it stays like this?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I don't know. As I say, I hope the field doesn't run away from me today. If I've five shots back, that's not bad for 36 holes. I'm more worried about them going away than coming back let's say. There's a number of guys, so I'm going to have go forward no matter what this weekend anyway.

Q. You're not another sick player, are you taking precautions?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's amazing, there's more than one, there was two sick players today, wasn't there?

Q. Are you doing anything?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: David Lynn and Simon Wakefield, both of them are sick.

Q. Are you avoiding anything you would normally eat?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No. And a load of the caddies and some of the wives; a lot of people are coming down, whatever it is. No, no precautions. I'll probably regret that tomorrow now.

End of FastScripts.

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