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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 20, 2008Padraig HarringtonTUCSON, ARIZONA SCOTT CROCKETT: Padraig, thanks, as always, for coming in to join us. A good morning's work for you. You must be very pleased. It looked to be a very solid performance for you; you never were in trouble. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I suppose that's the way it looks when you see the figures. Jerry is always going to be a strong competitor. I got the start I wanted to in the first hole. I think about the fifth hole I holed from about 30 feet and he missed from 10 feet. We were 2-up. And from there I felt solid and kept moving forward. Jerry obviously had to go after the pins and was under more pressure in that sense. So that really made all the difference, that putting. Who knows what it would have been -- it certainly would have been a very tight match if I hadn't holed there and he missed. SCOTT CROCKETT: You had seven birdies in total, which means your own game is in good form. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I didn't even know it, so that's a good sign, anyway, that I was focused on what I was doing. But there are opportunities out there. It's a good golf course for us. There are some reachable par-5s and some reachable par-4s. So plenty of chances for birdie. You've got to make them. If you don't make them out there, you're going to throw away matches. Q. Are you surprised that you're playing this well at this stage of the season? You're normally not quite on the top of your game now. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I don't believe I am quite at the top of my game. I'm not feeling as comfortable as I could when I'm on the golf course. I'm working hard for everything I'm getting. It's still -- I'm still a little bit uncompetitive, a little bit rusty. I'm happy with the form I showed today. If I could replicate it every day, I would tell you I'm playing well. But I'm not 100 percent confident or 100 percent sharp that I feel relaxed enough for tomorrow's round that I'll produce the exact same form. I am happy with what I've done but maybe not as comfortable as the scoring suggests. Q. What needs to improve? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Just decision-making and not changing my mind at times. The sort of stuff you get at the start of the year when you have been working through the winter, you come out, your swing isn't quite embedded in, and you're maybe complicating things a little too much at times. I think the more I play this week, the more I keep playing tournaments, the sharper I'll get. That's the way I look at these things. Hopefully as each day goes on, if I can keep winning I should be getting better. I should be getting more comfortable with things. Q. Do you look down the bracket and do you know who you're playing next? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: The most is I looked at who was the match beside me, so that I knew that I'd be either playing Miguel or Stewart Cink. And I think I saw that Jim Furyk and Monty are near enough or whatever. Q. So you don't -- PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I couldn't tell if I'm in Tiger's half or quarter, or I couldn't tell you if I'm in Phil's half or quarter, I don't know. I've been quite disciplined on staying in focus on what I'm doing this week. Q. When you're practicing tomorrow for your next match on the range, will you use your normal routine or will you concentrate on your opponent or stuff you learned from the course today? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Normal routine, absolutely. There's not much you can do to your opponent on the practice range before your match. Certainly it's questionable whether you can affect your opponent's play with your ability to hit shots on the golf course. Possibly if you hit it close it does. But I've never heard of anybody using the practice ground as a way to work on how he's going to beat his opponent. I'll just do the normal warmup I would for any round of golf that I play. SCOTT CROCKETT: You'll be thankful it won't be a 4:50 alarm call. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: 4:50 alarm call was very early, but the bonus is a get to watch the Celtic game. They showed all the Champions League last year on regular TV. One of the Spanish television stations will be showing Barcelona. Q. Why up at 4:50, why not 5:00 or -- PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's all timed. It takes 40 minutes of gym work and 20 minutes to wash up. That's an hour. That's ten to 5:00. It took 40 minutes to get here, that's 6:30. 15 minutes for breakfast, 20 minutes for physio. Three minutes to get out to the tee or to the practice ground, an hour to warm up, it's normally two and a half hours plus travel. So three hours, ten minutes, and I gave an extra eight minutes today just because it takes a few minutes to get around the place here. Q. What about Stewart Cink? I think you might be playing him tomorrow. You met him on the second round last year. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's interesting that we're going to play again this year. I think with everybody in this tournament, you can't go out and feel like there's -- every match is going to be difficult, so it doesn't matter who your opposition is, I think everybody has got to be more worried about what they're doing. As I said, if you don't play the course out there, you're leaving yourself -- if you don't make the birdies on those par-5s and par-4s and others, you're leaving yourself vulnerable to anybody in the field. It's a quality field, so whether I was playing Miguel or Stewart Cink, you've got to think it's going to be a tough match. SCOTT CROCKETT: Padraig, well done. End of FastScripts |
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