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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 2008

Padraig Harrington

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

Q. Smile back on your face coming in, anyway?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, it's always nice to do things like that. Kind of a tale of two halves. Played nice early on, didn't get the putts. Then struggled a bit and made a few bogeys. And then got a few breaks and made a few birdies. So somewhere in between those it would be very nice, I suppose.

Q. What's your overall assessment?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Don't really know. I don't walk away thinking I need to change anything or anything like that, just need to stay patient and wait for it to be my turn again.

Q. Do you feel that you didn't stay patient this week, and that was part of the reason --
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, it's, sometimes circumstances on the course, whether the ball drops in or whether you get the right break here or there, it helps.
I worked hard and stayed reasonably good all week, but there's certainly an item of trying too hard sometimes. And there wasn't a great -- I didn't recover, after I made mistakes I didn't recover very well. Maybe I need to make a few more mistakes and recover. It's a strange game that way. Sometimes -- anytime I hit a slack shot I felt like I ended up making bogey. And sometimes made bogey from even not hitting bad shots.
Obviously on day 2, at the end of that round everything went my way, and you just have to hang around and wait for tournaments like that.

Q. Can you assess the course this week. Is it worthy of having another U.S. Open?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I think it was very fair. I think the course is exceptionally generous, the setup today. They set it up for very good scoring. If you play well on the course it was definitely -- early on today, with the greens they were, they were fairly receptive. Good scoring was definitely honored there.
As you can see, there is plenty of good scoring. Yeah, I think it's a really good golf course. I think -- they said it would be easy for the week, and still only 3-under par is leading. So that's a sign that they're well in control here and that's the sign of a good Major course.

Q. What did you think of 14 with the tee up?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I'm all for driveable par-4s at the end of a round. It was just in between, just a little long for 5-wood and a little short for 3-wood today, which mine just went on the back edge. I'm lucky it didn't drop into the water or that would be my week, all right. I'm all for a bit of excitement on the golf course. So I thought it was a good idea that.

Q. If you are tied for the lead on Sunday, do you still hit 3-wood or do you hit 6-iron, sand wedge?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: 8-iron, sand wedge. Because of the way it worked out for me, like I say, an easy 3-wood, pitched it on the green, and like I said it was an inch from going into the hazard over the back. And I probably would have -- I wouldn't have gone for it. Because I definitely had too much club in my hand. There would be no point in playing a shot if you hit it well, and if you hit it too well it would go into the hazard. It's whatever club you've got in your hand, it depends if you like it or not.

Q. What's your undermost emotion after this, frustration, disappointment?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, as I said, I will obviously sit back in a time and look back at it and appraise my attitude, and those areas of my game. I felt I very much got it right all week, it just wasn't my week.
I hit an awful lot of putts, good putts that stayed on the high side. But you've got to hit them on the high side on these greens. Another week I'd be dropping a few more putts. As I said, you hole a few putts you think you're playing better, and you do play better.
I think I'll just look back -- I will have to sit back and look back at it. As of this moment I'd say there's nothing to change, at all.

Q. Is there a feeling of disappointment?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, this is the second one. I can't say I'm disappointed, no. I can't kick myself for not winning one of the next two or next three. So, not at all. I approached this right. As I said, it wasn't my week, but that's life. And I'll wait around patiently, as I said. I'm actually happy with -- I think I got my approach right this week and I'm happy to continue that on for The Open and the PGA.

Q. If you had known the course a bit better, would that have helped?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Certainly the first day I hit in the left hand bunker on 18, not realizing I would be left of the pin. That certainly was just inexperience. I was trying to hit it left of the pin when I shouldn't have been. So, yeah, there's definitely shots that if I knew the course -- but I didn't have a chance to know. That's part of professional golf, you can't get everything you want. It doesn't preclude me from winning, not knowing everything you need to know, but I'm sure I'll play it many more times and I still won't know the course.
It is nice to know a course, but I couldn't do anything about it.

Q. How well do you know Birkdale?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Not very well. I played on it a couple of weeks ago. I played in the last Open there. But I wouldn't know it overly well. I know links golf, so that's a help.

Q. Are you confident going in there?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yep. I'm happy with my game and just, as I said, I'll work the next couple of weeks towards it, I have another four weeks now, and hopefully come the tournament I'll be ready to go.

Q. Has it been a fun ride this year being The Open Championship?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It was a great ride last year, but this year it's back to business. I haven't thought much about it. Obviously that will be different when I go back to Birkdale and defend. Other weeks of the year it's been very much just concentrating on each event as it comes.

Q. In terms of the Ryder Cup that wasn't a great week last time, you could have picked up a few more points and this year --
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: As I said, I'm having an interesting time at the Ryder Cup. I think I at least Top-10'd every tournament from the end of September to the start of this year. And I've had a number of tough times, yet still haven't picked up any points in any significant numbers. I'm sure that will turn around. My golf has been good, steady, solid, but maybe erratic would be better.

Q. So it's in the back of your mind?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm well aware of the situation. As I said, finishing a shot behind the lead last week and only winning ten points is not a great week, is it? And I've done that a few times I think this year where I've been doing nicely in the tournament, but not really picking up the points. But that changes, as I said. You have one week and you're right there and win, and you win 50 points, and it's all rosy.
I can't do anything about the results and things like that. But being, as I said, in numbers it's been good, but in points they've been poor.

Q. A number of shots were missed out there, any particular reason out there? What's the problem?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Poa grass is always difficult. And you have an issue here that they can't, because there's undulations in the green, they can't really strip the grass off the greens, they have to leave it on there. So that means that they become very difficult in the afternoon, they do get footprints. Whereas, if you can absolutely really, really skim the greens, push all that grass that's growing in the afternoon out, because of all the footprints. And because there's so much slope on the greens they can't do that. It does lead to a little bit of variation.

Q. We're looking at guys 4-putting, looking at Vijay Singh, Appleby, is it a fearsome thing facing 2, 3-footers out there?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I can tell you what, you put the effort in and there's no 3-footer out on that golf course that you don't pay attention to, no question. You get the ball on the wrong line it can go against the slope, no problem.
You've got to hit good putts when you're only three feet away. You can't be slightly a skew on them, so, yes, it is. And you can hit your 6-footers four or five feet by, you see that plenty of times. So there's enough slope there for that to happen, too.

Q. Given the fact that there's no sponsor for the Irish PGA, have you felt the need to check if that tournament is going ahead?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I've been planning on it, I assume it is, yeah. Nobody told me anything different.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah.

Q. Does that mean you might play Loch Lomond?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I suppose it's not out of the question, but, no, no. I'll do something competitive if there's not.

End of FastScripts

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