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DUBAI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY DP WORLD

November 19, 2009

Padraig Harrington

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Q. The final total doesn't always tell the compete story about a round. What sort of 68 was that?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I think that was about right. You know, made a few nice birdies on the front nine. Things were going nicely. I didn't create as many chances on the back nine.
You know, I think 68 is a fair reflection. The last couple of holes are tough enough, so I was happy once I birdied 14 to get home in par. So you know, reasonably nice position going forward.

Q. How do you get to know a new golf course quickly? How do you formulate your game plan?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, you formulate your game plan based on the fact that you don't know it completely. Especially here, the width of the greens is quite incredible, so you'll be going up a hole and you're trying to find the pin and all of the stud you spot it out there 20 yards right of where you thought the green was.
So you can't fully understand this golf course, I'm sure, until you've played it a number of times, and definitely there was pin positions where you just had to go at it. Not quite sure exactly what was around it, and obviously if you hit it straight at it, you'll be okay.

Q. You've been in a position the last three years to win the Order of Merit, what advice would you offer to Rory who has not won this before? What's the mind-set?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I think he knows what he's doing. Play your own game. It's as simple as that, let it all unfold and I'm sure he's shown he's well capable of doing that. He's in a great position. Obviously it's all in his own hands. So I think if he continues to play his game for the next 3 1/2 rounds, I think he'll do just nicely.

Q. When you take a week's holiday there's always a danger that you might be just not slightly as sharp as you would like to be, about you that proved that you were that front nine.
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I'm okay when I take a week's holiday. I'm pretty bad when I take a week off of practise. That's usually where I struggle a bit. No, I felt very good. I didn't play as well as I played on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I certainly didn't play as well today. I was very happy with my form in the practise days.
But you know, it's a long tournament, 72 holes, and I know if I stick it in there, I'll get nice runs like I did on the front nine when I birdied three out of four holes. If I can keep doing that during the week, it will be plenty good enough.

Q. We spoke a lot in the season especially the last few months about how important a win is for you, you spoke about chasing a win. What frame of mind are you in now?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It still is important, or even more important. I was careful not to chase it too much out there and careful not to -- I was very important to have a balanced attitude out there and I think I did take that out there today, and I think that was the results ended up with a 68 because of that rather than anything else. It's not like I would have said I played my very best golf or anything like that, and yet it was a pretty comfortable 68.

Q. You've spoken as well about your thoughts drifting ahead towards the Masters already, the fact that a major is where it's at for you. Do you have to deal with those thoughts when you're on the course or can you just put them aside?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No, doesn't affect me at all when I'm out on the golf course. Affects me when I'm in and around the tournament, when the temptation is to start changing things to get ready for next year. That's when those things are dangerous. I have to have a good balance, and I think I have over the last couple of months. You know, it is very careful to get that balance right of doing a certain amount of practise, working on a certain amount of technique and changing a few things, but not going all at it, either.

Q. A win this week, you weren't that confident I didn't think in the first couple of days here, do you feel after getting off to that kind of start, and you're obviously in the mix, that it's on?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Oh, yeah, I think this golf course suits me, and I did play very well earlier in the week. As I said today, wasn't quite as confident off the tee and I would hope that I find it a bit more the next couple of days.
But everywhere else, I'm pretty comfortable, and you know, as I say, the most important thing out here is around the greens and the greens are very, very difficult. So three more good days on the greens; I look forward to that more than anything else. It's more important, as I said, probably to putt well out there than anything.

Q. Finally when you come to an end of season tour championship like this, you've been in the mix so often in this situation, is there a slight degree of pressure off you, or is there a slight degree of not quite as much adrenaline flowing this time around, with nothing at stake in terms of that view?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: A little but of both of those I think. This is a big tournament and they have done a good job here. They have set it up well. It has the feel of a season-ending event. They really have done a great job with The Race to Dubai to make it feel like a championship. You know, that in itself is enough to win. Okay, I can't win the actual Race to Dubai but the event itself is good enough. They have done a big job here and it really feels like it's an event worth winning.

Q. Wishing Rory luck?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Absolutely. It's obviously well in his control. If he keeps playing the way he is and keeps doing his thing, he'll be okay.

Q. As somebody who has called penalties on himself, what do you think of footballers who don't (Thierry Henry's handball goal for France against Ireland in the World Cup playoff).
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: (Laughing) Oh, surely I'm not going to have to comment on that.
Celebration of the cheating was particularly galling, and that's as far as it goes.

Q. At what point did you see it?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I put it on the laptop straightaway this morning but I didn't get to see it in the locker room. I got here a little bit -- obviously there's time constraints in the morning. We were out here sort of ten, 15 minutes early to get to much with a the highlights.
As I said, it's strange, obviously, you know, golf has a different attitude. If somebody makes a mistake -- and I would put, putting your hand out, they may be trained not to do it, I would putt-putting your hand out as a reaction and a mistake. But the great thing in golf is you know, if we do do something wrong, we hold our hand up and say, hey, hang on a second, didn't mean to do that, sorry. You go back and you take your penalty. There was obviously, perfectly reasonable, but obviously not in their case to do that. But the celebration was, you know, that was pretty hard to look at.

Q. When you watched it, were you watching it as live?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I didn't watch it live, no.

Q. When you watched it on the laptop, were you aware of the results before you sat down to watch it?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I looked at the result first. Actually it was on the Web site looking at the time line of it and then I looked at the actual highlights. Well, to be honest, I was shown the highlights numerous times, just some of the lads in the locker room. There was a couple of other fun tee things on the YouTube and that.
But yeah, the celebration is the one that -- everybody makes a mistake and I wouldn't hold it against them; but then to act like it never happened.

End of FastScripts

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