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CHEVRON WORLD CHALLENGE

December 5, 2009

Padraig Harrington

THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA

DOUG MILNE: Okay, Padraig Harrington, thanks for joining us again for a few minutes, 2-under par 70 after Round 3 at the Chevron World Challenge. You're still right in the mix, just one shot off the lead starting tomorrow's final round. Just kind of some thoughts on how you're feeling as you prepare for that final round.
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah. Obviously the number, I suppose is going to be bona fide tomorrow, isn't it. There's a lot of people in contention.
I think if there's anything to be disappointed about is, while I have a great chance to win a tournament tomorrow, I could have done a lot of work over the last couple of days to make it different for a number of people. It wouldn't have taken very much to be 13, 14-under par. So today gave me a little bit of leeway.
And today I lost all coordination. Mental focus was gone right from the start. So not great when you walk off the first green and all you're trying to do is get to the clubhouse.
It was 17 holes of, you know, trying to figure it out, and I think I would have been very pleased -- you know, I think if I parred the last two holes, I would have been very happy and for holing the last two greens, but I know today I hardly hit -- not to say I didn't hit a good shot. I hardly hit coordinated shots at any stage today. I must have got out of bed on the wrong side or something. Something wasn't right today.
And you know, I played great yesterday, played good the first day, played horrible today. Who knows what will happen tomorrow.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. We'll go ahead and go to a few questions.

Q. Padraig, talk about the time of the year and how you do keep your focus. Is this the end of this year or is this already the beginning of next year for you, and how do you fit that in to your life and your mindset?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It is the end of this year because I'm having an eight-week break, and the key is not to think of it as anything but a round of golf tomorrow. If I start thinking about my break or what I'm going to work on, that's not going to help me win this tournament.
The mindset is just play this individual event, this individual round tomorrow, and worry about Monday and the next eight weeks on Sunday evening.
You just can't -- there's no point in trying to, you know, put anything else on it. It's just one round of golf tomorrow.

Q. Not to make light of this, but when you walked off the next 16 greens, were you also thinking about getting to the clubhouse?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Every hole. You know, a couple of decent shots out there and every time I hit a decent shot I was surprised and happy, but it didn't last for very long.
The coordination wasn't there. Every time I was swinging the club I was, you know, anxious to hit it. I wasn't sure where I was going to hit it. And you know, it was just one of those days you have to accept, I guess that was the odd time and you just have to put up with it and run with it, and it just wasn't for whatever reason I wasn't myself today and I have to -- it's not that I have to adjust anything for tomorrow. I just have to hope that I get out of the right side of the bed tomorrow. It'll be as simple as that.

Q. I don't know how well you know Graham's game, but were you surprised when you saw how he charged into contention today?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, I didn't watch the leaderboard so early. It was 18 there when I finished.
Yeah, you know, to be honest, Graeme's a really good player. He can be streaky. When he gets to playing well, he really can play very well.
And you know, I think the course is there for the taking. You know, there's no wind out there, so I was surprised -- well, there was probably 65 yesterday, and you know, you can see those scores out there.
It's an interesting golf course because while it is easy to make some birdies, lots of birdies, there's also a lot of danger out there as well. So when you're trying to make birdies, you have to manage those certain holes out there, make sure you don't take a double bogey or something.
But yeah, I could see players shoot 66, and Graeme's definitely well capable of doing it. He's done it many times in the past, so no real surprise there, no.

Q. I'm just curious, how will this kind of cap off the year for you since so much has been made how you haven't won an official ranking?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I didn't realize that there was being that much made about me not winning, as I don't read the newspapers or anything.
Yeah. Yeah, I read that. (Laughs). I do now anyway.
You know, I just can't get too much into that. You know, that's not going to help me win tomorrow. You know, if I don't win tomorrow, so be it, I kind of give it, the ah, well sort of thing. And if I do win tomorrow, I'll tell you it was very important. It was basically -- I'll wait for the results and we can decide how important it is for my year.

Q. Paddy, talking about reading what you normally don't read now, how different is it this weekend for this atmosphere out here and then what's already happened in the last few days? How has that changed the way the guys are talking amongst themselves in the locker room?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You know, I think everybody here is talking about the event. As I said Thursday morning, it wasn't front page news and we moved on. We're all playing the event. I haven't heard much about it.
No, I haven't -- -- haven't seen much discussed. There hasn't been any breaking news, has there? (Laughs).
Yeah, you know, at the end of the day we get out there and play golf. And to be honest, yeah, nothing much has happened over the last couple of days. You know, we can't -- I suppose -- I assume most guys will come off the golf course and they might ask is there anything new or anything, but that hasn't really been discussed, no. It's kind of moved on, as I suspected.
You know, once the tournament starts, everybody thinks about how they're doing and what's happening and who's in contention, and it really goes -- like tomorrow will be a very exciting day.
I'd like to really look at the leaderboard, but I certainly saw six or seven names there that I think can win tomorrow, which is going to add quite a lot of interesting attention tomorrow. It's going to be an exciting day, by the looks of it, assuming I don't go and shoot a 64. That would make it a very long day for everybody else.
DOUG MILNE: Well, Padraig, good luck in doing that. Thanks for your time. We appreciate it.
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Okay. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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