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HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIPMay 17, 2014Padraig HarringtonIRVING, TEXAS Q. 66 there today, keep yourself in the thick of things. What do you take away from your round? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I knew you had to do a good score today. As bunched as the leaderboard was, if you didn't do well you were going to drop off there and somebody was probably going to get to 10‑under leading it, right? And you knew you had to get up there to give yourself a chance and I effectively did that. Q. Were you able to feed off Louie, and how he was playing or vice versa today? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I think we all played decent in the group, we were all moving along nicely and finished stronger than the rest. We had a nice group and it was a question of when you see your partner making birdies and you Freed off that, get through the windy conditions, you feel you can do it, too. Q. You're a couple back going into Sunday. It's been a while. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Sure has. Q. What do you have to do? What's your mind‑set? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You know, I'm not sure. If I was being honest I would say to you, generally you build yourself up for these things, you go a few weeks of nice form‑‑ say like Martin Kaymer, he played well before he got to Sawgrass and generally that's how it happens. If I'm in position tomorrow, who knows. I'll try and take me chances if they come round. If not, it's where I want to be anyway and I've seen some good form in my game, some nice signs so if it doesn't happen for me tomorrow it's positive going forward. Q. 4‑under today, minus 8, going into Sunday. Your thoughts on how you played today? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I played nicely. 4‑under is about what I deserved. If I hadn't shot 4‑under I would have been disappointed. If I was 6‑under, I would have had to get a few breaks tomorrow, so, yeah, it was a nice score. Puts my in position tomorrow, if things fall in place tomorrow, I certainly have a chance. Q. Three for three out of the bunkers today, including the one at 18. That's always good! PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, you know, it is nice. It was important to do that. The times I did miss the greens I didn't have myself in trouble very much today, to be honest. I tended to be well in control of the ball today, which doesn't always happen for me. The times you miss out, it is important to get up and down when you are playing nicely and when you hit a lot of greens and then all of the sudden you miss one or two, you're not used to it and you maybe drop a shot so it was important today, and I'm happy about that. Q. Did you feel good coming into this week? I know you have to make up some ground for FedExCup points. Did you feel this coming? You know, yeah, I could have told you I saw it coming many weeks for the last year and it never manifested, so I've been a little less optimistic of late. You know, I know it's there. My short game hasn't been so strong and I see that turning around. The long game has been there over the last year. So I feel every week like it might be my week, but it just hasn't been happening. So trying to stay patient and trying to keep it going. It isn't easy when things aren't going well for you out there and it's frustrating, but you have to keep it going. Q. Talk about your round. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You know, I played solid. Q. Can you please talk about your round? It's been a while since we've spoken to you. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: That's not a good sign when you're not talking to me. I made solid enough today. I seemed to hit the ball, have is reasonably under control and the couple of times I missed greens I got it up and down and I'm playing solid. Certainly 66 wasn't an outrageous score for the way I played. I could have been a few better but probably about what I should have shot so I'm happy with it, I'm comfortable with it knowing that I need a big day tomorrow anyway. Q. Other golfers have said holes 1 through 4 or 5 have been treacherous, I couldn't say, why is that? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Start of a round, for starters, you want to get the pace of the greens, get going. First couple of holes you're across winds and trying to figure out exactly how much the wind is affecting the ball and the third hole is 520, 530, a par 4, I've hit it in the water the last two days. So much so yesterday I got numerous calls about how I hit my tee shot 58 feet or something like that! I did actually hit it whatever, 280 yards but it was in the water and I had to drop back. It was a tough hole. You can place these down the left but you're probably going to make 5 and if you want to take the whole on you gotta take the water on. It's a difficult start. No. 4 is the same, you got to hit a difficult tee shot down there. I was 1‑over today and it wasn't a disastrous start, no. Q. (No microphone.) PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm going to need to shoot a good score. Somebody is going to shoot a good score. Louie played well, he looked really good. He hit the ball well and putted well and on his form today it's hard to see him not shooting, you know, a 4‑under par tomorrow or something like that which would mean I would need to shoot 6‑under so I do need a big day tomorrow. Q. How big was the save on 18? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It will surely make dinner taste a bit better, yeah. I was trying to get my head around is before I played it, trying not to make too much of a deal out of it. So, yeah, I was‑‑ it was tough‑‑ I had to hit it really hard off that down slope, the bunker shot, and it's not easy to do that when you got water on the far side of the hole. I wouldn't have made such a big deal out of it if I didn't get up and down but I'm happy I did. Let's say it's given me a little bit of a boost. Q. You have shown flashes of good rounds. Did you see this week coming? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I see this week coming every week, but, your Honor, even I as a great optimist have run out of steam over the last while, so I've been a little quieter about my feeling, how I'm going to play. It's not like I've been working any harder or anything like that, I just do the same stuff. I do see an improvement in my putting which is the biggest part of it, and that helps the short game and a few other things. Yeah, I'm comfortable that my game is going forward, but golf is so much about momentum, you know, a good performance leads to another good performance and so on. That's where I'm at. I need a few good performances and then I'll be playing great. Q. You like this course? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, I do like the course. Look, it's a great course for me, I love playing windy golf courses, I'd be out there all day. I feel like I have an advantage out there, so, yeah. This is a good track. I came here two years ago out of the blue, it wasn't meant to be in my schedule and I liked what I saw. Q. What do you feel in your mind is the difference between you now and the guy who was winning back‑to‑back Majors five years ago? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Look, it's a little over five years ago, six years ago, it's hard to win Majors back‑to‑back, that's it! I can't name‑‑ I can name‑‑ I think I can only name one golfer who has actually improved after they won a Major so it brings a lot of pressure, a lot of focus. You can do your homework on world rankings and that, I'm talking two years after they won a major. Have they improved as a player. The likes of Tiger was always going to be as good. Rory was always going to be as good, so it's just‑‑ people seem to think you win a couple of Majors it's always going to be like that, but the reality is, I still won the most Majors in the last six years. It's just not an easy game to win Majors, and I've set the bar very high and it does bring its own pressure and intensity when you've done that, but I feel like I can win more. When it happens, there will be momentum there for a few years and maybe I'll pick off three more. Q. Do you have a theory on why that is, why guys don't get better two years after winning a Major? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It just brings a huge amount of focus and pressure and stress and, you know, how I played‑‑ you're trying to play like you did all the time when you know you clearly peeked that week. It is a peek when you win a Major, it's not the norm. And you're trying to make it the "norm." It is something we all want to do, but there's very few people who win a Major, and that's a weight around our neck going forward. Q. Do you feel like your game is back on track now? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Do you know what the strange thing is? This is exactly what I was like when I was winning Majors, I don't feel that good about my game. I'm scoring better, I'm coming off the golf course playing better than I feel. I've gone through a few years now when I hit the golf ball great and every day I walk off the golf course I can't understand why I've shot worse than I played. Certainly the last‑‑ the first two days, especially yesterday, I walked off this golf course shooting, you know, two or three shots better than what I deserved. That's how I played when I was winning, you know, I was getting the most out of rounds and like that up and down on 18, that's important for the momentum. You're gettin'‑‑ you walk off the golf course and you feel, hey, I did well today. I didn't really leave anything out there. Q. Who is the one player you feel got better? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Graem McDowel, I'm not saying others haven't but Graem would be one guy who winning a major, it definite didn't phase him at all. He got better from that. Q. (No microphone.) PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No, I think he's a better player now. You look at somebody like Bubba, he's won two, but you consider he's the same. You don't say‑‑ he certainly hasn't gotten worse. Maybe Zach Johnson has improved as a player, but, you know, I didn't want to start naming names because you're leaving people out but for most people, winning a Major, it's a big burden, no doubt about it. I know I got three off but it brings its own pressures. Q. (No microphone.) PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I like talkin'! I haven't talked for a long time. I did send my first tweet this week. Q. You have your own Twitter now? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You'll have to look it up. Q. How many followers do you have? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: You don't follow me? Q. I didn't know you were doing your own Tweets? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I don't know, I'm a bit scared of Twitter but I did send my first personal tweet. There was others sent. Q. What was the motivation? PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I had a good tweet to send, that's why I sent it. Q. I'm looking it up now. PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It was a good one! FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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