VOLVO MASTERS ANDALUCIA

November 7, 2002

Padraig Harrington

Q. Great way to finish and a strange way to start.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, these things happen. Didn't bother me at the start. You've got to expect strange things to happen at times. I just walked up and fixed the pitch mark, which looked like it was on the green because of the shade. The left-hand side of the green is all shaded, and the fringe are cut so tight around here that they are immaculate. As I was digging, as I dug it up, there seemed to be a little bit more grass than you would expect.

So the bell went off in the head, and I said, oops, this isn't good. So obviously, it was a two-shot penalty.

Q. So you knew the rule?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Oh, I knew the rule, of course, yeah. I just couldn't see that it was fringe in the light because it was so bright on one side of the green and it was in the shade where the fringe was.

It was the perfect spot for me to chip it. It would not have been a problem if I had known -- if I didn't fix it, I wouldn't have worried too much about it. But because it was on the green, I would fix it.

Q. It wasn't your own chip mark?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No.

Q. Who spoke to you about it?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Paul Carrigill.

Q. Did you call him?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Nobody saw. I knew straightaway.

They just confirmed it was two. I knew it was a penalty. I wasn't sure how many.

Q. How about the rest of the round, a bit up-and-down?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, a lot of mental errors. Hit the ball very solid but just made some silly mental errors. 9 and 14 were really the two that annoyed me. That was about it.

Q. Did what happened in the first play on your mind throughout the round at all?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No. It didn't. I was aware of it. To say that it didn't at all would be -- I certainly tried to forget about it. I had a lot of other things to worry about going through the round, so I was not too conscious about it. Obviously it was not the start you wanted. You don't want to give away two shots for no reason, which is what I did. (Laughing). I'm not that good that I can give two to the field.

Q. Do you think it's fair?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's a perfectly fair rule.

Q. Penalty is a bit severe?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Maybe. You wouldn't do it if it was a one-shot penalty. I don't know, that's the rule.

I'm very aware of the rules. It's a double-edged sword, when you know the rules as well as I do, you often can gain advantage at times when you know the rules, but also, it will penalize you at other times.

Q. (Inaudible)?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I thought it was two shots and Retief thought it was one, so we just confirmed it.

Q. Can you talk about 17?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: One of those things, you know, 5-wood in my hand off a hanging lie and I'm trying -- probably succeeded in what I wanted to do, which was make sure I didn't get any backspin in the shot to hang it up in the wind. I just got a hook too much on the wind.

Just one of those things. I didn't want to hold it up and I managed not to hold it up, that was for sure.

Q. What about the hole itself?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Great hole. Really intimidating, yeah. It's exactly what you need in a round of golf, a very intimidating hole. It's perfect. It's not like the ball is going to spin back in the water, so there's no problem there. It's certainly -- you've got to have some hole at the end of the round that perhaps isn't -- has got a little bit -- like you look at any of the great course, 17 at St. Andrews, you can't see the fairway. That's what's intimidating. It's not the out-of-bounds or tightness -- or like at the 18th at The Belfry, you can't see the fairway. That's the real scary part when you're under pressure. You just are not sure. 17 here is a little bit like that. You're just not 100% sure what's going to happen.

Q. Were you fighting your swing -- get it sorted?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I wasn't fighting my swing at all. I was very happy with how I was hitting the ball. I was fighting my concentration all the way through and that was it. Nothing else. I hit my irons very solid. Even early on, I hit a poor tee shot on the first and the fourth. I hit everything else particularly solid.

I was comfortable all the way through. All of the shots I hit, all of the shots were good strikes, hit it long, whatever I needed to do. I was just very tense on the greens and that kind of showed in my whole game. I'm just not comfortable. I left an awful lot of putts short. And even ones getting to the hole they were just not hit with any authority, and if anything, that came back into the whole aspect of my game. There was not too many shots that were just -- yeah, I'm going out to hit a few more putts. I just wasn't rolling the ball at the hole.

If I was going to suggest anything, that crept back into my game, a little bit of tentativeness. And it's a tough golf course so you've got to be committed to your shots. There's always danger even on the easiest shot out there. If you start thinking of that, you've got to be very tenacious to whatever shots you select.

Q. Any good cheer in Retief's play?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: No interest at all in the two of us playing badly. It's no good to me if both of us finish last or first last, second to last -- no cheer at all.

Q. What was the atmosphere between the two of you?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Exactly the same as it would be whenever we play together.

Q. Given the circumstances, will it be a relief --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Without a doubt, it's a distraction to look at the other guy playing. 100%, I would love to say that I didn't watch him hit a shot today, but, yes, it is a distraction. You're not 100% focused on your own game at all times. It would have been easier to not have to put up with it. But, nothing is ever very easy in this game. It's not a simple thing. We are always being -- there's always a little bit of added test in the game. So, you know, that was it today.

I was fighting my concentration all day, and shots on 9 and 14 were the ones that really resulted in bogeys. Then being very tense, both on 9 and 14, I left the putts short of the hole. I hit a lot f ugly putts out there.

Q. Did you feel he was similarly distracted?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I have no idea what was going on in his head. Couldn't tell you.

Q. No conversation?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Retief is very focused on the golf course. He likes to keep going by himself and I'm the opposite, I like to chat. So I talk to Dave and Retief did his thing. We had a few conversations out there. We might have discussed motor cars at one stage, and we might have discussed the weather, as well. But there's not going to be a huge amount -- everybody is different.

Q. Having your arm around his shoulder when you came off, does that indicate a good atmosphere?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah.

Q. What was the club on the last?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: A 9-iron. Hard to know -- I don't know what guys are hitting off that tee. I'd like to know. It's tough downwind. You don't know where to hit it. 18 is it's tough when you are downwind. You nearly prefer hitting into the wind. It's hard to know when you hit 3-wood/5-iron or 3-wood/sand wedge.

Q. What do you make of the Order of Merit situation?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I have no idea what situation I'm in. And to be honest, I'd only find out Sunday evening. I need to get my putting right, and that's where I'm heading right now.

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