ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 30, 2021

Padraig Harrington

Quick Quotes

Q. Your first competitive round in almost three years when you didn't have the dual agenda of Ryder Cup and personal performance. How was it out there?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It was tough out there. My short game wasn't great. My bogeys were poor around the greens. I actually played very nicely tee-to-green. Just didn't hole putts. Didn't putt badly but I hit a few bad chip shots and bunker shots. I haven't really been practising. Yeah, short game needs to be tidied up.

Q. You were out there with your brother; how did he do?

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I hope enjoyed it. It was pretty miserable now at the start, like really miserable. But we got going a little bit there. He improved my score five times. Maybe that was helpful maybe me playing not so good. Look, it's great experience for us. As I said, we played a practise round yesterday and I think Rowan, my caddie, had to intervene about three or four holes to referee us. Since then we've been doing just nicely.

Q. A few days on from your Ryder Cup captaincy, give us your final reflections, if you can, please.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Same as it was. Hasn't changed. They played great. If you're looking back at it, you know, every team that Europe has done over the last 20 years to innovate, to get an edge, they have just copied us. They are doing the exact same thing as us. It's just hard to find that edge.

They are a good team. They got everything right during the week. You know, everything, even going up and practising beforehand, they happened to get the right wind, the wind that switched for the tournament was the wind they practised in. They were a very good team and they did everything right and things went their way and they holed the putts. They had the momentum. Just one of those things. It's hard to find the edge anymore.