U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 26, 2025

Padraig Harrington

The Broadmoor (East Course)

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Padraig Harrington, 3-under 67, tied for the lead. How did you feel in round 1?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I played really nicely early on. I was 4-under through eight and probably could have been a little bit more. I three-putted 9. The back nine is hard, but I was still really feeling my way around that nine.

I only played it once before. It was a little bit tentative in the lead. I suppose it's a little harder when you're leading and not knowing the course 100 percent like you would like to.

I got through most of it. Didn't really create chances on the back nine. I wasn't in trouble very much, only on 15, but obviously there's not as many birdie chances on that nine.

Overall, disappointed with my bogey on 15. I thought my tee shot was okay. I think we looked in the wrong place, to be honest. I think I was much further down, considering where my third ball went. That was a little disappointing. Nice to make 5. As I said, it would have been nice to birdie one of the last couple.

We're in at 3-under. There's a long way to go. I don't think being 4-under makes any difference to being 3-under at this stage of the tournament.

Q. You wouldn't know it today with the weather, but we've had some bad weather the last two days. What did your prep look like the last two days with all the rain?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I played seven holes on Tuesday when it got rained out, and I got up very early Thursday [sic] and played early just to make sure. I played -- let me see. I played 12 holes on Wednesday. I got them all covered. Obviously you're playing at different times, and the golf course feels different under different sorts of conditions, so everyone is still feeling it out.

The difference from morning to afternoon and maybe a change in the wind direction can make a substantial difference to how you see a hole play. Yeah, just still trying to get a feel for it.

Q. Padraig, you said you were disappointed and happy on 15, which I sort of get. I know it's only Thursday, but when you look back at being able to save a bogey, especially out of the rough, can that turn out to be --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Not really, no. It's a long week. If you're -- if you're a couple behind, you kind of relax and chase. If you're leading the tournament, you kind of stall up. That's just the nature of it. One shot on a Thursday. You don't want to be out of the tournament on Thursday, and the stats guys are kind of showing that you need to be always in the top 10.

But one shot's not going to make a difference with 54 holes to go. As I said, you could have a different mindset leading the tournament to maybe being a shot or two behind. A lot of this is jockeying just to be in position on Sunday.

Q. What was your lie like out of the rough there after the re-tee?

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I was surprised I was so far down. I kind of hit that down the right half of the fairway, and I was so far right and through the fairway. Like I wasn't far off the cart path.

Yeah, I think I'll hit 3-wood next time in this situation. Look, the lie was heavy enough, but the back pin was okay, so I knew I could pitch it short and run it up. You never feel good after you've lost a ball, so your head is a little scrambled. You're just trying to get your head around what you're doing.

I played a conservative pitch to make sure I didn't go over the back; came up 15 feet short. I was just guessing at the post because it was in the shadows. But it was nice to hole it, as I said.

Yeah, it put me -- you know, even if I finish 2-under par, as I said, it's only Thursday. You just want to be in the tournament the first couple of days. Unless you could run away with it obviously, but that's another thing.

In general, you're just keeping yourself in position, which I've done nicely today.

Q. You mentioned that the back nine was tougher than the front. I'm curious, it seemed that was a little bit of a trend today of guys getting off to strong starts. What was different about that back nine as opposed to --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Two reachable par-5s and a par-4 on the front nine that was nearly reachable, compared to the back nine that doesn't give you anything in a few places. If you're conservative off the tee, you've got quite a long second shot.

So there really isn't any big opportunities on the back nine. On the front nine, as I said, there's a couple of good eagle chances on the front nine if you play your cards right.

Yeah, distinctly, there's a huge difference between the two nines, to be honest. Still, it's stroke play. It shouldn't make any difference to us. But in terms of you've got to make your score going out and hold onto it over the last nine.

Q. Having seen the course now, what kind of advantage will that give you? I know placement is so important here because of the slopes. Now that you've kind of adjusted --

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Still I've got to play it in the morning tomorrow, which is different than the afternoon. So again, still going to be feeling my way around; not 100 percent sure.

To be honest in the altitude, with the ups and downs, and if the wind swirls at all, I think you're going to have to make decisions as you go all the time this week. You couldn't sit in the clubhouse and decide what clubs you're going to hit all day. You're going to have to get to the tee box and go, okay, the wind is this way, this is how I feel, I'll take this bunker on, or I'll lay up a bit.

There's quite a bit of that out there. Like I hit 5-wood off of 10 today. It was conservative play, and then it didn't turn down the hill and it ended up I was too far back. Even though I was on the fairway I had like 200 meters hitting a 7-iron, and it just went -- pitched middle of the green and it went through.

I paid for being conservative off the tee, but I did think I would get a bit of run. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do in the morning. Right now I'm not sure if I'm going to hit 5-wood, 3-wood, or driver off that tee. That sums up the golf course in quite a few places.