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SMURFIT KAPPA EUROPEAN OPEN

July 5, 2007

Padraig Harrington

STRAFFAN, IRELAND

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, I was doing well, really well to be honest. At that stage of the day I was unhappy with my score, so until 16, obviously it was disappointing. I hit what I thought was a good tee shot, and thought I hit a decent second shot, too, so to make 6, that's a pity. Because if I shot 1-under par, it would have been a very good score.

Q. So 71 is seven back after day one, conditions are variable for the week, what are your thoughts on what's ahead?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Conditions are good. You know, it really wasn't -- didn't blow too much in the afternoon, one or two holes pins are very generous, soft golf course, it was fairly good conditions for shooting a good score because greens are so good. They never, even with all of the traffic they rolled perfectly well all day. There was certainly an opportunity to shoot a good score.

Q. Are you at some stage thinking this course is going to bite you at some point because of experiences you've had in the past?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I know I certainly got complacent with my tee shot on 16 -- not complacent but I was looking at the pin positions and felt I could hit it down the second fairway rather than down the first fairway. And you know, I hit a good tee shot that I thought was fine, and you know, in hindsight, maybe it would have been better to hit an average tee shot off the right.

Q. Does one hole change your perspective of the tournament?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Not really, no, no. I'd obviously need to play better than I played today but it was a good round of scoring up until that. I got the ball up-and-down all day and putted well and if I play well for the next three days and putted the same, I'll be doing okay.

Q. Course playable?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: The course is very playable. I think between the three of us today, I only saw one area where, you know, Søren was probably adversely affected when he missed the par-3 8 where it had been trodden around. Never saw an issue anywhere on the golf course that we played today. Very playable.

Q. Would you have a free ticket Thursday on every Thursday?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It was fantastic. Such great crowd and it was a good atmosphere out there. Pity there wasn't much to cheer about.

Q. On the 16th were you in the water or the hazard?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Neither. I was in the rough and came up short in the water.
I really struggled to get the ball to go today whatever I was doing. On the last I came up ten yards short of the pin and they were ten yards past it.
Q. What was the club on the 16th?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: 7 iron. I had 144 yards to the pin. I was in the rough. I had a bad stance, not a bad lie with ball above my feet. It wasn't one where it was a big decision to go for it. It wasn't sitting down. It was sitting decent and hit what I thought was a good shot. It wasn't an issue not to go for it. I am shocked it went in the water more than anything else. The lie was fine, the stance awkward but not awkward when you could aim right. I didn't have to fight anything. It was one of those and I am still surprised it went were it did. For my tee shot only going 260 was a bigger shock. I was expecting it to go 290. I was surprised it finished in the rough. I wasn't thinking of chipping out.

Q. inaudible?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I didn't play very well. I put a new driver in the bag and it was terrible. That didn't help things.
Q. What made you change?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: The shaft of the other one may be broken. There was a chip out of it. Something happened I must have lost at least 20 yards off my drives. It takes me a couple of weeks to get used to a new driver.

Q. Do you know what happened?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I hit a perfect drive on Tuesday evening off the 18th and as I was walking off the tee I just happened to look at it and there was a little bit, like a thread had come out of the shaft sort of thing. So I changed.

Q. Will you go back to it tomorrow?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I'm going to ask whether you can play with the shaft. I can hit it fine. They just believe it could get worse, so I don't know if you're allowed to play -- it's graphite. Graphite is wrapped. Like I can peel it off.

Q. Don't you have a driver with a different make of head but the same shaft in it that you could go back to?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I probably will go back to my old driver I was using last year, yeah. I didn't consider that because I thought this was going on okay and I used it in the Pro-Am yesterday, but you know, it was a lot more evident today. It's probably the grip is a little weak on that and that's why I'm swinging very heavily into the wind.

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