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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP


July 15, 2010


Padraig Harrington


ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I did all the superfluous things very well and I did the important things badly. Obviously starting the way I did, the poor chip shot really didn't help me on the 1st hole. After that there was no momentum. I was always trying to get back into it, and even then, my good shots that would have been close were 15, 20 feet, other shots that weren't close, I ended up missing the putt. I did nothing that was important very well and everything that was important wasn't great.

Q. If you're going to make the cut tomorrow you have a lot of work to do.
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It's very early to be figuring out what it is. I know I need to play well from here on. There's 54 holes. I don't need to actually play any different than I played today, just need to score a bit better. It's not like -- there's nothing I have to do between now and tomorrow. I'm going to hit a few putts and things like that. But it really was a case of having no momentum and treading water when everybody else was going forward.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, absolutely. It's showing up a bit because of the conditions that were there today. If it was a windy day, I probably would have shot the same score. But obviously a very easy day. You've got to hold those hooks. You've got to hit your wedges close, and I did neither of those two things, and obviously I paid the price.

Q. (Question regarding rounds in the 60s.)
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I need three of them between now and Sunday. There were a lot of good shots out there, it was just more a question of I didn't hole putts and hit a couple of bad chip shots. If you want to shoot a good score you can't afford to give shots away. It's one thing to go out there and make your five or six birdies, but you can't afford to throw in a double and three bogeys, as I did. I didn't get in trouble anywhere today. I didn't hit it in a bunker, I hit all my tee shots well, I hit my long irons well, everything except for chipping and putting really.

Q. Rory McIlroy was about an hour ahead of you on the course. You must have seen the scoreboard.
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It was a fantastic score. John Daly was 7-under after 11, so you thought somebody was going to do it. Yeah, it was very impressive, Rory. Obviously he finished it off well, which is the hard thing when things are going so well. Puts him in great position for the next three days. If he plays average the next two days, he'll still have a chance on Sunday.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Well, I don't look at leaderboards, so --

Q. Was it good to see John Daly?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Here you don't look at leaderboards, you just know the scoring is going to be good here with ideal conditions.
Yeah, as I said, 1 didn't help, but then making another bogey, I hit it in a divot on the 3rd hole and made another bogey. Those two shots, you can hit it in the water, fine, bad golf shot, but I just threw away two shots on top of it. All day nothing was happening for me after that, and then again I threw away shots on 15, 16, 17, another couple of shots leaked away. It's tough, as I said, you can't give away shots on this golf course if you want to be in contention. To shoot 66 or whatever was kind of what you want to be out there, 68, 66. You know, you can't give up too many bogeys. You are going to make a number of birdies obviously, and you still have to play very well to shoot those scores.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I would suggest because initially the first couple of holes I started thinking about it and suddenly came out with a few putts at the end. I didn't hit the best putt on 17, didn't hit a great putt on 18. Looked like it was going in the hole, though. At the end of the day you'd be standing there figuring out a way you can't miss it. Today I couldn't see it into the hole. That's the way it is when things aren't going your way on the greens, and what can you do.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: One of my few bad shots at 16, chipped it on the wrong side of the bank, pretty straightforward chip, and at 17 I three-putted, got stuck behind a bank in front of the green. Any further left I would have been okay. Any further right, that's just the way it goes.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I just hit it heavy. It was a good yardage to land it just over the hazard, and I felt good about the practise with my wedge play. Obviously first shot of the day, I just hit it a little bit heavy. I don't hit the regular driver I use in the States. I don't hit it very well if it's wet. It's just about 7 degrees of loft. I hit it all day today because there was no wind. If it got wet, I'd struggle to hit a 7-degree driver. It obviously didn't have an effect today at all because we had lovely, dry weather.

Q. Were you disappointed in the weather?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: No, it wasn't that, it was just being prepared. On a links golf course you don't need -- you don't need to have 14 clubs on a links golf course. It's not like staying in a stadium golf course. Certainly playing in a left-to-right wind when it was wet -- you can't get the spin off the face, so I put in a more lofted driver so if I was in a left-to-right wind, it would be okay.

Q. (Inaudible.)
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Rescue is my 4-iron. It's my favourite club in the bag. I carried a 2-iron, as well, this week, which I used a few times. Yeah, the rescue is just -- kind of didn't want to take it out.

Q. The course was there for the taking today, any regrets about not taking advantage of it?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I don't feel it, but as it transpires toward the end of the week that could be the case. I'm not worried about it. I hit the ball well, it just wasn't the day. I prepared properly, hit it all right this week, it just wasn't my day. Let's hope it's going to be my week the next couple of days, but can't do anything about that.
No, no regrets. I was more than happy with how I played, I just didn't put the scoring together, which that's not the end of the world for me. That's a strong point of my game, so I'm not going to get frustrated with it.

Q. Were you aggressive today?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I was pretty aggressive today. I was very aggressive on the 1st hole. (Laughter.)

End of FastScripts




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