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THE IRISH OPEN


July 1, 2012


Padraig Harrington


PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND

Q.テつ Is it a case of what may have been?
Pテδ.RAIG HARRINGTON:テつテつ I'm sure I can look through the whole week and I left a lot of shots out there most days.テつ No more so than today.
It's tough.テつ It's tough when the putts aren't dropping, it's tough to gain any momentum or any confidence out there.テつ Yeah, it's certainly not easy.テつ When I look back at it, I counted numerous opportunities.テつ I think the pluses, I hit the ball really well.テつ I can only think of two less than perfect shots out there.テつ There's a lot of good play out there.テつ It's nice to have that going forward.

Q.テつ You've returned to a real rich vein of form, not just this week but the last few weeks; how confident are you going into the third major championship of the season as a double‑winner, of course?
Pテδ.RAIG HARRINGTON:テつ The game's good.テつ Got to hole putts.テつ Got to hole putts.テつ I hit a lot of good putts, and that was the key, to keep hitting good putts, no matter how lost I was at times in terms of confidence on the reading of the greens.テつ I kept hitting good putts and I kept trying to roll the ball at the hole.テつ I didn't leave too many short.テつ I holed some of the short ones, as well.
So I'm not thinking there's too much wrong with the putting.テつ Just have to get in one of those weeks where you see the lines and you trust it.テつ As I said, that often happens, but just one or two putts going in, and you think you know everything.

Q.テつ How good of preparation has this been for The Open, playing on a links course?
Pテδ.RAIG HARRINGTON:テつ Well, got a neither one now in two weeks' time, The Scottish Open.テつ Between the two of them, they are distinctly different golf course, this one and the Scottish one, even though they are both links.テつ The one up at Inverness is quite a bit more open.テつ You really do open your shoulders quite a lot of tee shots up there.
Here, very rarely, you're keeping a lid on it a lot of the times here.テつ Between the two of them, they should provide good preparation for Lytham.

Q.テつ As a former winner of this tournament, and Royal Portrush is a course that you thoroughly enjoy, what are the chances of it coming back here very soon to Portrush again?
Pテδ.RAIG HARRINGTON:テつ I think, yeah, it's been brilliant in Northern Ireland.テつ This golf course is fantastic.
You know, my own attitude to that is to have such a successful one, they don't necessarily need to come back here and try and prove anything.テつ They have already proved what they need to prove this week.テつ Maybe let's take it back to Royal County Down or something like that.
There's plenty of good golf courses in Northern Ireland.テつ It doesn't have to be here, even though it would be great to come back here; the players loved it.テつ But I would love to see it coming back to Northern Ireland for sure.

Q.テつ Obviously they may have bigger fish to fry in the future, there's a real desire to hold The Open Championship, and you've won that tournament; do you think this course is good enough, is the surrounding area good enough, do you feel, to hold an Open Championship?
Pテδ.RAIG HARRINGTON:テつ Oh, I think it is.テつ I don't‑‑ the golf course is fantastic.テつ The players love playing the golf course.テつ Yeah, the golf course is certainly a great test.テつ The area is great.テつ Plenty of accommodation up here.テつ It has the same sort of feel about it as a lot of The Open venues.
Logistics‑wise, that's not my area of expertise.テつ The little white golf ball, I can manage, but the logistics around the event, there's bigger and better things going on, and that's for the R&A to understand and probably the Northern Ireland government.

Q.テつ But to have an Open Championship in Ireland, what would that mean to all of the players and do for golf in the country?
Pテδ.RAIG HARRINGTON:テつ It's obviously been here before, so, yeah, it would be unbelievable.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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