Q. Thoughts on the day?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Disappointing finish to it, finishing 1-under. I played a bit better. Strange. My last round of golf, ten days ago, winning the U.S. Open, I hit it really well and putted badly. Today, I struggled a lot with my driver and I was really comfortable on the greens.
So hopefully marry the two of those together some day.
Q. In terms of the Scottish crowd, what was it like?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: It's a great crowd. They do get a grade crowd here at the Renaissance Club, full stop. Obviously the weather is bringing them as well. People are enjoying themselves.
There's a buzz around the place, even this hour of the morning, you see people eating ice cremes and things. It's a nice atmosphere. It's a really good -- it's nice when people are out there feeling like a festival and enjoying it, and that's the way The Scottish Open should be.
The weather adds a lot to it. The people come out, but if it's a miserable day, people are miserable. Today it's sunny; people are out there enjoying it. The claps are going up. The cheers are going up. Wherever you hit the golf ball, you can tell by the reaction of the crowd.
So it's the way we want to play golf, so it's nice to see it. As I said, whenever we come to these National Opens and the weather is good, the people come out and it really makes it all the more exciting for the players.
Q. How much do you use this event in preparation for what's going to be a very special week next week?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I personally couldn't but play links golf the week before. At the moment on the Champions Tour, Nick's Sporting Goods, I've won it the last three years, I'm not defending. Because I know if I want to play in an Open championship, I've got to play links golf, competitive links golf. As frustrated as I am with my finish today and my routines weren't very good my caddie kept pointing out to me, it's about getting better the next three or four days going into next week, so next week we are not at step one. We are further down the road.
Yeah, you can't be playing links golf, you can't be playing competitive golf -- I think the Renaissance Club is ideal, as well. We're familiar with it. We are all on site here. Accommodation is great and we're familiar with the golf course and that means it's actually a stress-free week. This is as easy a week for the players as you get. We all know the golf course and we are all comfortable on the golf course. The course is tough and the rough is up, and we kind of want that for the challenge for next week. But the fact that we keep coming back here and we're familiar with the golf course, that means it's a lot easier for the players. There really is -- there's nothing left to chance this week. There's no stress and it's perfect preparation going into The Open.
Q. Every year, the fields are getting stronger here: Top five in the world, eight of the top 10. This is a world-class event.
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: Somebody said there are more World Ranking points than the Masters, obviously because it's a deeper field.
I think when players come here, they see how comfortable a week it is. You know, as I said, you guys wouldn't see it but we are really looked after in the clubhouse. It's first-class accommodation for everybody. It really is a very nice week and as players get familiar with the golf course, that means when they come back near, there's less work for them to do. So they are more relaxed. Most of the U.S. guys want to get over their jet-lags, and the two choices, fly over earlier and play some fun golf or come over and play some competitive golf. And when you're playing competitive golf on a course that you're familiar with; the fact that we come back here every year makes all the difference.
Q. What conditions would you like to see at Portrush next week to make it a true test?
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON: I'd love to see 63 holes are sunny weather like this and wind and nine holes of brutality. That's a perfect Open Championship. If you put 72 holes of really extreme weather it wears everybody down.
But 18 holes to nine holes where everybody has to play that ferocious wind and rain and get on with it, that would be perfect but 72 holes would beat everybody up.
Obviously when I look back at 2008 when I won at Birkdale, players walked in off the golf course; it was that bad the first day. I think a certain amount of that is always good in an Open Championship and it's certainly very entertaining for the fans. But as players, it's hard to do 72 holes of that. Let's hope for 9 or 18 of this next week and for the other guys, not for me, and then sunny blustery weather like this would be perfect.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports