'I'll definitely try to win more'

British Open/Padraig Harrington's press conference:The morning after his maiden major victory, Padraig Harrington explains how he got to this success, what he was thinking while on the course and how he plans to move on

Has the reality of what you've done sunk in yet?

It's just unreal. In my quieter and more reflective moments, like when I'm in the shower, you just go, 'I'm the Open champion'. I went to bed at four o'clock in the morning and woke up at six. I was wide awake.

I woke my wife up and said, 'I'm the Open champion'. The trophy is at the end of the bed and both of us are looking at it. In those sort of reflective moments, it's hard to take it in. In my quieter moments, I sit back and think, 'I can't believe I've done it'.

Caroline's reaction to being woken up?

She said, 'I can't believe it, there's the trophy . . . but can we go back to sleep?' Caroline is like myself. A lot of those around me who have been supporting me over the years believed I'd win it more than I have myself. I've always had the best support in the world from Caroline, but I think we're both still in disbelief.

What were you doing until four o'clock in the morning?

Partying. IMG threw a party for me up at their house and we had a good bunch of guys there and it was a good night. The first drink from the Claret Jug was John Smiths.

I didn't get out of the press tent until around half-10 or just before 11, and I had a shower and went up to the IMG house. There was a bit of champagne spraying, fun stuff, and we had some food and then moved into party mode.

Were you aware of what other players were doing in the final round?

For starters, I had no idea that Andres Romero ever led the tournament. It was only at half-11 last night that I discovered that he had a two-shot lead at one stage when I was playing the 14th. I had no concept. Ronan said to me after 72 holes that, 'you played great, the best I've ever seen'. And I said, 'Did I?'

I didn't realise that either. I suppose I was in the zone, in the present, and wasn't watching anything else going on. It just shows how good a place I was in.

You have one major now, do you think that will make it easier to win more?

When Phil Mickelson was asked if he was ever going to win a major, he said, 'I'm going to win more than one major'. That's the importance of having a goal. If it does happen that you win a major, if it was your only and sole goal, if that's the ultimate of your goals, it's not far off the finish of your career. You always have to have goals to keep moving forward, so I've always had it in my head to try and win more than one major. So that should help me to move on from this championship. If my goal was to win one major, you'd have a situation it would be hard to move on from, but I'll definitely try to win more.

You talked recently about wanting to cut back on your schedule, that you already play too many tournaments. This win is going to place new demands on you. Won't it now make it difficult to cut down?

I haven't begun to talk about my schedule. I'm not going to worry about it for the next couple of days. I'll enjoy this and, towards the end of the week, I'll sit down with my manager and work out what I'm going to do.

I do want to do the Open Championship justice.

Like being the European number one last year, I want to feel I carried the flag well. It carries responsibility being the Open champion and you have to play probably more than you want.

You're a good friend of Jean Van de Velde. When you were on the 18th hole did it ever cross your mind what had happened to him there in the 1999 Open?

One big part of me making six was not making seven. I did think of Jean and started counting . . . one . . . two . . . three . . . four. I didn't want to make seven. Yeah, it did cross my mind that he had taken seven to lose the Open and I was slipping down that slippery slope too and it wasn't hard to do.

I've always said in defence of Jean that the 18th at Carnoustie is the last hole in golf you would take to have a lead on. There are so many easier holes to finish up on. As we saw during the tournament, there were many scores of six, seven, eight taken there.

It must have played as one of the highest scores as a par four in the Open. It averaged 4.6 . . . it was the hardest hole all week and I would have thought it would have played the hardest ever (in Open history).

I would have been a lot happier had I holed the putt on 17 to have a three-shot lead. But when I got there (in the play-off), the whole idea was to make five. I said, 'let's make Sergio get a three'.

I think it was sensible to put pressure on Sergio rather than myself. I had a good look at the 18th fairway walking up the 17th to look at the lay-up because I hadn't focused too much on it. If I was going to hit an iron, I wanted to see how far right I could hit it so that I could have a good picture in my head. It's not always enough to look at a yardage book. You need to have a good image of it.

My attitude was, 'Fair play to Sergio if he makes birdie', I'd clap him on the back. But I'd still have a chance at another hole. He went awful close. I'm sure Sergio knows he had a few putts in real time and in the play-off on the 18th hole (to win), and that he could have holed any one of those putts.

Has your win finally banished any hang-ups about the ability of European players to win majors? Can it inspire others?

I think we have banished our hang-ups for the moment. If we collectively follow up on this, that would definitely banish it and we might get a year out of this before it is mentioned again.

The European players know my game, know what it is like. They know what their game is in relation to my game. They can visualise it and see it. The fact that I've gone and done it will, I think, make a lot of them believe that they can do it.

I don't believe I'm an intimidating force for a lot of the younger Europeans. They know if they play their golf they can compete with me and the fact that I've now gone and won a major they will believe that they can do it. I do think European golf is very strong, so this may be the start of it and, if it is, I will be telling everybody that I started it off. Hopefully I and some of the others will go on and win some majors and carry the European flag well.

Do you believe that you could have recovered from that double-bogey six on the 72nd hole if it had cost you the title and you were put into a similar situation again? And did you feel for Sergio Garcia when it was all over?

If I'd lost after doing what I did on 18, I think I'd struggle to compete in that situation again . . . I would have so many doubts about being able to win if I was in that situation. It's not that I would stop competing in golf, (but) it would have been very difficult to get into that situation.

As regards Sergio, I competed so hard to win the play-off and it was only when I holed the putt on the last I was elated. I had my couple of seconds of, 'where am I?' sort of thing. I looked over and saw Sergio. Then I could see, 'oh, somebody has lost', the disappointment (on his face). I really felt for Sergio at that stage.

I know Sergio was under immense pressure to win a major. He has unbelievable talent. He is probably the best ball striker in the game and I felt for him so much. It is a bit clichéd but I believe it: Sergio is young and he will win majors. It will happen. The more he believes that, the quicker it will happen.

Unfortunately, the longer it takes the harder it gets for him. It is tougher in a sense that it is hard for him to go in and enjoy a major week. It is hard for him to go in there and have fun. There is huge spotlight on him and, once he gets into contention and he is in the lead, it is incredible the focus that will go onto him. The sooner he wins the quicker that will end. There is no question but that he will win.

He was well capable of winning this one. He could have run away from the field. I'd never be capable of running away from the field. There's very few golfers in the world that are capable of leaving the field behind in a major. Sergio could have done that this week. I've proved over the years that I am well capable of making it difficult for myself and having a very tight finish. I might win in that situation, but Sergio, probably when he wins his first one, he could win running away. He will win a number of majors. It will happen.

Bob Torrance, your coach, has obviously been a big influence for you. What does he mean to you?

I am thrilled for Bob. Bob is so much part of this. He has worked tirelessly on my game and never stops thinking about it. For me to go out and win a major is very special for Bob. And for me to win a major at Carnoustie, because Bob loves (Ben) Hogan so much, is the icing on the cake. It is fairytale stuff for Bob.

I am so delighted. One of the best things about winning is that I am so delighted for Bob. I could never repay Bob for the time and effort he has put into my game. Winning a major, winning the Open, winning at Carnoustie, helps repay that debt a bit.

Was Hogan's dedication ever an influence on you? You are renowned as a hard worker?

Definitely. The guys I have always admired as my idols have not necessarily been the unbelievably talented. I have more admired the guys who have worked hard on the game and got the most out of their talent. Hogan went from being a struggling professional to probably the best ball striker of all time and definitely one of the best golfers of all time. He is certainly someone I will hold up as a role model. As you live longer you hear more stories about him and the more I hear about him the more I appreciate . . .

Originally I would have thought of Hogan in terms of just pure hard work, but there was a lot more behind the man and a lot of his mental skills where also very strong.

When you were having your problems on the 18th in regulation, you encountered Sergio on the pedestrian bridge over the Barry Burn. He passed by you and smiled at you?

He said hello. I nodded. I couldn't quite get words out. It wasn't quite, 'Hello, fancy meeting you here'.

Or maybe it was. He was smiling, but I think that whenever you meet someone and say hello you always smile. It's a natural reaction. I didn't see anything in it. I didn't read anything at all into it. Good, bad or indifferent. I wish I wasn't there myself.

But I didn't read anything into the meeting on the bridge. It wasn't significant to me in any shape.

What club did you play for that approach and what was going through your mind?

Five-iron. I had 207 yards down off the right to the front of the green. I wanted to hit it to the front of the green, 10 yards on maybe, something like that, because I was aiming so far left and the right-hand bunker was in my way coming from the right-hand side.

I was aiming at the out-of-bounds in a right-to-left wind trying to cut the ball back. That to me was the logical shot to make five. I could have played down the right-hand side as Jean Van de Velde did if you had a few to spare. But I didn't.

Obviously it was an incredibly difficult shot to take on. I had left myself in a very poor position to approach the green and I did hit a poor shot. I paid a penalty not alone for a poor shot and going in the hazard for a penalty drop, but I paid a penalty for being on that side of the fairway and having to play that shot. I am coming over a water hazard and yet I am trying to play short and front of that green.

I wasn't worried about hitting it in the hazard. I was more worried about missing the green right, where I wouldn't have been able to get up and down. I would have been happy to miss it in the left-hand bunker from where I was coming from.

That chip over the burn on 18 was critical. Is it a shot you've played often?

I play that up-and-down every day in my back garden. That is why I hit the shot the way I hit it. I think most players would have played the pitch-and-run. But I paced it off - it was 47 yards from the pin, but I needed to pitch it 10 yards short of the green. I have a 35-yard pitch in my back garden that I play every day. When I got over the ball I said, pitch-and-run is the simple shot. But I actually know the other shot.

I just stood there. I make a certain-length swing and made sure to commit to it. I can really hit it from a chipping position and I knew that I could not miss that chip shot. Give it a good strike and it will jump up that green and spin.

It was just a shot I have played time and time again. There was nothing new about it. It was practice that made that shot.

You are not a big drinker. Was that as much as you have consumed last night?

No. No. I had a couple of drinks. But I was flying anyway. There was no need for any outside help on that. I drank a little bit out of the Claret Jug and a few others. I was in a good mood and I will be for the next week or the next year or 10 years or forever with this.

Did you look at the 18th when you came to the course this morning?

I was on the phone, text messaging, replying to people. Since I got up this morning I haven't stopped. I have been busy doing things so I haven't quite gone back and looked and savoured that moment. I am not generally a great person for watching TV coverage, but I am really looking forward to having a look at the coverage of the golf.

I will probably turn down the sound when I get to 18. I don't want to hear what people are saying when they get to those two shots.

Have you ever spoken to Van de Velde and what he went through and did any of that go through your head?

Oh, I've talked to him about it. I really wanted to find out his mindset. Jean has got to feel like surely that was his one and only chance to win a major. To have lost it in those circumstances, that's an incredible knock. I know he's had a few illnesses and injuries, but he has come back and he's playing away and getting on with his golf.

I've talked to him about it . . . I know he's sick at the moment but it's great to see he's back playing his golf and not letting it get to him.

As I say, I don't know if I could react that way. I think anybody who hasn't won a major and something like that happens or something that could have happened to me yesterday, you definitely walk away from it questioning if you are ever going to win a major. It doesn't matter how good you are.

To actually believe you are going to go out there and win, it takes a lot of convincing. For you to get in a situation that it's yours and then to let it go, that's a big knock to your ability to convince yourself that you can do it again.

I didn't have a problem with last year at the US Open. I was really comfortable coming down the stretch and I made a couple of bogeys, but, as I said, that's part of the game. These things can happen on a tough golf course.

Taking six on the last was really, really my own fault. I hit two very poor shots. I would have really felt for that. Thankfully, I got up and down and there was some comfort in doing that. I hit a great pitch and a great putt and I got my second chance.

I'm really, really happy with how I handled myself after the 18th hole. How I didn't get involved in what I'd done at 18. I kept myself very level headed and I think that was what won the play-off.

What reaction do you expect when you next meet Sergio?

I think it's a situation we'll have to wait and see. I've lost to Sergio in a few play-offs. We've always been competitive over the years. You know, when he sees me with the trophy it's going to be a disappointment to him. I'm going to be a reminder. We'll just have to wait and see how the situation goes.

Your son, Paddy, on the green at 18 and on the practice range . . . how much of a help was it having him there yesterday?

Yeah, it was great. My son knows daddy's going out to win the trophy. He's telling me I'm a winner regardless. Yeah, it's nice to have him there. As with any kid, he just wants to enjoy himself, play and be happy. He's not aware of the significance of any bogey or double-bogey or the pressure of a situation.

Yes, I think that's a positive, having my family here. They've been here all week. Once I leave the golf and spend any time with my son or my family it definitely moves my thoughts away from the golf.