home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

FORD CHAMPIONSHIP AT DORAL

March 3, 2005

Phil Mickelson

DORAL, FLORIDA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Phil, for joining us for a few minutes. Great round of 64, shooting some low numbers at a couple of tournaments this year, so another good start.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's a good start to the tournament. This tournament is a tournament I really want to play well in obviously, with my representation of Ford and all of the hard work they have put into making this tournament what it is today, after taking it over when it wasn't at its apex.

It's nice to play well, especially when the field is so strong, too.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. You mentioned outside during one of your TV stand-ups kind of the depth of the field sort of gave you the impetus maybe to keep it going and pile on the birdies. Could you sort of elaborate on that?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, Steve, when I know that the field is so strong and you've got guys like Tiger and Vijay and Retief and Mike Weir and David Toms, guys who are making a lot of birdies and have the ability to shoot 62 or 63, when I'm out there I find myself pushing to go lower that 4- or 5-under just isn't going to cut it with those guys in the field.

Q. Was today another example of getting the added distance back and being able to hit shorter wedges in?

PHIL MICKELSON: Without question. Without question, yeah. To be able to drive it in the bunker on 16, up in the green-side bunker and wedge out; to be able to drive it on 17 and have 70 yards left to the hole, it makes a big difference.

So I was able to make some birdies on some holes hitting L-wedges, that it made a big difference. And granted, there was no wind and the wind is the course's main defense and I played it in very calm conditions, probably about as easy as it could have played. But there's no question in my mind that being able to drive it a lot longer and a lot straighter has made a big difference.

Q. Not counting match-play, which is obviously a little different animal than stroke-play, these last three tournaments, is this as good as you've played golf, this stretch?

PHIL MICKELSON: I actually played very well at La Costa, it was hard to tell when I ran into David Toms. (Laughter.) I played very well at La Costa and at AT&T and at Phoenix, obviously.

To me, the biggest thing is that when I go to the golf course now, when I arrive at the course, if I can drive the ball in play reasonably straight, and right now the misses have been much better, if I can drive it reasonably straight it's going long enough now to where I have wedges in and it's making a big difference.

Q. Is this the best you've ever felt about your game?

PHIL MICKELSON: No question. I learned a lot about the in the four or five months about equipment and my misses. It's made a huge difference in my game.

Q. I think you one-putted at least the last seven holes. Can you just talk about that; are you seeing things pretty clearly here? Is Bones helping you, sometimes yes, sometimes no?

PHIL MICKELSON: I had a little bit of a tip when I shot 59 in Hawaii and it's really carried over and this is the first bermudagrass I've putted on, Phoenix is better Buddha but there's so much rye in it it's very different. These are usually very grainy greens usually and I'm able to see the line a lot better and make some aggressive strokes.

Q. What was the tip?

PHIL MICKELSON: That's a good question. That's a good question. I'm going to hold that to myself though. (Laughter.)

It's been helpful.

Q. Who did the tip come from?

PHIL MICKELSON: Dave Pelz.

Q. Are the greens different from last year?

PHIL MICKELSON: They are a little different. Certainly they are rolling a lot better and truer, but there's more of an overseeded bent which takes some of the grain of the bermudagrass out. Last year, there was not as much overseed.

Q. You mentioned at Pebble, that secret that I'm not going to get, that something David said helped you on reading the greens; was that specific to bermuda or was that general?

PHIL MICKELSON: Pebble was poa annua, a different grass.

Q. What were you talking about that day, was it specific to bermuda or generally reading putts?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's both. I have to look at bermudagreens and read them totally different than the way I look at bent and the way I look at poa annua. And when you look at the greens we had at Pebble, they are very bumpy obviously; and when greens get bumpy they break a little bit more, which is something I was not aware of or thought about. I putted very well at Pebble, just play a little bit more break and let the bumps kind of hop it in the hole.

Q. Do you surprise yourself, not just with the scores, but surprise yourself sometimes when you really catch one and it might go farther than you thought it did? You said you learned a lot about equipment and all of a sudden it just takes off on you.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, off the tee it's a good thing. If it's with an iron, it's not good. (Laughter.)

I think the biggest thing for me is that the misses have been minimized. That's allowed me to make birdies and have it go low, as opposed to getting rid -- and getting rid of some of those huge numbers I've had in the past and a lot of that is learning about the equipment.

Q. Jim has read the greens for you frequently when you've come to Florida.

PHIL MICKELSON: He read every one today.

Q. Is that still the deal?

PHIL MICKELSON: Absolutely, yeah. The only difference is now the reads that I'm starting to see are matching up with his.

Q. When you talk about minimizing your misses, are you talking specifically relating to equipment or also more generally in strategy?

PHIL MICKELSON: I'm considering, I think it's more equipment. It's been a lot more equipment for me.

The swing is basically the same that it's been the last couple of years. I haven't done anything different with the golf swing the last two years, but I notice a huge difference in the misses off the tee and the misses with the long irons, especially.

Q. Was there a time when you would have been pleasantly surprised with a 64 and are you at a stage now where you are not necessarily expecting it but you say, okay, this is what I do?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's something I don't really think about too much, Doug. I don't think about the final score right now. To shoot low feels great. When I'm out there, though, I feel that I have to keep pushing to make birdies and I felt that at Spyglass, too, because I knew the course can play very difficult. I know there was a good field and I knew I had to keep pushing and I was able to get it even lower. Even though it was a great round and a nice start, the courses played much easier than did Spyglass or than did TPC Scottsdale. So this score will not separate myself from the field at all and so I need to go out tomorrow and do the same thing and obviously improve on it. That depends on the conditioning and the wind, if we have it like it was today, it was without a defense.

Q. Without sounding too stupid, with the wind, how does that change the aggressiveness?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, the downwind holes all play very aggressively and into the wind. I'll hit a lot of the chip-drivers that I'm hitting, those skirters where I just run it out there and just try to get it in play.

Q. You mentioned a shift back to the more aggressive off the tee versus early last year where you were hitting it in the fairway but not as long. How many different driver swings do you have right now? You just mentioned the chip-driver and taking something off it; is that just choking up or hitting off the heel?

PHIL MICKELSON: Last year, I Steve, I went after every drive as hard as I could. It wasn't that I was taking anything off it. I went back in 2003 and the ball went 15 yards less, 20 yards shorter and I was able to keep the control better. And this year I'm able to control it the same way I did last year, only I got my 15, 20 yards back.

So, it's not as though I'm swinging hard again, because last year at Augusta, I swung as hard as I possibly could, and I will again this year. Because you've got to get as short an iron as possible into those greens. The difference is I'm going to get another 15, 20 yards closer to the greens and maybe be able to attack some more pins.

Q. Rick said you didn't putt too well on the front side, Rick Smith; did his tip click in and when did it click in?

PHIL MICKELSON: Right around the 11th hole. I had a little mishap on 10 with a poor 3-wood second shot. After that, I birdied six of the last eight.

Q. Do you remember the tip?

PHIL MICKELSON: No, it wasn't just that -- it was more shots. I have to give myself good putts at it, too.

Q. What actually happened on the 10th?

PHIL MICKELSON: I hit a 3-wood into the water left. Just not a very good shot -- you know, I don't know what to say. It's the only club that's not a Callaway, what can I say? (Laughter.) Just kidding.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Let's go through your round.

PHIL MICKELSON: Sure. Starting on 1, I hit driver, 3-iron just short left. Chipped up to eight feet and made it.

Birdied 5 with a driver and a sand wedge to four feet. Made that.

6, I bogeyed. I drove it in the left rough. Got stuck behind a tree. I had to wedge out from the fairway and hit sand wedge on the green to 25 feet and 2-putted.

Birdied 8. I hit driver, 4-iron on the front and 2-putted.

Bogeyed 10. I hit 3-wood off the tee to the right rough, 3-wood in the water, hit 8-iron, left fringe, 30 feet 2-putted.

Birdied 11, 3-wood in the right fairway there, hit a 9-iron to 25 feet, 20 feet and made it.

Birdied 12. I hit driver, 3-wood just short of the green in the right rough. L-wedged it up to a foot.

Birdied 15. I hit 9-iron to eight feet. Actually, it was six feet. 9-iron to six feet.

Birdied 16. I hit driver in the front green-side bunker, hit an L-wedge shot five feet past and made it.

17, I hit driver, L-wedge from 70 yards to about 12 feet, made that.

And birdied 18. Hit driver just to the right rough, hit 8-iron to six feet and made that.

Q. I hear you say you were swinging as hard as you could at Augusta last year, makes me think maybe we had it wrong when you were really sort of insisting you were a more conservative player last year?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, when you hit a cut shot, the ball won't go quite as far. It will stop rolling. That might take a little bit off.

But last year, I swung as hard as I could hitting controlled cuts, just like I've been doing this year. The difference was I had a ball that goes 15, 20 yards shorter. Now if you take 20 yards off of every drive that I hit, or every shot, my accuracy is going to increase because the degree of -- if I hit a ball at two percent off-line, it's a big difference, those extra 20 yards.

You look at Vijay Singh last year. He was the most accurate driver on TOUR, yet he was 150th in fairways hit. You say, well, that's nuts. But the fact is that he's hitting driver 30, 40 yards past everybody. His degree of miss is smaller. That's what I'm talking about, the degree of miss is smaller than everybody else. Balls might run through in the first cut or the rough, but when guys are hitting 3-woods and he's hitting driver, 50, 60 yards by those 3-woods, he's hitting a little flip wedge in. I didn't get credit for a fairway hit on 16 but I hit a perfect drive, ripped it right down the tree trunk I was aiming over. But I didn't get a fairway hit. So that stat is going to be very misleading.

Q. The whole course management stuff, this is going to change from like this week, you say you feel that you have to make birdies where you go to Pinehurst it's not going to be the same way of thinking?

PHIL MICKELSON: When the wind picks up and you get crosswinds on these tight fairways I'll have to chip drivers. I won't be able to step up and hit it. Yesterday in the Pro-Am I just hit a lot of low, chip drivers that stay ten feet off the fairway, that's probably what I will do later in the week when the wind picks up. I also take 40 yards off the tee shot so it doesn't continue to run off through the fairways.

Q. Like 18, how far was the pin from the water?

PHIL MICKELSON: The pin was, I don't know, 35, 40 feet from the water. I don't get it --

Q. I mean to say, you were in the rough, maybe you don't go right at the pin if you're playing in a major?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, no, I'd go at the pin. (Laughter.) You know, last year, Sunday at Augusta, the back nine, I don't know what was conservative about that. I made five birdies in seven holes. I'm firing at the pin on 12. That's not conservative.

So, there's a difference between conservative or having better control, better distance control, better course management, times to go at the pin, times to lay back in the fairway or be more aggressive. One of the things I learned was to play a par 5 aggressively. You might have to take 20 yards off the tee shot. The reason for that is if you take 20 yards off the tee shot I might be able to hit a 3-wood out of the fairway and get it right up by the edge of the green as opposed to hitting 20 yards longer off the tee shot but having it go through to the rough and then I've got to wedge out or hit an iron out.

So I can play more aggressively, let's say, taking maybe a little bit off the driver. So there's some of that going on, too.

Q. So what you're saying is if you're a little shorter but in the fairway, that really allows you to go at the pin with the second shot.

PHIL MICKELSON: On a par 5.

Q. Or even a par 4?

PHIL MICKELSON: Possibly. But it just depends on how the hole cuts off and so forth. I mean, a par 5 is a good example because to play the par 5s aggressively I can actually play more aggressive taking 20 yards off the drive and getting the ball in play because then I can go at the green. More often than not you don't have to get 20 yards longer, be in the rough and have to hit an iron out. Then there are times like 16 where I know I'm going to miss the fairway but I'd rather be in the green-side bunker have an easy little shot because the pin is in back and the ball just releases down the hill.

Now if the pin is in front, if I drive in that bunker, I can't get close to the pin. The closest I can get is 12 feet, 15 feet so I will hit a shot back in the fairway so I can spin it and get it close and play aggressive that way. So a lot of it just depends on the pin placement.

No. 3 at Augusta is a good example, too. I hit driver off the tee two times a year or 3-wood two teams a year. When the pin is back, I can get that L-wedge stopped at 5 yards, so I will drive it over the hill down to the bottom and chip up to that back right pin or the back center pin. But when it's front right or front left, I can't get that shot close, so I have to play back on top of the hill to be aggressive at the pin placement. Do you see what I mean?

So it varies. I want to play as aggressive as I can, at the pin, and then I have to vary what I do off the tee to accommodate that. The difference from the past is that I would always go full throttle off the tee, then I would have to be more conservative into the green. That's not where I want to be conservative.

The whole goal is to be aggressive and to attack pins, how do you do it, what's the best place to be most aggressive to the pin. I guess that's probably it.

Q. I'm still trying to recover on the line you took on 13 at La Costa?

PHIL MICKELSON: Over the lake? Well, I've been hitting cuts great, you have a right-to-left wind, and I ended up 55 yards from the hole.

Q. But I've never seen anybody start a ball out over a comfort station before?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, you know. (Laughter.)

Q. His comfort level was there.

PHIL MICKELSON: Anyway. (Laughing).

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297