WORLDCOM CLASSIC--THE HERITAGE OF GOLF

April 19, 2002

Phil Mickelson

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Phil, for joining us. Good day today out there, some pretty tough conditions. Great round. And wonderful position for the weekend.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, thank you. I played well today and shot 7-under under some pretty difficult conditions with the wind blowing, and had a good back side, which was my front side to finish with 5-under. The front side seems to be a nine that you can get a little bit lower score than the back. The back is a little more challenging, I feel. But I played them both well. Shot 7-under and was very pleased.

Q. You haven't been here in a couple of years. What was the reason? Was there a scheduling conflict or you just weren't comfortable?

PHIL MICKELSON: A little scheduling conflict and a little bit bugs.

Q. A little bit bugs?

PHIL MICKELSON: You know, the bugs. My arms and legs when I get done with this tournament or -- it takes me seven to ten days to recover. But that's not why I missed it. It's more scheduling. This is one of my favorite golf courses on Tour, so I very much like to play. It at times can be difficult following a major to play any tournament. But this one they do everything they can to accommodate the players. It's a short drive from Augusta to here. It's very easy to -- they do a great job letting us use the same cars, keeping it simple. Housing is terrific. So I try to play here. I just had a couple of things come up the last couple of years that made it difficult to make it.

Q. This is your best round here, and Davis said given the condition it was probably equal to his 62 yesterday. Do you agree?

PHIL MICKELSON: It's tough to compare. Certainly his 9-under par round was incredible. I played very well today, especially given the conditions. It made it more challenging, I felt, than when I played in the morning yesterday. I don't know if it was two shots harder or not. I played very well today. And it's difficult to get the ball close to the hole because you have the wind swirling, it's tough to judge it. The greens are small, and although they're somewhat receptive, they're still firm, they're still taking a big first bounce. And if you can hit the greens, you have a good putt at it. You have a good roll, even from 20 or 30 feet. It's fairly level with soft breaks, and you feel like you could make them.

And I made a lot of good putts today. I certainly hit good shots. But it's not like I walked around with tap-ins today. I made a lot of good putts, and that's what you need to do to score low any day is make putts.

Q. You said -- you mentioned the fact that sometimes it's hard to come here after a major. Conversely, with a third place finish last week and playing well, are you feeding off of some of that this week?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I found that last week can also be a very energizing week, because you get this great sense of the history of the game. And to play the final nine holes of The Masters on Sunday is a fun opportunity. And it's a very energizing event. Certainly it is mentally and physically draining. But it also brings you energy and excitement to play. And so my level of excitement to play this game right now is very high.

And certainly I felt I played well at Augusta. Now, the style of play at Augusta is totally different than the style of play here. Distance is not a factor here. You're trying to hit a specific distance off the tee, so you have a clear shot into the green, as opposed to trying to hit it as far as you can. Club selection is important, even off of the tee. So it's not a golf course that requires a lot of power, like Augusta does. And so it's nice to have that mixture, as well.

Q. You talked about on TV on the interview about how you can be creative on a course like this. How much more fun does that make a round of golf when you can do that? And does that suit you more than --

PHIL MICKELSON: I love it. I love to be creative. And the great thing about this golf course that goes unnoticed is that the fairways are really twice as wide as the actual landing area, meaning the part that you're hitting to is half the fairway width. But if you miss that part, you have to be creative to hit a left-to-right shot or right-to-left shot around trees. But because you're in the fairway ,you have the opportunity to do that. So many times we see golf courses that just let the rough grow and tighten the fairways, and that creativity gets taken away. The trees are the challenge here, that's what makes it so difficult. Moving the ball around the trees, over them, under them is what allows you to score well here. And because you have a lie that accommodates those shots, it makes it a fun golf course to play.

Q. Can you talk about the conditions and a lot of low scores, do you think it's going to continue?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I think that -- I don't know why the scores are as low as they are. You usually don't have very many guys going low early. There seems to be a clumping or grouping of scores. But for a lot of reasons a lot of guys are going low. The greens in the past years have been brick hard, so that might be one reason. The wind has not been as strong. Certainly yesterday was a lot softer than I've ever seen it here. Today it started to pick up to a more traditional breeze. But the scores are low, and I think I'm going to have to keep up a similar pace if I want to stay on top of the lead hanging into the weekend.

I started on 10. I made bogey, I hit a driver, 5-iron, just to the right. Chipped up on the fringe and 2-putted for 15 feet.

The next hole, I hit a driver, and hit up to about 12 feet and made that for birdie.

I birdied 13, after hitting a 3-wood and sand wedge to about 30 feet and made that.

And I birdied 15 after hitting a driver, 4-iron into the green-side bunker there on the right. I hit a bunker shot down there 20 feet past the hole just off the edge and made that for birdie.

And that was it for that side. I turned at 2-under.

On the first hole I hit a driver -- I'm sorry, 3-wood and a wedge to about three feet and made that for birdie.

And the second hole hit driver, 4-iron to 10 feet and made that for eagle. But I bogeyed the next hole after hitting a driver in the left rough. I hit an 8-iron left of the green, and chipped up just over the green and 2-putted from 15 feet.

But came back on the par-5, 5th hole with a good drive and a 4-iron to about 12 feet and missed that but 2-putted for birdie.

And birdied the next hole after hitting a 3-wood and an L-wedge to six feet. I made that.

Then parred 7 and 8 until we got to 9. I hit a good drive in the front green-side bunker, and hit a good bunker shot that caught the down slope. It didn't stop, almost went into the hole, but rolled off the fringe about 15 feet away and made that to birdie. To end the round, I'll hit a driver when the pin is back right or back left. I hit a driver a couple of yards short yesterday and got up-and-down. When the pin is over the bunker, I'll have a decision to make, if I can reach the bunker, I'll probably try to drive into the bunker, I'll lay back, so I have a fuller shot to get the ball stopped.

Q. Do you have your family here this week?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yes.

Q. Do you feel comfortable? Is this kind of a relaxed atmosphere for you?

PHIL MICKELSON: It's an enjoyable place to play a tournament because there are wonderful places to stay, wonderful places to eat and a lot of fun things to do. And my kids have had a ball going down to the beach and hanging out at the pool and having this wonderful weather that we've had this week. It's been a lot of fun for me and my family.

I don't see it as a week of relaxation for me, I think it's a workweek. And granted I may not grind as hard on the driving range, I may let myself recuperate a little bit. But it's still just as mentally straining as any other week, and it's a tournament I want to do well here. I have not won this event, though I've played well in the past, and I would really like to.

Q. You talked about a different shot at Augusta National and coming here. Is there physical adjustments you have to make for shots you didn't have to pull out of the bag last week or is it more mental?

PHIL MICKELSON: Absolutely. The trajectory of your irons, first of all, you want to keep underneath the tree line so that the wind above it, which you cannot really tell what it's doing, won't affect it. So that is opposite of what we want at Augusta. We want to bring it as high and soft as possible there. Even with the swirling winds there, it's not as tree lined as this golf course is. So lowering trajectory of irons is important, and tee shot, not going after it, you're trying to have more club selection to get it to the right spot. Most holes here have a slight dog leg, and you need to hit it right at the corner of the dog leg, distancewise and accuracywise, to have a straight shot at the green.

Q. You're a front player, especially with the scores low, what's going to be your strategy tomorrow?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I'm going to tee off in the last group, and I'm going to watch everybody in front of me, birdie one and two, and probably catch me or come close. And I'm going to try to be patient and hopefully get a couple of birdies early on, as well. This is a golf course where there might be one or two holes, 2 and 5 are the only holes you look at and say I really should birdie these. And every other one you have to make a great iron shot in and make a good putt. So you don't know where the birdies are going to come from. You just need to birdie 2 and 5 and playing the other holes pretty solid. If I can do that, I'll be able to make up the ground that I've lost before I tee off.

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