PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 20, 2021

Phil Mickelson

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Quick Quotes

Q. Nice start, take us through your round and what you thought of it?

PHIL MICKELSON: I mean, I'm very pleased to be under par, especially after a rough start, I was 3-over through six.

I bogeyed 4, 5 and 6 and was able to kind of steady the round and play the downwind as we turned downwind in a few under partaking advantage of the par 5s, 7 and 11, and sneaking a birdie in on 10 and then the last five holes which are really tough I played them in 2-under.

That was really where I made up a lot of ground on the field because those are tough holes back into the wind, and I would have been happy playing them in even and getting in at even par not doing too much damage. But I made a couple of good shots on 15 and 16 to make birdies.

Q. We've heard you say you're "close" for a while now. Are you closer than close?

PHIL MICKELSON: I've made progress. If you look at week-to-week-to-week I've been making a lot of progress, and the challenge, the guys out here are so good. They are so talented. The course setups are very penalizing that you've got to be focused every shot, and if I lose my focus on any holes out of 72, the field here is going to eat me up and so that's the big challenge for me to get in contention.

But I'm enjoying the challenge and I'm playing well enough to do it, but I just need to be present on every shot.