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SHELL HOUSTON OPENApril 2, 2015Phil MickelsonHUMBLE, TEXAS Q. Phil, seems like you kept the momentum through your round after the start. PHIL MICKELSON: It was a good round. Good start to the tournament. The scores are going to be low, and you've seen a great bit of low scores because the greens are soft and rolling perfectly true. Good first round for me. I'm looking forward to three more. Q. I noticed you've got a familiar putter out there. Different putter than you had last week. Were you bothered a bit by your putting last week? Why go back to the putter? How comfortable are you over the ball with that putter? PHIL MICKELSON: It's a blade I had for ten years. I actually used it last week. I actually putted okay I thought pretty good last week, certainly a lot better than in past weeks, and it's just slowly getting better and it feels good, and I just kind of like that a little -- old style look. Q. How did you feel about your round today? PHIL MICKELSON: It was a good first round. Good start to the tournament. I got off to a quick start, birdieing three of the first four holes and kept it going. Had a good round and it's a nice start to the tournament. There's a lot of low scores. The course is in pristine condition. The greens being soft are going to allow us to get more aggressive to some of the pins and make some more birdies. They'll be some low scores, but I'm just glad I was one of them. Q. How do you feel you played in comparison to what you've been doing of late? PHIL MICKELSON: It's getting closer each week and it's felt pretty good last week. My short game actually was what threw away so many shots. I spent the last three days working on that. Short game was really sharp early on. I chipped in on the first hole today and got up and down thereafter quite often. So I was able to turn that around in a few days and the game feels pretty good. Q. (Inaudible.) PHIL MICKELSON: It's challenging, this course, because there's a lot of trouble, lot of water off the tees into the greens. What I like about it is around the greens, there's very soft movement. You hit a good shot inside 20 feet, you're rewarded with a realistic chance to make a putt, unlike a lot of other modern day greens that get very contoury (sic), it's tough to make birdie putts and be rewarded for great shots. Here you get rewarded for great shots. Q. How do you feel about Augusta? PHIL MICKELSON: This is a big week for me. I felt the game was close last week. The only thing missing was chipping and short game. If I can play well this week or continue on playing for the next three days, it should be some good momentum for next week. Q. Thinking about next week as you hit shots here? PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not thinking about next week too much right now because the best way for me to get -- give myself the best chance next week is to get in contention this week. Q. When did you get into town? PHIL MICKELSON: Last night. Q. Were you practicing at home? PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah. Every year my Pro-Am dinner so I'll have a dinner tonight with 12, 15 of the sponsors, and it gives me an extra day to work on my game. Q. (Inaudible.) PHIL MICKELSON: It is nice to know the golf course so that you don't have to go out and grind out practice rounds. You feel much fresher. Q. The first 9 you started out so well. Did conditions get more difficult as the round went on? PHIL MICKELSON: I just stalled. We saw my playing partner shoot 31 on the second 9. I just stalled a little bit. Q. Birdie at your first hole today and bogeyed the last. Those bookends kind of make everything equal? You drove the ball so well today. PHIL MICKELSON: It was a good round, good start, and the first hole I had a nice chip-in birdie and played well throughout. I got a little greedy on the last hole, short-sided myself and hit a great bunker shot. I like the way that I played today. I like the start of the round. And I was saying last week I felt I played really well, but my short game was atrocious. I spent the last three days working on chipping, which I haven't done in a long time. Turned it around because the first six, seven holes I had a lot of nice up and downs. Q. On the last hole I said, "I'm not upset, he was aggressive with the second shot." I was kind of surprised of the bunker shot. It wasn't that hard for you. A little disappointed? PHIL MICKELSON: I was more concerned about coming in too soft and leaving it 6, 7 feet short. I gave it a little extra and started running away. It wasn't that hard a bunker shot. I had a nice lie and just messed up. Q. You're excited about playing. It's a good time of the year for Phil to be excited. PHIL MICKELSON: It's fun to start playing well, to feel good with the parts of the game, and, you know, three more good rounds will give me momentum for next week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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