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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2015

Phil Mickelson

Kohler, Wisconsin, USA

Q. 66, 69 on the weekend, you've got to be pretty pleased with the way you played Saturday and Sunday?
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, it's not far off. It's not quite there yet, but it's not far off. I'm hitting a lot more good shots each round, I'm still doing the hard things well, but I'm doing the easy things not so great. I'm letting a lot of opportunities slide today on the front nine after hitting good shots, I just let it go. But it's not far off. I can tell how close it is, I just can't quite put it all together. I haven't quite gotten back to where I know I can be, but I feel like I keep inching my way up. It's just taking a lot longer than I thought.

Q. What do you take from this tournament? And conversely, what do you need to work on to make a run in the playoffs?
PHIL MICKELSON: I think that from a physical part of my game, my game feels pretty good. But I'm losing focus on a lot of the easy shots, I'm not getting a good clear picture. I'm just making some dumb mistakes with easy shots. I'm pulling off the hard ones though. So I need to get a better picture, better mental focus. But I've been spending so much time working on the swing plane, making sure my setup is right, the swing plane is right, and all the nuances of the golf swing that I haven't had that fine tuning yet. So now hopefully I'll be able to work on fine tuning this next week and be ready for the Barclays.

Q. The scores show a nice step in the right direction.
PHIL MICKELSON: Thank you.

Q. You played with Hiroshi today. What do you think of him?
PHIL MICKELSON: He's a good player, we had a good time today, and he hit a lot of good shots. It was nice.

Q. Are you also following the progress of Lahiri a little bit?
PHIL MICKELSON: I keep seeing his name up top of the leaderboards, so it's hard to miss.

Q. How do you feel?
PHIL MICKELSON: Good. A little tired, but good.

The golf course is just wonderful. I think it's just one of the best conditioned courses I've seen. I think that all week long good shots get rewarded. I thought that the setup and the conditioning and everything about this course was just a perfect place to host this event. Poor shots got severely punched, so we saw a wide discrepancy of scores and I thought that was really a good thing.

From my standpoint, it was close. I'm close. I'm sick of saying that. I'm tired of not being there yet. It keeps getting better and better and I keep hitting more and more good shots each round, but I keep making some dumb mistakes. And at this level, some of the things that I'm, some of the mistakes I'm making, you just can't do. I'm hitting plenty of good shots to be on top of the leaderboard, but I'm not -- I'm making too many mistakes that's pulling me down.

Q. Can you relate at all to Jason Day? He's had a lot of chances to win Majors before he got a chance to win his first one. You went through that a little bit back in the day.
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, but he keeps giving himself good opportunities. He's eventually going to do it. Most likely today. What's impressive about his game is that he plays well at a variety of golf courses. He plays well at the Masters, he plays well here, he played well at St. Andrews, he just plays well on a variety of golf courses and conditions. That says a lot about him.

Q. It's nothing really new for you, but the crowd support even after 72 holes, they love you still.
PHIL MICKELSON: The people here have been really nice. And the state troopers and the officers that have been helping out all throughout with parking and through out the golf course with security, they couldn't be any nicer either, they did a great job. So it's really a community involvement to hold a tournament and the people here were spectacular.

I think the golf course held -- it was fairly easy for people to see and see the golf. I think that it is going to be a great Ryder Cup site in a few years.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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