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WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 18, 2005

Phil Mickelson

AKRON, OHIO

Q. Talk about this week after winning the major, coming here late last night. How exhausted are you?

PHIL MICKELSON: It's been a lot of fun. I had a nice day on Tuesday. We flew back Monday, had a great day with our family on Tuesday, went on a family outing and then flew here on Wednesday.

What I like is I feel very confident with how I'm playing. I'm trying to take that momentum and carry it over here to Firestone, and the reason I like playing here so much right after last week is it's a very similar setup. The style of shots and the shot value and the quality and level of play you have to have to play well here is very similar to last week at Baltusrol, and I'm trying to take that momentum and very similar game plan and carry it over.

Q. Has it sunk in that you've won your second major?

PHIL MICKELSON: I think it has. It feels terrific. It's been a fun few days, and it'll be a much more enjoyable end of the year and off season than had I not won certainly. It gets me excited about next year and next year's majors, but before I jump ahead, I want to try to finish up the year right, and that starts right here at Firestone.

Q. Do you sense from the career you've had any sort of validation or anything or did that end with the Masters?

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't think that any one particular tournament is going to make a huge difference in how I feel about my game or myself. However, winning these tournaments that have been avoiding me that I have come so close to in the past certainly gives me a lot more confidence that I can do it in the future and gets me excited about the upcoming majors, and I'm hoping that I can take what I learned at Augusta, which was when I needed to make birdies on the back nine and was able to do it, or the PGA when things weren't going my way necessarily and I was able to hang in there and fight for pars, maybe I can keep both styles of play and apply it to future majors.

Q. I know you've won 27 or 28 tournaments, but adversity in the majors, do people identify with you more? Does that increase how fans love you when you did finally win?

PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not sure, but it's been a lot longer journey to last year's Masters and that first victory than I had hoped it would be, and I appreciate all those who kind of went along the ride with me, and I'm hoping to keep creating a little bit more exciting finishes in some of the majors and maybe even some not so exciting finishes.

Q. Is this the best you've been playing right now?

PHIL MICKELSON: I would say, yeah, it's very close to as well as I've played certainly this year and possibly as long as I can remember. The last two years have been really big years for me as far as what I've learned and little mini goals that I've accomplished. I feel as though there are areas where I can see the areas of my game that have improved, and I enter tournaments now with a lot more confidence.

Q. Was it in any sense you didn't get to win on 18 on Sunday, and everybody always says the U.S. Open playoffs are anticlimactic on Monday. Was it any kind of a letdown whatsoever?

PHIL MICKELSON: Certainly not to me, not to me or my family or friends. It might have been to those who came out on Sunday and wanted to see a finish. But it really doesn't matter. I look back ten years from now and it won't make one bit of difference, three days, ten days from now, it won't make a bit of difference when it happened as long as I was able to do it and it provides me with a memory and something I'll remember forever.

Q. (Inaudible).

PHIL MICKELSON: Winning on the 72nd hole, that doesn't really add more to it to me. It is nice, believe me, to birdie the last hole and be able to do that under a clutch situation like I did at Augusta and the PGA, but to me a win is a win, and I would much rather be able to walk up 18 with a four or five shot lead than having to birdie it.

End of FastScripts.

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