home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com		 ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP


June 18, 2005


Phil Mickelson


PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA

PHIL MICKELSON: I played great today. I hit a lot of good shots. I drove it the best I have in a long time. And that one hole, it's just one tough hole. The thing is you just can't make any birdies out here or try to make birdies. And today the pins were so close to the edges that not only was I not trying to get it close with my irons, I was being very careful with my putts not to putt it off the green. So it was a very tough day.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: The fairways are very fast and around the greens are very fast and certainly the greens are getting quicker. The little bit of wind we had played tricks. And it's just a tough course.

Q. Can you take us through that triple?

PHIL MICKELSON: I hit it out of bounds, so there was two shots right there. I hit it in the bunker left and my next tee shot went across the fairway with an 8 iron. I had a lie that I just I couldn't do anything with. I was thinking about chipping out sideways, but I hacked it out further, chipped on to 12 feet and missed it.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: I think at the end of the day we're going to have a great bunching of guys. I think we're going to have 30, 40 guys that have a realistic shot at winning the tournament. I don't think anybody will run away with it. I think over par will be leading at the end of the day and I think we'll have a lot of guys that have a shot at it.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: Anybody within probably five shots has a realistic shot, yeah.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: You can't, because you won't be hitting the greens and you're fighting for pars. The way to make birdies is make 30, 40 foot putts.

I chipped a shot on the third hole up to three feet from the cup and it rolled off the green. So if you hit an iron shot, you just can't get it anywhere near the hole or else it goes off the green, whether it's short, it's off to the side or long, it's propelled off. So you have to go in the middle of the green and putt from 30, 40 feet.

Q. (Inaudible.) How much does it take away from the experience knowing that tomorrow you won't really be in contention to win this championship?

PHIL MICKELSON: I understand realistically that might be the case, but the way I look at it is Johnny Miller shot 63 in The Open at Oakmont, and I just wouldn't I'm not going to go into tomorrow's round feeling as though I don't have a shot. I just feel that I can shoot a low score out there, even though I'll have to make 30, 40 footers to do it. I'm not going to go into the final round defeated. I feel that I'm going to give it everything I can. It doesn't mean I'm going to fire at the pins, it just means that I'm going to try to fire it in the middle of the greens and make a lot of long putts.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: We had a good time in this and we were so far ahead of the leaders that we were able to get some nice support before the leaders teed off and they went and followed around.

Q. (Inaudible.)

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know, we had a good time, though.

End of FastScripts.
About ASAP Sports • FastScripts Archive • Recent Interviews • Captioning • Upcoming Events • Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297