U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 17, 2005

Phil Mickelson

PHIL MICKELSON: It's a tough course. I don't know what to say. It's a tough golf course.

Q. What failed you most today would you say?

PHIL MICKELSON: I think I putted pretty poorly, especially the short ones, which I've been putting very well, and I missed a number of those. I didn't feel I played that badly, and then I hit a lot of good shots where I wanted to that didn't quite end up where I was hoping, but that's kind of the case here.

Probably the biggest thing was the putting, though, because I had been putting pretty well. I hit them on line, I just didn't either read them right or get the right speed.

Q. (Inaudible).

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's a tough course to turn things around on because you just can't make birdies. The more you try to make birdies, the more bogeys you're going to make. I wasn't really trying to make birdies, I was just trying to salvage pars and had a tough time doing it. It's a tough golf course.

Q. Are there any other tougher stretches you play on a golf course than 14, 15, 16?

PHIL MICKELSON: I've played holes a lot worse. I just bogeyed those three. I've had doubles and triples before. I've had worse stretches.

Q. (Inaudible).

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't think that they're overly unfair or brutally difficult. They're hard, but it's playing very fair and we saw some guys shoot under par today.

Q. As you played the front nine there, does the thought at all creep into your mind about the cut line, something you probably wouldn't even have thought about?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, I'm not I wasn't concerned about that, no. I'm just trying to make pars.

Q. Do you feel like it's playing differently than the course you prepared for, or are you just playing differently than

PHIL MICKELSON: It's a lot different than what I had prepared for. I think the toughest thing to adjust for is off the tee because the fairways are so much harder. They're rolling them and the balls just are going right through the fairway for me. I hit it well today, and so I was just a couple inches in the thick rough or a couple feet in the thick rough, and I was better off missing it big. When I would miss it 20, 30 yards in the stuff, I was a lot better off than just barely in the rough.

Q. Do you have to play a little more aggressively now or hope the other guys come back to you a little?

PHIL MICKELSON: You just can't play aggressive here, you just can't. I think that 36 pars to have an outside shot at winning, and that's kind of what I'm going for.

Q. Hedblom shot 66 this morning and said the course was playing easier. Was there a temptation in the morning hours to try to get a little bit aggressive?

PHIL MICKELSON: I thought that I could get a good round in there, too. It was very fair if you played well. You could get off to a quick start, especially the front nine. I didn't quite do that; I shot 6 over. But it was there if you hit the right shots.

Q. (Inaudible).

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, that happened quite a bit. It seemed as though when they watered the greens, they watered only the fronts. The ball hits the front and comes back or you hit the back part and it goes over. It was tough.

Q. You spent a lot of time around each green. Did you just have to throw that out the window today?

PHIL MICKELSON: No, I hit a lot of good chip shots. I hit it in there three, four, five feet, just didn't capitalize on the par putts.

Q. So that was worthwhile?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, and then I had three three putts, too. 17, I three putted and 8, I three putted, and both of those I was worried about knocking it off the green and making double. It was one of those where you try to lag it up four or five feet short of the pin so as to not go off the green and I ended up leaving it shorter than that and missed them.

Q. Your preparation today (inaudible).

PHIL MICKELSON: It just can't change. I can't change the way I want to play the course because it's a very conservative setup that I have, and I just have a hard time making birdies on this golf course. I think everybody does.

So the best way to make up ground is to make three or four pars rather than try to make a birdie.

Q. What if it rains before tomorrow?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, if it rains it would be a whole different golf course. The fairways would be a lot easier to hit, I think, and you'd be able to attack some greens. Maybe not right at the pin, but you'd be able to maybe take it 15 feet, whereas a lot of shots like the 8th hole, I'm playing 40, 50 feet to the right, so it's I think that would really change it.

Q. Do you ever feel frustration setting in?

PHIL MICKELSON: You can't get frustrated. Guys are going to have a bad stretch. That nine hole stretch that I had may or may not have taken me out of the event. I think I still have a good shot, but I've got to play some good golf, but everybody is going to struggle. It's just so tough, everybody is going to struggle.

Q. Was there a turning point in your front nine where things started to slip?

PHIL MICKELSON: You could probably pick out any one of the bogeys I would say.

Q. Are the fairways here harder than Shinnecock?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yes.

Q. (Inaudible).

PHIL MICKELSON: I didn't see where the break was on the greens. Would you point that out (laughter)? It was tough. It's a tough, fair test. I didn't play the best.

Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts.