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CAREERBUILDER CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATION

January 24, 2016

Phil Mickelson

La Quinta, California

Q. They have been heaping praise on you the entire afternoon, seeing what you've done with your swing and changes that you made. Now that you had four days as you look back and look ahead to the three weeks what are your thoughts?
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I'm excited, this is a really good week for me for validation that I'm on the right track and that it's continuing to get better as I go along. For the longest time I would get the swing on plane, but I didn't have any face awareness because it was so different from what I had been doing in the past. Now the face awareness is starting to come in and it's getting a little bit sharper and hopefully I -- or I believe that I should continue to get better and better as the weeks, day, years, go on, because I'm back on plane and the touch should start to come back.

Q. Practicing is one thing as you know, competing out here against the world's best players is another thing. Did you get a sense that it felt different in competition?
PHIL MICKELSON: It certainly felt different off the tee. It felt very easy off the tee. It felt from waist high to waist high that it was almost on a track where it almost went right on through. I didn't have to use any hand action to try to square the face and I was able to feel little fades and draws and work it just like I do my irons. So that was a completely different feel and something I'm looking forward to continuing as the coming weeks go on.

Q. You've been working hard, 21-under for the week. Your thoughts.
PHIL MICKELSON: It was a really good start for me. This is a good week for me. It's not necessarily the result I wanted, it's the play, I played the way I wanted to. My swing feels really good, I feel like my touch and focus and feel is starting to come back slowly. But it's actually been a very difficult three or four months for me to get the swing from where it was to where it is now and then develop face awareness. Because you adjust the plane that much, finding where the face is, takes a lot of time. I had to re-learn all the feels from the past.

Q. It's been a long time since the Presidents Cup, working with Andrew, your grade for the week?
PHIL MICKELSON: No, this is an A. This is a great week for me. It may not be, just because it's not a win it doesn't mean it wasn't what I wanted. I'm playing the way I want. It might not have been the result, but I'm playing the way I wanted. I hit a lot of good shots, it felt totally different off the tee, my iron play was good, it wasn't great. It was the touch -- but the touch is coming back. I'm starting to maneuver the ball the way I want to. My divot entry point is the way I want it. It's actually straight, a straight line. It had been toe deep for so long because I came in so steep the toe was entering first. It was you know solid and the divots were terrible. The divots this week were great. There was one bad divot all week. I forget which one it was. It was on the back nine today, a little 8-iron. Number 10. The only bad divot. So the touch and the feel and the face awareness is slowly starting to come back and as that comes back, as my swing stays on plane, my game's going to come right back with it.

Q. The driver is as much fun to watch you hit it, I wasn't worried about getting hit all week long and that's a bonus for me.
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, it's interesting how my parameters, my vision when I look down the fairway and the trouble I'm looking at, how much smaller of an area I'm actually looking at. There were a few that came right down on my target line and if I'm trying to hit a trunk of a tree, a couple came down on it. It was a nice feeling. It's going to get better and better. I just think that this was a good start. It wasn't until Monday or Tuesday that I felt even remotely close to starting the year because I didn't have the face awareness. I had the swing on plane, but the face wasn't coming. You and I played, you saw it. It was very poor ball striking a month ago, even though the swing looked probably similar to what it is now. Now the touch is starting to come back.

Q. Go out and have some fun next week at home.
PHIL MICKELSON: I really am. I had a lot of fun this week, and I'm looking forward to playing some more golf, because I know that I'm on the right track now.

Q. What does the confidence do for the start of the year for this kind of a week?
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, it was a big week for me because I needed to get off on the right foot, know that what I'm doing is the right way, and continue to trust it. I just feel like each day I hit balls each day that I practice, I continue to improve and get better and better touch. Get my touch. That's coming back quickly. I think that I'm excited about the prospects of the next few weeks, because my game's starting to feel shart sharp.

Q. You said to me earlier this week that you are swing is about a weak away. Next week is Torrey, how much do you enter this tournament now with so much optimism in your backyard?
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's an ideal tournament for me to start driving the ball well, because it's such a demanding ball striking golf course that it feels great to be able to go there and really put it to the test. You can get away with a lot of wayward shots out here with the dormant Bermuda, as long as you keep it wasn't the OB lines. That wasn't an issue for me this week, I was actually just off the fairway if I did miss. So I'm looking forward to going to Torrey and seeing how good I can strike it.

Q. Mentally and emotionally, what has this week done for you?
PHIL MICKELSON: Certainly calms my nerves and anxiety a little bit. I was concerned about, you know, about is it going to come back and how long is it going to take and so forth. I got a pretty good glimpse today that my game's right where on the right path on the direction I want it and it's really days away from clicking.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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