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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 2004

Phil Mickelson

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. Talk about today.

PHIL MICKELSON: I enjoy this tournament and I haven't had the best record, but I enjoy this tournament every year. I missed it last year, and I came back here with excitement.

This is where the course conditioning really starts to change, where we start to see a different type of golf before the Majors. We see a different rough. We see different penalties for misses. We see greens that are baked and the balls that are bouncing up in the air and putts that are running off the green. It's a different challenge to the game than we see earlier on the West Coast where the greens are soft and spongy.

So to come off today and make only one bogey and get myself within a few shots of the lead is a good feeling, and it also gives me a chance to sleep in tomorrow.

Q. Talk about your comeback on the last hole and how important that is.

PHIL MICKELSON: That's interesting because that drive that I hit every year prior would have been in the fairway. But now they shaved the rough and they shaved the first cut to where balls are bound to go left into the water, and I haven't -- I didn't play it last year, so I don't know if they did it last year or not. But it was surprising to me because the fairway now is moved five yards over to the right. I actually thought that was okay there. It landed in the fairway and kicked in.

Q. It landed in the water?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yes. I hit driver, so I was far enough down to where I could get 8-iron there. And the last two greens, 17 and 18, were by far the softest. I tried to hit a high, soft shot to get to that pin, thinking it was going to bounce. It was the first divot I made all day and the ball backed up, which I hadn't seen, as on 17 it did. I would have hit a different shot on 17, had I known the green was soft.

Q. How long was the putt on 18?

PHIL MICKELSON: 18, it was probably 10, 12 feet.

Q. To be able to salvage that --

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, it was nice. But 4- or 5-under -- every shot is critical, though, but whether it was there or somewhere other in the round, it didn't matter.

Q. (Inaudible).

PHIL MICKELSON: Maybe, maybe, but I don't really worry about that too much. Just being in contention is nice.

Q. Do you like this position?

PHIL MICKELSON: I do, I think that -- I like having a chance to go out before the leaders and try to make a run. I know that when I was leading after 36 in Doral and I watched everybody get off to a quick start and make birdies, it makes it a little more difficult.

Q. Seems like you managed your game really well, too.

PHIL MICKELSON: Thank you. I've had a number of things happen throughout the round for me, as it did for everybody, that you look at and say, gosh, that doesn't seem right, little things, and I was able to be patient with it and make the most of it and not have too many mistakes. When I made a birdie run on 11, 12 and 13, I was able to get under par, as opposed to trying to stay around par.

Q. I guess part of the importance of that was earlier you had made some good par saves to allow you to take advantage of that?

PHIL MICKELSON: Exactly.

End of FastScripts.

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