INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY QWEST

August 6, 2000

Phil Mickelson

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it was a fun day. I had felt like I had pretty good shots all day, even until the last hole. And the last shot, I felt like I had a good opportunity, which was a minor victory, because after 36 holes, I was so far back that just to have an opportunity on Sunday was pretty exciting for me. I thought that Ernie played extremely well today and made it difficult to make up those 8 points. But he birdied 16 and 17, and those turned out to be pretty critical points.

PHIL MICKELSON: The putt he made on 14 was pretty crucial, because that kept him with a 5-point lead, which was more than two birdies. Two birdies would have caught him otherwise. It was a big momentum putt as well. Being 5 back, I felt like that was the most that I wanted to be back, because I felt like I could make that up in the last two holes. I could eagle 17, and even if he birdies, I could birdie 18 and tie him. When he birdied 16, that was another critical shot. I don't see how the tee shot on 15 was all that critical, because I ended up making pars, not like it was costly.

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, I am sorry, I absolutely agree. To knock it as close as he did, that 4-footer was a very easy softly right-to-left putt. The kind you just -- you almost can't miss unless you just ease into them.

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah.

PHIL MICKELSON: You just give me no length credit. (Laughter.)

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I think that certainly there was a lot of help, and typically a 3-wood could not go through the fairway straightaway. Mine would have gone through about 25, 30 yards through straightaway, had it not gone up the left side. So there certainly was a lot of wind. It started blowing right around 13 or 14, I thought. Actually, it started blowing around 11 and made it play difficult, because I don't recall it ever playing with much wind up here. Seems like it is always pretty calm or just a slight breeze either way. But no, that ball went -- certainly went a long ways.

PHIL MICKELSON: Yes, but typically I have to hit driver off the tee to do that. I don't ever hit driver because I don't try to go up that narrow slot.

PHIL MICKELSON: 160. It actually wasn't a hard wedge. I had to take something off it too.

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, pretty good one there.

PHIL MICKELSON: It was softly quartering. It was a pretty good help there. I crushed it. Hard 3-wood. I felt if I could get it down there with L-wedge distance, I could give it a decent shot at going in. Obviously, making it from 110 yards, the odds aren't good, but I felt like I could have a chance -- much more so than if I were coming in with an 8-iron and having trouble stopping it. I hit a good L-wedge. Boy, it looked like it was right on the pin. It landed about a yard, yard and a half too far.

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't -- really don't think that. Obviously, I needed to birdie one, but that is so far removed. I feel like this week I scored way better than I played. And as we saw today, certainly, I hit some good shots, and I am very proud of that. But I also hit some shots that were way off-line, and something that I was able to scramble around and salvage pars from. It wasn't a week where I felt very confident with where the ball was going. I missed the ball quite a bit both left and to the right, but -- and I felt like I didn't really putt the best. But for whatever reason, I was able to at times hit some really good shots, hit it close, take advantage of the par 5s and take advantage of the Stableford format; make enough birdies to offset a lot of my mistakes. So I don't look back and think that, boy, this was my tournament. I gave it away. I felt like I worked really hard just to get to this position just to have a chance the last few holes. That was an accomplishment in itself, because I didn't feel like I was firing on all cylinders this week. But I got a lot out of my round, and most often, of the time, you hear -- saying just the opposite, when I am playing really well and just not getting anything out of it. Just the opposite for me this week.

PHIL MICKELSON: I am not ecstatic, don't get me wrong. But I am ecstatic about having a chance at winning, because I was 16 points back at the halfway mark, and I wasn't giving myself 10-footers every single hole either. So to have gotten myself in a position to have a chance to win, I thought that that was a pretty good accomplishment. Even going into the last hole, I had a shot, and I thought that that made for this day to be pretty fun.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, that is true. And because he strikes it so well and putts it so well, you have to give him almost 8 points right from the start with the par 5s. And so to catch up 8 points means I have got to go make 16. That is very difficult. That is a 64. So it becomes almost an insurmountable task. But there is -- with the format and the eagles, so forth, I felt like there was a pretty good chance if I could capitalize on that.

PHIL MICKELSON: We do. They are very similar in ages, only a couple weeks apart. So we do a lot of things -- we will bring the kids together and let them play together, and so it is interesting. We do talk about what stages they are going through and so forth. It has been amazing the similarities; how they are starting to walk at the same age and say words at the same age. It has been interesting. But there are a lot of kids out on Tour, so it is actually pretty fun for them to come out, because they see all their friends, and they have a day-care set up where the same people go around week-to-week, and so you are familiar with the teachers and you are familiar with all the kids, and so it is actually pretty fun. Granted, our daughter is not quite old enough to be in that, but when she is, I think she will enjoy it.

PHIL MICKELSON: I think that he plays at a wonderful pace. He doesn't play at a slow pace and not a fast pace, so it is very easy to get into a nice rhythm playing with him. I think it is difficult sometimes when guys take forever to hit a shot, because you are trying to get in a rhythm, so forth. You are just standing at a standstill. But no -- and we are easy to club off of. We are not looking really too much at what we are hitting, but we are very similar distance off the tee, as well as irons into the green.

PHIL MICKELSON: I am. I will play next week. And it is Rick Smith, who I work with, is going to be at Flint. I will spend time with him. His resort area is not too far away from there. I will see him the next week. But the golf course here is very similar to Valhalla, and the shots that are required into the greens. The greens are very similar; bunkers are very similar. So the shots that I was trying to hit this week were a lot of left-to-right shots, and I played hitting a draw basically.

PHIL MICKELSON: Which I will need there. So even though I didn't necessarily hit it exactly the way I wanted to, I think that that shot will be what I will need at Valhalla. I am starting to feel a little more comfortable with that. The other thing I take away from this week is I hit some sand and L-wedges this week extremely well. I hit them very close to the hole, and so play from inside 120 yards was pretty proficient for me, so I am excited about that.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, you know, if he played well, I am sure he could have. Yeah, I think he is a pretty good player. I really do. (Laughter).

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't. I don't know what his thinking is. He is going to play next week, so that is why I think he probably didn't play this week. I haven't talked to him.

PHIL MICKELSON: Oh, Nicklaus design you mean?

PHIL MICKELSON: Exactly. I think that the bunkering is very similar. The greens are very similar. The angles into the greens are very similar and the -- a lot of his greens tend to run length -- let's see, left-to-right as opposed to front-to-back. So it is a very shallow landing area, and you need to bring the ball in high and soft. Typically, at Valhalla, if I remember right, like 9, 10, 11, shots into the green needed to be moving left to right to take advantage of the full amount of green. So it is very similar here, and shots like the and 8 and 7, even 6, all those shots are better off moving left-to-right. So I think that with me playing well, hitting that shot this week, I have some confidence going into Valhalla.

PHIL MICKELSON: I haven't really thought about it. I didn't really realize that that was the case. I know he had a bunch of seconds this year, but I really haven't thought about that.

PHIL MICKELSON: Were you there last night for the game?

PHIL MICKELSON: You didn't care for that?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, we have actually been spending the summers in San Diego, so it hasn't -- it hasn't been too bad. Well, obviously I left Phoenix in the summer for the same reason --

PHIL MICKELSON: Broncos won last night. That was a nice little deal. You guys played well.

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, well that too. (Laughter). Who QB'd last night? I didn't see the game for the Broncos?

PHIL MICKELSON: Griese.

PHIL MICKELSON: Is Griese the projected starter?

PHIL MICKELSON: No more Brister. What happened to Bubby?

BUDDY MARTIN: Traded.

PHIL MICKELSON: I do have a question. What is the word on Ryan Leaf last night? Because he certainly played well. I didn't see the San Diego paper. Was it pretty positive comments?

PHIL MICKELSON: How did he do after the game?

PHIL MICKELSON: His locker is okay, still intact. All right. (laughter).

PHIL MICKELSON: Okay, guys, thank you very much. I had a good week, I enjoyed it.