NEC WORLD SERIES OF GOLF

August 28, 1998

Phil Mickelson

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I didn't change club selection off any of the tees. It was the same clubs that I had hit earlier. Today was real a struggle for me. I hit the ball very poorly and didn't have any confidence. It's not far off, but I lost my feel for it and I had no confidence on the greens. So escaping with one over, I thought that was a minor victory in itself because I'm only two back now and I'm only halfway through. I thought the fact that I made that putt on 18 -- I thought it would have been a real victory to tie this golf course, playing the way I did. Again, we have 36 holes to go and I'm going to go see if I can't straighten some things out.

PHIL MICKELSON: No, I can't use that as an excuse. I think I might have overdone it on the Sudafed, unfortunately, because I wasn't feeling very good early on. I felt like I played kind of soft, like I didn't really let myself get some momentum and play aggressive. I felt like I was always fighting it today. But these things happen in the game of golf. And, fortunately, again, it's only the second round. It feels like the 3rd or 4th round because they made the pairings by the leaders and that normally doesn't happen until the weekend on tour. So it feels like it's later in the tournament, but we still have two rounds left.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I'm going to have to turn things around a little bit before I tee off tomorrow. I'm going to spend some time on the greens tonight and I'm going to strike some shots well before I play tomorrow and see if I can get the feel back with ball-striking and putting.

PHIL MICKELSON: I was fortunate because I put myself in some poor spots off the tees, but yet I still had swings that could have ended up a lot closer to some trees and not give myself an opportunity to get it near the green. But even on the holes I bogeyed, on 9 and 10, I had an opportunity to get the ball by the green to get up-and-down. I just missed a 6-, 8-foot putt.