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CAREERBUILDER CHALLENGEJanuary 18, 2018Phil MickelsonLa Quinta, California Q. This is your first competitive round since October at the WGC. You opened this round four birdies in your first six holes, but you finished with a 70. How would you assess this opening round? PHIL MICKELSON: It was fun to get back out and be competitive. I for some reason am stuck on 70 here at La Quinta, whether I get off to a good start or a bad one, I end up shooting the same score. But it's a fun golf course to play and this weather here is a great place for us to start the year, get a good solid foundation on our fundamentals and I'm looking forward to these next couple of days. Q. You talk about the fundamentals and getting a good start. How would you assess how things went today? What does it show you about your game for the next two days? PHIL MICKELSON: I need to be a little sharper with my iron play, but I thought that I drove it well -- with the exception of one tee shot, I drove it pretty well today and putted okay. Q. What's the game plan going forward, knowing that this was the course that a lot of birdies you can find, but that doesn't put you out until Saturday. PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, this isn't the course where I go low on, I feel more comfortable and Stadium and Nicklaus, neither of them are nearly as tight and I tend to score a lot lower on those other two than do I here, historically. Q. So what's your game plan moving forward to tomorrow? PHIL MICKELSON: I feel like I've been playing really well even though I haven't played competitive rounds and so I'm looking forward to these next couple of days. I'll have to get a couple of hot rounds to get in it, but I enjoy it, I enjoy the challenge of it. Q. The driver, you've been working on the driver, what did you think today as far as I know there was the one tee shot? PHIL MICKELSON: It was great with one exception with a little flinch, but other than that, I drove it very well, I'm excited the year driving the ball, I feel like I had a nice little breakthrough, I feel like the new technology is much more stable on that Rogue that allows me to miss it not as big and so I'm very optimistic. But the strength of my game my iron play was not as tight today, I didn't hit it as close as I needed to and didn't make as many birdies as I should have. Q. When you've been off as long as you have been, do you notice that there has to get a little competitive, I mean you compete all the time against your buddies, but is it a little different out here when you tee it up? PHIL MICKELSON: I think that you're more maybe a little bit more nervous in seeing where your game is at, but the last week and a half where I've been getting ready and preparing it's gone very well. So last year was tough start for me, I had a couple of setbacks in the off season, and I wasn't quite as ready as I wanted to be when the season started, so I was playing without kind of the strength, speed and practice time that I wanted to, but this year's totally different, I've been able to get a lot of good work in these last couple weeks and my game feels good, the score wasn't what I wanted today, but it will come down these next couple of days. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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