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THE 147TH OPEN

July 22, 2018

Phil Mickelson

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Q. Nice shot at the last, Phil. How do you reflect on your performance?
PHIL MICKELSON: You know, this week I saw what a great golf course Carnoustie was. The first tee times I played here, I didn't get to see its greatness come through. This week was exceptional. You saw so many different ways to play holes. You saw the nuances and subtleties and just really the greatness of this golf course come through. It's the first time I've seen that.

Q. Seems to be quite a lot of American interest at the top of the leaderboard. Must be encouraging for you ahead of the Ryder Cup.
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, I haven't thought about it. I guess so, but yeah.

Q. Phil, I know it's uncomfortable, but you did play with Eddie Pepperell, who has maybe an outside chance, with how things are going. Can you just talk about the game you saw from him.
PHIL MICKELSON: He played a very solid round in some difficult conditions. He did what he had to do on a tough day. But I don't think it's as tough as we expected it to be. I was expecting the wind to be a little bit firmer or a little bit harder than it was. I thought that he played a great round, but I think that the leaders are also going to have a chance to shoot an under-par round today.

Q. One other thing, you rolled in the bunker on 16, I think it was. One of the guys said you tried to open up the blade on the 7 iron there. Is that what you did?
PHIL MICKELSON: That's right.

Q. Can you just talk us through that. You obviously saw the video of you hitting the ball over the guy's head.
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I didn't need to see the video. I was the one that did it.

Q. (Inaudible).
PHIL MICKELSON: So the way that bunker was, I had to aim 30 yards right of the pin. I couldn't get my stance to aim at the pin. So I had to aim right of the green, and I wanted the ball to go left. If I had hit it just a normal shot, I would have been in the right rough over by the people. So I just kept trying to get a club I could open up and get the ball to go more left towards the green. I wasn't really worried about the lip because I was going to hit it fat.

So 7 iron, got it down in that little low area there.

Q. You had Julie Elion as a coach a few years ago, and sometimes when players get tired or low energy. Do you have any mind coach right now?
PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know where to go with that. I don't really want to answer that. I am working on being more focused throughout the round. I feel like it's been a pretty good year so far, but the last month or two hasn't been.

Q. You obviously played back-to-back tournaments in Scotland now. How have the fans been?
PHIL MICKELSON: I enjoy my time here. I really do. I always enjoy coming over. I always enjoy this two-week stretch. I didn't play as well as I would like these couple of weeks, but it's about time I cherish every year.

Q. When you said you appreciated the course more this time than last time, has there been any tweaks in the course or just your appreciation of it?
PHIL MICKELSON: No, the way it was set up -- the subtleties, the nuances, the greatness, the options of how to play each hole were there. It was really a great week for that. I thought it gave you a lot of different ways to approach the hole. I think you had two, three, sometimes four options off tees, just really -- I thought an exceptional championship.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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