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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPENJanuary 30, 2019Phil MickelsonScottsdale, Arizona JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome into the interview room. Our three-time champion of this event and Phil making your 30th start, and I know this tournament means so much to you, just talk a little bit about that longevity. PHIL MICKELSON: The time has really flown by. 30 years, gosh, I remember when I was in college, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was playing in my first Phoenix Open. Just amazing how many great memories I have when I come back and play here, how, what a great feeling I experience with the crowd and the many memories that I've had here. It's a special place. I just can't believe that it's been 30 years, it just has gone by so fast. JOHN BUSH: Coming in in good form, comment about your play early this season and then your expectations for the week. PHIL MICKELSON: It was a good start to the year, I didn't really, I was more surprised actually at how well I played because I hadn't really had the time to practice and prepare the way I wanted to. And I had a good week it this past week getting ready and hopefully I'll build on the Palm Springs performance and play well here, because there's no better exciting experience than coming down the stretch here at TPC Scottsdale with the crowd here with a chance to win. Being in contention is so much fun, I'm just hoping to give myself a chance. JOHN BUSH: Start with questions, please. Q. When you started here three decades ago what's one thing that you could have predicted would happen over the next 30 years in this tournament and one thing that you absolutely could not have foreseen? PHIL MICKELSON: That's a tough one to answer because I haven't thought about it, but I think I would of predicted that I would have won this tournament at some point and I'm fortunate enough to have won it or appreciative that I've won it three times, but I always wanted to win it. In '96 the first time I won and I had an experience that I still cherish to this day, going into that playoff with Justin, at night, in the dark, and making a putt to extend the playoff on 10. I think when I first started playing the tournament I always felt this was a good golf course for me, always thought I would play well here and I think to answer your question I always believed I would win this event. One of the things that I could not have foreseen is probably the size, scale, scope of what this tournament has become, the 16th hole, what a famous and unique experience that is from a golfer standpoint, it's unlike anything we have. It was always special, but it became something bigger and larger than I think I ever thought possible. Q. Quick question, regarding Johnny Miller, it's his last broadcast with NBC, just your thoughts on the legacy that he leaves behind. PHIL MICKELSON: Well he's done amazing thing for the game of golf throughout his entire life, many decades as a player. And then as an announcer, he's always tried to be up front and present and be present the game of golf in an insightful way for the viewers, whether it was educational about swing, helping people understand it or whether it was just being up front from a players' perspective as to what was going on, why shots were poorly struck or just how great some good shots really were. I thought he's done an amazing job for the game of golf. Q. Can you recall some memories from when you played here for the first time back in '89 when you were 18 and a freshman at Arizona State, just how you felt maybe that week and what that was like for you. PHIL MICKELSON: Playing in any PGA TOUR event as an amateur was always a big deal and to have been able to play it as a freshman gave me an opportunity to compete against the highest, against the best players in the world at the highest level and gave me an insight into what I needed to be able to do. It was very helpful as an amateur and I think that the tournaments that provide those spots for amateurs are doing a real service for the game because it gives you those next few years of college with a goal or something tangible that you're trying to attain and that was what it did for me being able to play here and so I was always appreciative of those opportunities that I was able to take advantage of as an amateur. Q. Any specific memories from 16, a shot you hit, some catcall you had to ignore, anything that sticks out in your mind when you think about that hole over the years? PHIL MICKELSON: There was a shot in '96 in regulation in the match with Justin and I hit this 7-iron, it was kind of dark, it was hard to see, and I hit the ball, launched it pretty high so nobody could really see it. And the ball came down and stuck three feet from the hole and didn't really release much. But nobody could see the ball and then all of a sudden it's three feet. So it was a very awkward, there wasn't any build-up to the applause, it was more of like a shock and delay, kind of like 12 at Augusta, it's always a delayed applause there and I just remember that, that stood out to me as being something pretty cool, different, unique. Q. When you won in Mexico City next year you said it's not a question if you're going to get to 50 it's a question of when. Do you still feel like that and to what do you attribute your revival of sorts? PHIL MICKELSON: So I really thought that after having won there after playing three or four weeks heading into that tournament that I was going to have just a stellar end to the season and that was a bit disappointing. I've got to be honest in my assessment of winning seven more times, is that realistic -- it's certainly my goal and something I'm striving for and yet I know it's not going to be easy. So I don't have the same, hundred percent I'm going to do this thing, I'm a little more realistic, because I really thought I was going to pick of off two or three more at the end of the year and I played terrible. But I had a great off season, I came back, made some adjustments and I think that I'm ready to start playing some of my best golf again and I've had a massive jump in speed which is a big thing, especially if you hit it crooked. If you're going to hit it crooked you better not be short. So that's hopefully going to lead, along with my, with the way I putted the last few years, it's hopefully going to lead to a special year. Q. Your advice to young golfers playing 16 for the first time. How do you calm the nerves? PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know if calming the nerves is the best way to approach it, I think you kind of need to embrace it. You need to embrace the environment, embrace the opportunity to do something in the game that you can't do anywhere else at any other time. It's just, why would you want to try to defuse it or be calm, I think you just go with it and feel the energy of the crowd and feel the energy of the hole and the way the ground shakes a little bit, I think you have to embrace that and use it to your advantage and let it build you up to finish those last three holes strong. Q. Could you talk about the dilemma players have this week with conflicting events overseas, I think four or five of the top six guys are over in Saudi Arabia. How hard is it to say no to some of those offers and you're playing on a different TOUR instead of here. You played some over in Asia, could you talk about what goes into your decision on where to play? PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know if I could really address this week specifically because it's a new event and the European Tour, they're trying to build up. Q. I mean, in general, yeah, in the past. PHIL MICKELSON: But I really like the way the schedule is this year on TOUR where it's much more condensed and we only have three playoff events and it finishes before football. I think all of this thing -- all of this is a great thing for the game of golf because our playoffs will have a lot more excitement when we're not competing against football, ending in the summer, and I like the new schedule. But there will be tournaments that you end up having to skip to kind of pace yourself because you're cramming a number of high quality top events into a smaller time frame. And especially somebody like myself that takes a little bit longer to recover you're going to end up having to adjust the schedule and there will be some cracks in there tournament-wise that you'll miss and so forth that I think all players are going to experience that. Q. Did you ever play much in the Middle East, I don't recall. PHIL MICKELSON: I went to Abu Dhabi a couple times. I enjoyed my time there. It was interesting. But I've not been to Saudi Arabia, my family went to Dubai and saw it. But it's been interesting to see different parts of the world, going to China and different parts of China and seeing that has been interesting and a great asset to what we do as a living, for a living. Q. Obviously at this stage in your career to have Sundays like you did at Palm Springs where you're in the lead, they're not as frequent as they were early in your career. What was the overlying emotion two or three days after the Desert Classic? Was it excitement with where your game is at, or disappointment that it kind of slipped through your fingers? PHIL MICKELSON: It was a little bit of both. I think that it was disappointing that I didn't get the job done, but I think that it was a great start to the year and that I didn't go into that tournament ready and prepared the way I wanted to and when I had a little issue with the putter on Sunday I didn't have the foundation of weeks of practice to be able to fall back on and know what it was and fix it. But I've had this whole week to address my game and certain areas of it and kind of build a foundation so I think going forward I'm using Palm Springs as kind of a building block and this will be an interesting week to see if I'm able to build on that and continue to play at that level. I'm very optimistic heading into this year, I always am though, I'm always pretty positive, but I'm very optimistic about this year because the two areas that I needed to address the last couple of years I feel like have finally come together. One of them is putting, I've been putting very well, and the other is distance and speed and that's been, that's come around too. So the two areas that I've been deficient in have become strengths. And my iron play has always been pretty strong, so if I can keep those areas strong, I think I'll build off Palm Springs and have a number of good events. But you still have to execute, even though that's the way I see it playing out, you just never know. Q. The Rules of Golf were recently simplified, but considering how the game has evolved for these junior and college kids. Is it maybe time to make the amateur status rule a little less complicated, especially with recent cases of kids unknowingly violating or almost violating it as we have seen with Lucy Li? PHIL MICKELSON: I don't have a great answer for you because I just don't know. The rules are so different for amateur status now than they were when I was going through amateur golf. Back then we couldn't get a dozen balls or a sleeve of balls or a wedge or a putter or anything from equipment manufacturers, the only way we could do it was through the college and technically the college was the owner of those, of that equipment. We couldn't get clothes and we couldn't get any of the stuff. Now the rules have been completely eased and I think for the betterment, but I don't know what it should be or whatever, but I've already seen an evolution over the course of my career with the amateur status rules being much better than they were. So I don't know where they should be, I've been a professional now for 25 plus years and I don't have a great answer for you, but I have seen an evolution from when I was an amateur. Q. You talked through the years about understanding your body and diet and exercise in order to extend your career. I'm just wondering where you're at in terms of what you're eating these days, you talked about cutting out refined sugar and I think you might have been vegan for awhile, I'm not sure, but just wondering where you've arrived at in terms of that? PHIL MICKELSON: It's a good question because I'm actually meeting with my nutritionist like right after we get done here to go over and map out a game plan for that. I think eating is a big part of your overall performance and success and I haven't quite figured out, I think, the best way for me, although I have some ideas of what to avoid and what not to, but I haven't really had a specific game plan, that's what I'm working on right now to try to better. I certainly know that sugar has not been good for me and so I try to avoid that. Q. New guy, new nutritionist? PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah. Q. You said I picked up a little club head speed, a lot of us including me would like to know how you did that, is it something we can replicate, was it swing change or something physical different, how did you do that? PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, it's been a lot of work and quite honestly I just don't think that you guys are up for it. I mean it's a lot of work, so. (Laughter.) Before you could even try to swing faster you got to get in the gym and work your stabilizing muscles around your spine or else you'll get hurt immediately, like you'll get hurt in the first two days if you try to do it. Then you got to build up your strength and explosiveness and then you got to retrain your governor and your swing to get that to be faster and it's a lot harder the older you are. But it takes a lot of time to get there and then all of a sudden overnight it works. But I also did biomechanic study and looked at the kinematic sequence of my golf swing, how the muscles fire, what order, how to strengthen that, where I'm weak, where I'm strong and work on the weaknesses all the little details of it. It's been a lot of work. It's not like I could just say, hey, go do this and you're golden. Q. So it was really physical training as such as opposed to any kind of significant swing change. PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah. Q. One thing that wasn't around 30 years ago was social media you've been pretty active on it lately, how much have you enjoyed interacting with fans that way and how is the leg kick? PHIL MICKELSON: Strong. It's strong. Quite strong. So I have, I started doing social media just a few months ago really not that long ago and it's been actually fun. I didn't realize what a great way it was to engage connect interact with people. It's really been a fun experience for me and I'm glad that I'm doing it. I have to be careful, I do have a buffer if you will because we all know that I say and do things that sometimes are just stupid and so I have to have a buffer where I send it to -- do all the stuff myself, send it to somebody, have it checked to make sure that there's no, there's nothing in there that shouldn't be. And so it's not the easiest thing, it's not like I just get on and send something, I have to send it to somebody else, have two people check it just to make sure that I'm not making some of the mistakes that I made in the past as a way of trying to protect myself from the negative of it. And it's been a really positive experience. JOHN BUSH: Before you leave we would like to invite Tournament Chairman Chance Cozby in for a quick presentation for your 30th start here. PHIL MICKELSON: You know I'm 48, right. (Electric scooter coming in.) PHIL MICKELSON: What is that? CHANCE COZBY: On behalf of the Thunderbirds, we just want to say thank you. You played our event for 30 years and your loyalty to our event is unbelievable, so just as a quick thank you -- we got the logo on the back with a little 30 years of course we did all black we know you like black and we know you like ASU. PHIL MICKELSON: Love it. I love it. What a nice gesture. Thank you very much. JOHN BUSH: Thank you very much. PHIL MICKELSON: I appreciate it. JOHN BUSH: Thank you Phil for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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