LIV GOLF HONG KONG

March 8, 2025

Phil Mickelson

Hong Kong Golf Club

HyFlyers GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Phil Mickelson, the captain of HyFlyers GC. Phil, welcome. You have fired off two very impressive rounds of 67 and 65. You shot 5-under today. Tell us about your day.

PHIL MICKELSON: I had a fun day. I played with Tom McKibbin and Charles Howell, and this is the first time I had played with Tom. Very impressive. What a great player, great person, and fun to be around, and I played well, he played well, and we had a nice day.

I'm really having fun. I'm really having fun. I'm excited for our team. We played well the final round in Adelaide. You wouldn't see it; we moved up, we finished fifth, we had some momentum, we worked hard the last couple of weeks, and we put it together the first two days, and we're really excited about the opportunity tomorrow, and we're having a blast. This has really been fun.

Q. You're sitting at the top of the leaderboard currently at T4, 8-under, only three shots off the lead. Tomorrow is the final day. HyFlyers are also tied for second, playing incredible, as you just mentioned. What would a personal win or an individual win and a team win mean tomorrow for you?

PHIL MICKELSON: We're getting ahead of ourselves because we don't want to start thinking about the results, but what I would say is this is so much fun for us. It's so much fun for me to be in contention. It's so fun for our team to be up on top. We didn't have a great year last year. We were struggling with some things. We had a great off-season. Andy had wrist surgery; he's coming back and feeling better. Camo and Steeley have been solid, and I've figured out some things.

I've had to find a different way to play this game to compete at this level, and in the off-season I made some adjustments, and that's what I'm trying to do. I'm not going to overpower golf courses. I'm not going to hit it longer than Bryson and the long guys out here now that are 190 ball speed.

But I can shoot low scores another way. I've been figuring that out, and that's been a fun challenge for me. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. Which would mean more, individual or team win tomorrow?

PHIL MICKELSON: I would love nothing more -- one of my goals is to win a LIV event. Okay, but the experience of sharing it with teammates, we've not won as a team. I've not ever won as a team in professional golf outside of the Ryder Cup, and even that was very few times, and it would mean a lot for -- I think that would probably mean a little more, which is very unusual to say in a game that's such an individual sport.

That would be special for us, especially the way we've worked hard together to come back from a rough year to put it together and compete, and to have early success here in week 3 on LIV, again, there's another final round, but we have the guys that can do it.

Q. I think everyone is behind the HyFlyers tomorrow.

PHIL MICKELSON: It's hard not to be.

Q. Was there a moment or how difficult is it for you to make that mental adjustment to realize that you've got to find another way that -- you talked about on the broadcast about firepower.

PHIL MICKELSON: I've been fighting it the last three years trying to play the way I've always played, and as the courses get longer and the players get longer and I'm not staying with it, I just have to find another way to play golf courses. What's happened is I've got to minimize the mistakes and play a little bit differently, and I can shoot low scores another way.

I made seven birdies yesterday, but I made four bogeys. I've got to eliminate those. I made seven birdies today, I made two bogeys. Tomorrow I've got to make seven birdies and have no bogeys and I've got a shot at winning this tournament. Minimizing the mistakes allows me to not have to make as many birdies and to play a much easier style of game. I should say less stressful style. That's what I'm looking at doing.

When I look at how I'm going to attack or play a golf course, it's entirely different on where I'm trying to get aggressive and where I'm not. But there's still plenty of birdie opportunities.

Q. You switched putters. You went to the blade, back to the blade. How much of an impact has that made this week?

PHIL MICKELSON: So I have two that I really like, this blade, and then I have kind of a LAB putter that I putt really well with, too. I will make the adjustment based on the course or how I'm setting up or my eye position or the golf ball that I'm playing. One has the softer insert for the firmer ball. I'll make adjustments based on that.

But going back to this, I putt more instinctive with this blade because that's what I grew up on. I like putting more instinctively rather than scientifically, if you will.