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BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

March 29, 2006

Phil Mickelson

DULUTH, GEORGIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Phil, thanks for joining us. You are defending your title at the BellSouth Classic this week. You've had some great success here over the years and you've had a chance to play nine holes, talk maybe talk a little about the golf course?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, the course is in great shape and the addition of the green rough is going to make it play more difficult. I think it will be harder to hit shots out of there. But it's set up just perfectly. It's great for the guys that came here to get ready for the Masters. It's similar to what I saw at Augusta the last couple of days. I think it will be a great test.

Q. How did you spend the last two day?

PHIL MICKELSON: Hung out in Augusta and played the course. Had a great couple of days, fun couple of days, the course is in great shape as always and very difficult. The changes are very difficult and will add at least a shot a round I would think to the scores.

Q. Two rounds?

PHIL MICKELSON: I did a little bit of playing, a little bit of just looking at the course, too.

Q. When it tournament moves to may next year, how much will you miss this place as your Masters tournament warm up?

PHIL MICKELSON: A lot. The tournament I think they have made the week before The Masters is in Houston, and it's nothing like what's here in Atlanta and what BellSouth does for this tournament to make it as close to Augusta conditions as possible. And I just think it's a great preparation week as well as the proximity being so close. I just love it. I'm really sorry that it's not going to be the week before the Masters anymore.

Q. Will you be playing the week before the Masters, even though it's a year away?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, actually I will end up not playing the week before The Masters, which goes against what I had found worked well for me playing the week before. But I'll have to find another way to get ready.

Q. After the lengthening in 2002 inaudible based on what you've seen of the course last two days, your thoughts?

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't think that the course makes it only so long hitters can win. I think anybody can win there. The reason I say that is the course is so long now that the long hitters used to be able to hit wedge into some of these pin placements and get it close, so it's there's very tough pins. And now that we're hitting mid irons in, we can't get those pins anymore, either.

I think that it almost equalizes it a little bit and I know it's playing longer and people are saying it's a great advantage, and it is, but we can't get close enough to the greens now to have a short enough iron to get at some of these pins. So we're playing for par just like everybody else.

Q. How practical will it be to play here in May? Will it suit your schedule as well as it has?

PHIL MICKELSON: I haven't looked too much at the schedule yet other than the majors trying to find a way to prepare. I haven't looked at it too much. I know that tournaments have been changed dramatically and I just don't know I don't know yet because.

Q. This is the 10th year the tournament has played here, how has this course grown up into an all around test of golf? What changes have you seen?

PHIL MICKELSON: It seems to be very similar to how it started. I hadn't played the first couple of years here, but from what I saw, it plays very similar to the way it started. I think it has a lot of the same shot values as Augusta. I think there's a lot of similarities and it was really well done as a site to host the tournament, a PGA TOUR event before the Masters. It just was as well could be ever expected.

Q. You've won a major for the last two straight years, do you more pressure on yourself to achieve that each calendar year?

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't feel that there's more pressure. What I feel is that I found a way now to prepare for me to get my best game out and for me to be sharp and ready to play.

I won obviously the Masters and PGA last year and it was great. But what I really liked was how the other tournaments in '04, especially I was able to compete in and having the chance to win the majors, while it's so much fun, I hope and believe now that I've had the right way to prepare to get my best game out and should hopefully contend.

Q. A 54 hole win, does that feel as legitimate as a four round win?

PHIL MICKELSON: I think a better question would be how do I feel about probably having to play all 72 holes this week; and that it would enhance my chance of winning because 54 has been great for me and the fact that we're finishing on Sunday that doesn't help either (laughter). So having to play all 72 is going to be a challenge, but, again, we should have great weather and I think it's great for the tournament that we have great weather because we've struggled a little bit in the fast past.

Q. All those years of being the best player now that you have that monkey off your back, how much better did you feel about coming to the press come, about showing up more media events once you had a major or 2 under your best?

PHIL MICKELSON: Certainly a week or two before the majors, questioning is a lot more enjoyable than it has been before I won. I think winning the second one was big for me, too, because it gave me not just the confidence but the belief that it wasn't just a one time highlight that I can do this more and more.

That's what I'm striving to do and hopefully if I can get that third somehow, it will validate the way I'm preparing and my belief that I'm playing better golf.

Q. Now that you've won two, what is that little extra edge or secret that you've added?

PHIL MICKELSON: I've won those by won shot, and really, I think what it comes down to is saving a tenth of a shot or a quarter of a shot here and there. And it sounds like, well, how do you do that, but it's not putting so much pressure on my short game or maybe it's getting just a little bit better speed on the greens so I have easier second putts. I don't know what exactly it is but just trying to salvage a little bit here or there, maybe an easier par where bogey isn't a possibility.

I think that, again, over four rounds it's just a quarter of a shot a round. It's not like I have to save a full shot anywhere, I just need to play a little bit smarter and not make the big numbers, salvage something here or there to get that one shot victory. Now the goal is to improve my play and hopefully have a chance to walk up 18 with a couple shot lead and be able to experience the joy of walking up 18 knowing you're going to win. I haven't had that, I had to make a putt to win by one.

Q. You have 7 straight Top 10s at Augusta and the lowest scoring average of anybody who has played 50 rounds, are you satisfied with the way you're playing now to keep that streak going?

PHIL MICKELSON: I think that the course is probably why I've paid so well there that it favors my style of play, it's forgiving my mis hit a few tee shots, it allows short game to be a big factor there where the rough haven't brutal like the U.S. Open and skill is involved, as opposed to luck.

I feel as though this year I have started to play consistent golf but I have to get over that hump a little bet. I felt it coming at TPC and I felt I played very well there, but the 17th hole did me in a five times. Other that that I played very well. This week will be a good test for me to see if I'm improving. I've been working hard with Dave Pelz and Rick Smith and my game feels like it's coming around. This week will be a good barometer to see if I'm actually improving like I think I am.

Q. Much is made of courses being lengthened on a regular basis inaudible was a reflection that was not the case at Sawgrass?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, as you say that, they are closing the course down and they are renovating it and making it longer, so that throws that theory out. But I guess it's just time to keep up with the times. Some of the courses now are getting very long and very difficult to play. There's got to be a nice balance between playable and fun and fun golf and still testing the best players. Courses like Pinehurst No. 2 have really done that, even without the USGA getting involved in the setup, it's still a very difficult, fun test of golf.

Q. Yesterday Jose Maria was in here and he talked about how he feels every time he goes back to Augusta, knowing he's won there, that he's kind of a fabric of champion, the past champion. I'm curious the last two days you've spent there, how different is it for you being there as a champion, as opposed to all those years when you were a contender, you won there, you've there for ever, just talk about the vibe as you walk around that place?

PHIL MICKELSON: It's great to be able to show up and go right to the champions locker room and have breakfast there. It's awesome not eating down in the regular restaurant and being able to be up in the private little room and part of an exclusive club. It's a great feeling. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised in my retirement if I were to get a place by Augusta so I could go have breakfast there every day. (Laughter).

Q. What's it going to be like going through the week of The Masters without Jack Nicklaus?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I think the thing I'm most regretful about Jack and Arnold not playing is that they used to be the guys that we would call first for a practice round and those would be the guys that we would look to how could conduct ourselves and how to act like a professional and treat people right. I just feel that now those guys, the young players, the amateurs are not going to have a chance to see how great Jack and Arnold are in person and the way they treat people and the way they command respect from everyone. And I think that's why I'm sorry, the young guys that haven't come out on TOUR yet that are amateurs will not have had that chance to see them in person and to play with them.

Q. Last year the finish here was pretty classic, Monday night was it five guys, four holes I missed my plane by the way. Have you had time to reflect what a crazy week that was and the fact that you came out on top?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I know there was a lot of chaos. The only vivid memory I have is this big check for $900,000. I don't recall all that other stuff that went on before that. I'm sorry you missed your plane, don't get me wrong. But the end result was exactly what I has hoping for, so I had no complaints.

Q. What were you doing with those first few days inaudible were you thinking at all times you were going to be playing?

PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, we would come out and maybe hit a few shots and try to practice in the interim and stuff. Everybody has got that same challenge and so it's fair for everybody and that's why nobody thinks that, nobody would have a problem with it.

Q. Could you just talk briefly about your impression at August about the 7th hole and the 11th hole?

PHIL MICKELSON: Those are the two holes that scores will change the most on. 7 was a birdie hole before and now it's one of the two or three hardest pars, I believe. The left side of the green pulls balls off the green, so staying on that top shelf will be extremely difficult. And if you miss the fairway there, you will not be able to not get on the putting green and there's no area to chip from to really be able to get it close. So it's a critical drive to get the ball in play there and it's just a critical hole to try to make par because you have to hit fairway and green there to make a par.

Q. Inaudible?

PHIL MICKELSON: It's actually more open because we can't get it all the way down to the bottom so we're actually hitting back into a wider fairway. As we get past 320 and I don't know if guys will, but if it gets hard and fast and it's downhill, balls may go past there and then it starts to narrow up a little bit.

11 is a lot harder, as well, because the fairway moves way to the left, trees were added all down to the right and push the fairway over left. If you grow right, you're wedging out and if you hit it left, the fairway is angled so far left that it just bounced off into the rough and the trees. It's a very tight living hole. It's going to be a lot harder hole than what it has been in the past and we'll be hitting a lot of mid to long irons in there. I don't anticipate seeing any birdies, but I think 11 and 7 will be two of the toughest. I'm leaving that open for discussion, it's a tie between seven other holes for that third.

Q. There have been some criticism of the course.

PHIL MICKELSON: Sure. It's not my golf course and it's not my thing. I love the fact that I get to play in this tournament and that I get to compete against the best players on this venue and the fact that everybody has got to play the same course.

Q. We're told that the Masters imposes a unique mental pressure in terms of tournament golf, did you experience that in relation, to, say, Baltusrol?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I think that first of all the pressure felt the same between the two majors and the fact that there's no let up I felt was similar, too. If you missed a drive at Baltusrol you were fighting for par and now if you miss a drive at Augusta, you're fighting for par as well. It's a very similar challenge in that there is no let up now on any of the shots that you face in either The Masters or the ones at Baltusrol. It didn't feel like it was very different. It felt similar.

Q. How did you spend the off season with your family?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, we went to a great a lot of time off together. We went, I took the kids skiing. I like to take each child on an individual overnight trip for a couple nights. It's kind of my way to get some time with them. So we did that. We went on some family trips, we went skiing together, Amy and I did a couple of times. And I tried to do all of the off course, all the requirements that I have, shooting commercials and photo shots, I try to do that as much as I could in the off season so that it doesn't affect or take away from my practice time when I'm playing.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Phil, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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