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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 17, 2006

Phil Mickelson

MAMARONECK, NEW YORK

Q. Excellent job, Phil.

PHIL MICKELSON: Thank you.

Q. You're tied for the lead going into a Sunday. That's pretty good.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's a lot of fun to have a chance to be in the final group Sunday of an Open. A lot of work left to do. There's a lot of people that have a great chance tomorrow that are right there in it, but the only place I'd rather be is maybe leading by a few shots. I'm very excited and happy to have fought hard on the back nine to get back into contention and tied for the lead. It should be a fun day tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it.

This is a very hard golf course, but it's a fun challenge. We don't get a chance to be tested like this but this one time a year where the course plays like this, so it becomes a very fun test to really challenge yourself at the highest level.

Q. What do you know by Kenny's game?

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't, but obviously he's a great player, and he's in the final group of the U.S. Open, so he's got to be some kind of player.

Q. What type of adjustment did you make? First couple of holes you seemed to be but then things turned in your favor?

PHIL MICKELSON: The front nine I didn't drive it very well and I missed fairways and I was fighting for pars the whole time. I hit two good drives there on 4 and 6, and I made birdies, and then the others were off in the rough and I made some bogeys.

The back nine I kind of came together, started hitting some good tee shots and just missed the fairway on 11 and 12 and then hit the last five. That was important for me to get it in there because in the fairway because I was able to attack the pins.

Q. Rick said that he thought he saw something click in your swing that maybe made a difference. Was there any adjustment?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, he sees I hit it in the fairway and then he says that it clicked (laughter). I'm just kidding. He has a good eye, and unfortunately we're not able to talk while I'm out there, and we'll spend a little time tonight and have a good practice session in the morning. Obviously I hit it a lot better the back nine.

Q. Do you have a number for tomorrow? What are we looking at?

PHIL MICKELSON: Hopefully the lowest score. That's kind of the goal (laughter). I don't know what that will be. I don't know what it's going to take. I thought that we had very favorable pins today. They were expecting 20, 25 mile an hour winds. They put pins in favorable spots. They weren't lightning fast, and still, only two people were able to break par, and just barely.

It's such a tough course, I don't know what number it will take. I'm not really entering it with a number in mind, but I'm just going to try to make a lot of pars, maybe a birdie here or there.

Q. The preparation that you did the past two months that you did to get here, how did that help you coming down the stretch, the knowledge of this course?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's important to learn how to make pars from the rough, especially when you drive it like I do. But that was one of the things that I've been working on is when I hit it in the rough, where can I get up and down to certain pins on certain holes. I ended up making a lot of pars from poor tee shots.

Q. Over the last couple of weeks you've talked about how loved you are by this crowd, but can you talk about it specifically today, the following you had today and the following you're going to have tomorrow?

PHIL MICKELSON: It was so much fun. Amy was in the gallery and says how much fun it was. There's just some great stories from a player's point of view. To have that kind of support is very meaningful and it's very flattering.

End of FastScripts.

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