U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 12, 2001

Phil Mickelson

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I've played well this year, and I'm looking forward to this event. I've been preparing for it and anticipating this golf course and how it will be perceived or set up for this tournament, and I think that I'm pretty close to being ready. And I'm looking forward to Thursday's round.

PHIL MICKELSON: There's about five holes that I'm able to hit driver on. Unfortunately, most of the holes that dogleg the fairway angles the opposite way, making it almost impossible to keep the ball in the short grass. So what you'll see is myself and other players will have to hit tee shots short of the turn, so that we can keep it in the fairway and not have it run through. I'll hit a lot of irons off the tees, not because I need to, but just because I kind of have to, to keep the ball in play. But there are about five holes I'll be able to hit driver on. I don't know if it will be a huge advantage having a little extra length or not. I think it's more of an advantage keeping it in play. But still, it seems to be as though you can advance it out of some of the rough spots. Certainly, there are spots where you have to wedge out, but if you do go into the rough, you might be able to advance it a little bit. And so I think I'll still be able to get it down close enough to the green if I do miss a couple of fairways.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, you have to at this particular course, because if you don't, it will be a driver, L-wedge into every hole. It was a 2-iron, pitching wedge into 1. If I'm able to hit a driver, I'm going to have an L-wedge in. Same with 3, 4. 5 is reachable. You can't make a hole much longer than that and it still be reachable. 7 is the same way. It's a 3-iron, 9-iron. If I can hit a driver, it's going to be an L-wedge in. You have to; otherwise, it's not going to play the way we want the golf course to play. I still think, though, being able to hit a 8- or 9-iron in, after hitting a 3-iron off the tee is a distinct advantage. I think that even though the fairways are very tight, I'll be able to hit a number of fairways with a 3-iron, and I seem to be having a lot of 8- and 9-irons in thereafter, and so I still think that that will be an advantage.

PHIL MICKELSON: It's very encouraging to me that I've been able to get in contention week-in and week-out. And what that does is it gives me the confidence that heading into this week, it's not hit or miss. I know that if I play well, if I play smart and make good decisions and manage my game, I don't need to have anything extraordinary to happen for me to get in contention over the weekend. That's a great confidence builder, and the fact that I've had a number of opportunities. And I won't worry about closing the door until Sunday. This tournament will be different than other tournaments in the past because I won't have to go out and still shoot 67 or 68 to maintain the lead. I'll be able to keep it around par and it should be good enough.

PHIL MICKELSON: Not necessarily, no.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, the difficulty on 18 is threefold: You're hitting your second shot with a long iron, you're hitting your second shot on a downslope and you're hitting your second shot out of a tight lie. So to get the ball up high enough to get to the green level off of a skinny lie with a 2- or 3-iron is going to be very difficult to do. You'll see most guys in the front bunker -- it plays a good club and a half, two clubs longer than the yardage normally says, than what club I would normally hit from that yardage. And so it's a hole where you don't even think about 3. It almost plays like a tough par-5. You want to make 4 and get out of there, really. I don't feel as though I'm able to really get down to the bottom of that fairway, because there's creek there as well as a lot of rough that prohibits me from really taking that direct a line, and having about a 5- or 6-iron in from down there. I have to hit 3-wood to the left to keep it in the fairway, and then have a 2- or 3-iron in up that hill.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's certainly one of the tougher ones. It's a lot like -- I wouldn't say that it's a hole where you're going to make a 6 or 7. It seems like a hole where you're going to make 5. If you have a two-shot lead like Hubert Green did in '77, it's not difficult to make a 5 to win. It is very difficult to make a 4 if you have to to win. It's certainly doable, but it takes two really solid shots in a row to get on that surface. The rough around the green is very difficult. So if you do miss it and you're not in the bunker, you have a very tough up-and-down. But I think it's one of the better holes. I think it's a very fair hole. It's certainly the hardest hole out here.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I've come to the realization that I can't change my approach to the game. I don't enjoy playing conservative. And I have not won tournaments playing conservative. And I've never played conservative. So to change my style of play, would be wrong. It would really be putting me at a disadvantage. To make a few more intelligent decisions or less risky shots that I wouldn't necessarily call conservative, I would just call making birdie from 30 feet, as opposed to five feet away; that I will certainly approach certain pins, but it will still be aggressive. I'll still be thinking birdie, and I still think that I'll be able to shoot some low scores here.

PHIL MICKELSON: We've seen balls roll off of it. Nobody wants that. The USGA doesn't want that. I think by Thursday it will be fine, and it won't really be an issue.

PHIL MICKELSON: It will be a factor. It's just how you look at it. To me, if it gets hot, if you just keep fluids in you; you're going to be fine. I love it when it gets hot out here, because what happens is the ball goes a long ways and it goes straighter. You don't have the same density altitude. You don't have the resistance against the golf ball. It doesn't seem to cut or draw near as much. And I find that I'm able to hit a 8- or 9-iron in from 170, 185 yards that makes the golf course play much easier. I'm, therefore, able to get it at a greater number of pins. If it's cool, I can't hit my 8-iron 185 yards. I think the warmth will make a difference in a low-scoring way, not necessarily make the scores higher.

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, the wind here would be more similar, I would think, to Augusta National than it would be to last year's tournament at Pebble Beach. The reason is we have more trees. The wind at Pebble Beach seems to come off the ocean, and especially around 7, 8, 9 and 10, you're exposed. But here you can keep it underneath the tree line and really not have the wind affect it too much, as much as it's been swirling. So I think it will play a factor. And the golf course plays more difficult when there's wind. But it is possible to avoid it if you keep it a little bit lower.

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know what to say to that. I certainly respect him as a player and an individual. He's a wonderful player. I don't know what to say about Paul's comments.

PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not overly concerned, yet. (Laughter.)

PHIL MICKELSON: That was a final round that I did learn a lot from. I came very close. I was within a shot with three holes to play and made bogey on 16 and that really hurt my chances. But I was able to hang in there, despite a couple of mistakes, a couple of missed short putts, and shots that I feel I gave away, but was still able to hang in there and stay in the tournament. I also learned that when I play with Tiger, I don't watch him swing and hit it and watch his ball flight. He swings at it very hard and the ball jumps off his face, and I find that I'm able to stay in my game much more effectively when I don't watch him play. And so I thought that helped me play more to my ability than in times past where I've played with him and I've watched him hit certain shots, what have you.

PHIL MICKELSON: Surprisingly, I feel much more comfortable on U.S. Open setups than I ever have. A lot of it was due to the way I played in '99 and shooting a number that I thought would be good enough to win, just having one player beat me by a shot. I feel very comfortable with this setup. I feel as though I don't need to overpower a golf course to score low on it now. I feel I can be patient and hit irons off the tees, and still make birdies off from the middle of the fairway. I feel comfortable with the setup. I feel comfortable with the fact that nobody is going to run away from me, shoot 8-, 9-under par and shoot 20 (-under) to win. It doesn't happen like it does in regular Tour events. If I go through even par in the front nine, I feel I've lost shots, and need to light it up the back to make ground, and it's a nice feeling knowing I don't have to do it here.