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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 14, 2007Phil MickelsonOAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA Q. How much did your wrist affect you?  PHIL MICKELSON: I don't think that it was the wrist that affected me today, per say; it was the last couple weeks not being able to prepare. I felt rusty, hit some hybrids off the tee to try to get it into play and missed the fairway more than I had been and that's what was difficult. I'm okay with missing fairways with drivers, I understand that may happen, but when I'm hitting the hybrid I've got to get it in play and the first 10 or so holes I wasn't able to do that and thereafter I hit 8 pars coming in and was able to keep myself in it for tomorrow. Q. Are you proud of this 74? PHIL MICKELSON: I wouldn't say proud. I have a good game play, this is the USGA wet dream here (Laughter). And I've got in my mind a way to shoot around par, but I didn't execute today and the next three days I've got to execute better and hopefully as the tournament goes on I'll strike it better and better. Q. You did seem to be in pain out there. PHIL MICKELSON: It's aggravating, I wouldn't say it's painful like Memorial, not at all, but it's annoying, that's probably a better word. Q. When your hand is coming off the club on a few of occasions, is that to alleviate pressure or is that a reflection of pain? PHIL MICKELSON: I felt like the first couple where the lie wasn't very good I didn't want to go after it and jar it that early in the round, so I let go and it took away any type of jarring there at the end. Q. What did you use for a driver today? PHIL MICKELSON: I hit a four, missed two fairways left, two right, and I didn't want to -- I'm trying to stay balanced here. Q. Does it feel better than you thought it might? PHIL MICKELSON: You know, I went to go see Butch on Friday, I couldn't hit balls and now I feel okay. I feel okay to hit balls, it's sore and aggravating and it's annoying, but it's not like the pain was as little as five, six days ago. Q. How did the course play? The leader thought it was easy. PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, very -- it's relative but it's easier than any of the days I'd played it. The rough was cut almost in half, and the greens, they keep fluctuating the speed -- they were very slow, three and a half feet slower than what I had been playing just on Saturday. They slowed them up pretty good so they were able to use pin placements, like on 12, pin placement on 1, on 3, holes that they just could not have put a pin five days ago, four days ago, so they certainly slowed them up and as the week goes on they'll get harder and faster and they've saved the pins that are more reasonable. Q. Bogey on 16, 18 and 1; were you worried about keeping it together there? PHIL MICKELSON: After 1 I had 5 holes I felt I could make birdie. I didn't do that but I was able to have much easier pars. Certainly 16 -- I made 14 pars today, I felt I could have made a couple more, I felt I could have made par on 16 and 18 with a decent putt, but it's okay. I feel like I'm still well below -- I think I'm below the winning score, I think I'm not in a position where I have to make birdies, I will just keep making pars and four pars is like a birdie. Q. The green speeds to drop slower, do you think they can bring more contour into play and make for interesting putts instead of just having putts that are going to roll out and give you guys nightmares? PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know. I don't know. Q. You said you were below -- PHIL MICKELSON: I'm sorry. One at a time. Q. The last eight holes did you figure something out as far as playing the round with the wrist injury? PHIL MICKELSON: No, I just was able to make more pars. And I was able to make a par putt on the fourth hole, good 8-footer for par, made a good 15-footer on 7; 7, 8 and 9, 10 were the stretches where guys are going to lose this tournament and I played them even for par. I was four over and the last three holes if I play 2, 3 over par I shoot myself out of the tournament and I'm under what the winning score is going to be and I just have to keep making pars. Q. How far was your putt on 12? PHIL MICKELSON: It was probably eight feet. Q. Anytime during the first eight or nine holes where you questioned your decision to come here? PHIL MICKELSON: No, no, no, no. I believe I'll get better as the week goes on. I think my ball striking will get sharper and this is aggravating but it's not a shooting pain like it was two weeks ago, it's an annoyance or like a bruise, like getting pushed in a black and blue spot. Q. If you believe -- PHIL MICKELSON: Was there something that you wanted to say without anybody interrupting you? (Laughter.) Q. If you believe you're below the winning score how high could this thing go? PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know, what two people shot under par today? I think a realistic par out here is about 288 and I think under par will win based on that, so maybe 286, that's a good score. If it plays like this, but if it gets harder it could go up. Q. Did you have any treatments on the wrist today? Have you had to have any injections? PHIL MICKELSON: I've had treatments every day, had Jim Weathers working on it, these light treatments on it, I've been putting some type of, I don't know, stuff to get rid of the swelling, it flares up, swells up a little bit but it's all right. Q. Did you have a shot? PHIL MICKELSON: I had cortisone a week ago. Q. Are you going to ice it? PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, I'm going to go home and ice it as soon as we get done and a couple of treatments to push out the swelling. Q. How much are you going to practice? PHIL MICKELSON: I wouldn't practice or do anything after the rounds, probably a 30-minute ball-striking session before I play on Saturday, Sunday, certainly not tomorrow, I go at 8:00, so probably nothing tomorrow other than playing. Q. You said you wouldn't look ahead to winning the tournament; now that you've played a round do you feel like you can win this tournament? PHIL MICKELSON: We've got a long ways to go, I just need one good round tomorrow to get me in it for the weekend. I fought the last eight holes to keep me in it and if I do well tomorrow that's all I care about. Q. Your expectations for yourself, compared to last year. This year you're going in with an injury, do you have a different mental approach in terms of expectations for yourselves? PHIL MICKELSON: No. Q. How difficult is that, Phil, playing late today and early tomorrow, given the wrist? PHIL MICKELSON: It won't make a difference either way. Q. Did you pull your band off -- PHIL MICKELSON: To start putting, yeah, it felt better, I don't need it for putting, I don't need it on those shots and I don't know why I wasn't doing it earlier. Q. Do you feel encouraged you're getting 18 holes? PHIL MICKELSON: I'm encouraged with the way the last eight holes went, I hadn't played 18, I only played 9, and I thought I might have issues, I didn't really, and I started hitting it better, hit some tee shots, and easier on the back than on the front and I'm hoping to do that again tomorrow. Q. When was the last time you played 18? PHIL MICKELSON: I played with Bob Ford here a couple weeks ago, two, three weeks ago. End of FastScripts |
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