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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 24, 2010

Phil Mickelson

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Phil Mickelson to the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Phil is a two-time winner of this event. Last week you had off, got to spend some time with your family. If you'd start off maybe talking a little bit about that and then we'll go into how the course played today and your thoughts about the week.
PHIL MICKELSON: We ended up having a great family trip last week. I love the Tucson Match Play. I think it's one of our more exciting events, and unfortunately we had a change of schedule and next week we're going to be in Houston for some procedures, and it was really the only time we could go on a family trip, so we did. We had a great time. I've been able to practice the last few days and get my game ready for this week and see if I can get my scores a little bit lower than they have been the first few weeks.
MARK STEVENS: How did the course play today in your pro-am?
PHIL MICKELSON: The course is in great shape. We have a great sponsor here. I played with the CEO. My daughter had actually done a paper on this company, on Waste Management, and some of the neat things they've been doing with recycling and energy and powering a million homes with the trash that they have. I just think it's a pretty cool company, and we're proud to have them as a sponsor here on TOUR.

Q. I think you mentioned after your last tournament that you were going to try to do some work with Dave on your putting, try to get that back where it was at the end of last season. Where does that stand?
PHIL MICKELSON: I spent a day with Dave Stockton, Jr., talked to Pelz about getting the drills right, and it feels pretty good. I'm optimistic that this is going to be a good week. I've been striking the ball very well, and the last piece is just getting the ball to roll better, and it feels like it's there. I think that this week I should be able to put it together.

Q. The past three years you've won your fourth tournament of the season, right, and this is No. 4 for this year?
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, somebody was saying that. I guess I'm a little bit of a slow starter and kind of like to work into the season. I'm hoping that I'm able to put it together again this week. This is a special week for me. I really enjoy playing here in Phoenix. I lived here for so many years and have played these golf courses for so many years that the people here just make it a special event. I'd love to be in the last group coming down the stretch on Sunday.

Q. Obviously you went to school here. The crowds here are famous or infamous, whatever you want to say. Was it any problem adapting to them, and you having gone to school here and having won here must receive an incredible amount of screaming and yelling as you go along.
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, walking through that tunnel going to the 16th tee, there's nothing like it that I see throughout the year. It's just a special tournament, and I think for guys that have gone to ASU and lived here, grown up here, this is a really neat event. Again, it provides an experience that you just don't get week in and week out.

Q. Does it bother you being a known commodity, such a high-profile figure, that some media goes beyond the boundaries of what you might consider acceptable? And how much do you worry about that in terms of protecting yourself and your family and issues like that?
PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not sure I think about it much, but it's been an interesting evolution over the 15, 18 years I've been out on TOUR. And yet I also have to keep in mind that when I first came out on TOUR and won a tournament, the purse was a million dollars, and now first-place checks are a million dollars. It's just amazing to me the way the TOUR has grown. And I think with that comes media exposure, and it's an important part of making golf a more popular sport, so forth and so on. They kind of go hand in hand I feel, and if I want to accept the checks that they pay for first place and whatnot, I've got to accept what comes along with it.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the 17th hole out here, and do the hole locations dictate what you do off the tee, or do you pretty much go for it every time?
PHIL MICKELSON: No, the hole location dictates what I do. That back left pin is a very tough pin that you cannot go middle of the green and have a shot, so you have to play short. That's a hole that I actually -- that pin placement I actually lay up, but the other three, front left, front right, back right I'll try to drive somewhere around the green. But again, it's not critical you hit it on the green; it's more important that you put it in a place you can make an up-and-down with your chip.

Q. Where is the spot you like to be?
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's usually the long side. It's usually not short side, so if the pin is right I try to be a little bit left; if the pin is left, I try to be a little bit right.

Q. I have a question about Ryan Moore. I know you played with him in the Masters one year, and you were a very dominant amateur and so was he. You obviously won as an amateur in '91, but how difficult is it for someone who was so dominant like you or Ryan as an amateur and coming out and winning immediately? Is it more difficult do you think than someone who comes right out?
PHIL MICKELSON: I think it's an interesting eye-opener to realize that although you might be the dominant amateur player, to compete against the professionals, the depth of the talent out here makes it very difficult to do that. I think that also makes what -- well, I just think it's difficult to do that. His play has been very good. I mean, he's played very well on TOUR, and he's won a tournament now, and he continues to get better and better.
I think that he's a very strong talent. He hits the ball extremely solid even though he might not have an orthodox move. What I like about it is that it's not an orthodox move, that he has his own way to hit the golf ball, and he does it very well. Another player that does that is Dustin Johnson. He has kind of, I don't want to say a homemade swing, but it's not your video picture-perfect swing. He has tremendous club head speed, he hits the ball solid and the face is square. He and Ryan Moore both hit the ball hard and have great control of the golf ball, and I think they're wonderful players.

Q. When you think about guys like Billy trying to get his full-time status back and Steve out of the game, as you get older, do you think about your golf career mortality a little bit in terms of sustaining it, performing at a high level when you see so many young guys coming up?
PHIL MICKELSON: I think it's important that we have good young players coming up, and what's interesting, somebody said this once, as players drive and get better and get into the Top 30 in the world or Top 30 on the Money List, somebody from the Top 30 has fallen out, and so there's always transfer in the sport, and as a player I need to be aware of that. I need to continue to work hard and work on my game and see what areas that I can improve on and what areas other players are maybe better at that I need to get better, as well.

Q. Not a lot has really happened in the last couple weeks since you last talked about grooves, and Tim Finchem sat there yesterday and said that he didn't really think it was his place between the USGA and Karsten Company. How do you feel about where things have gone in the last couple weeks?
PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not involved in the conversations, but I know that they're making progress and working towards something, and I'm sure it'll get done. That's now for them to look into. I've got three wedges from Callaway now that are spinning as much or more than the wedges I used, so I'm very pleased with the clubs I have. I haven't really paid attention. I've been out skiing and on the slopes and haven't really paid attention the last week or two.

Q. When you say they spin more, is that compared to your wedges from last year or compared to the Pings?
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, we won't be able to spin anything compared to last year, but compared to the wedges from the '80s that I used, these are every bit as good.

Q. A 64? Do you have a 64?
PHIL MICKELSON: I switched up my lofts a little bit. I went to a 62 and a 57 and then a 52. So instead of -- I switched up my lofts a little bit, yeah.
MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Phil, good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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