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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEY

June 4, 2010

Phil Mickelson

DUBLIN, OHIO

Q. Little bit of everything today, huh?
PHIL MICKELSON: I had a little bit of everything.

Q. Up and down. You had the eagle and then looked like you were cruising.
PHIL MICKELSON: It was a frustrating day for me because I played very well and didn't shoot the number I thought I should.
The course was just wonderful. It's in great shape. I'm pleased to have finished with a couple of birdies.

Q. Great shot approach there.
PHIL MICKELSON: Thank you.

Q. So good way to end and feel good going into the weekend?
PHIL MICKELSON: Good way to end. I've got a lot of work to make up tomorrow. I've got to go low tomorrow. But it's out there.
I thought it was out there today. It was. I just let it slide.

Q. How was the wind? Pretty swirly?
PHIL MICKELSON: It was challenging but -- it was challenging, but it wasn't a strong enough factor to where you couldn't shoot mid-60s or so. It was helpful on a lot of holes and made some holes more difficult.
But it wasn't overly difficult, no.

Q. Phil, you look at the leaderboard, here's Rickie Fowler, just a 21-year-old kid. And there's some other young ones up there. Youth movement here.
PHIL MICKELSON: He's an amazing talent; he really is. We've got some great young ones with Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy, who won a few months ago. Ryo Ishikawa is incredible. And Dustin Johnson from the American's side, is really great, too. And Jason Day is only 22. He's been out here a few years, and I didn't realize he was so young.

Q. Tomorrow 7:20 start and they hope to get it done real early. It's going to be an early day tomorrow hopefully because of weather. Your thoughts?
PHIL MICKELSON: I like when the Tour is flexible like that and realizes we're going to have some weather challenges.
Instead of just sticking to the normal tee times, goes early. I think they've been doing that lately, and it's really been good. I think the course setup all year has been wonderful, and this week's been no different. It's been very well done.

Q. Do you know what you're going to do next weekend?

Q. What's the circumstances of that? Bad location? 14.
PHIL MICKELSON: What happened, I have never gone an entire round hitting every fairway, and I hit every fairway through 11, 12 holes. When I missed it on 13, I thought I'd hit driver on 14 because it didn't matter. If I had hit that fairway on 13, I would have hit iron on 14. I know it sounds crazy, buts that the way I was thinking.

Q. Phil, do you have a number in mind tomorrow?
PHIL MICKELSON: Mid-60s. Anything mid-60s would be good. I was thinking that today, 66 or lower is going to be a good score. It's true, though. I know you're still giggling, but it's true.

Q. What are you going to do next week for a game plan?
PHIL MICKELSON: I'm going to go up to Pebble for a couple of days. I'll work with Stockton for multiple days and get ready. It's a challenge for me. Next week's going to be a challenge because I have had my best success in majors when I play the week before. So it's going to be a mental challenge for me to be sharp and ready come Thursday. But realizing that, I think that I've made some good plans for next week to make sure -- or ensure that my game is sharp for Thursday.

Q. Where do you put performances as far as what you've seen and the history of the game?
PHIL MICKELSON: It's hard for me to tell anything that happened before 1980 because I wasn't able to see it firsthand. But it's been by far the best performance I've ever seen.

Q. Phil, you're seeing you could get rain overnight. How will that affect this course anymore? Some of the guys saying they're still surprised how fast the greens are.
PHIL MICKELSON: The greens are quick. I love it. I think the great thing about the greens is that, at this speed, the subtleties of them come out. They're not overdone like many of the modern architects tend to do, where they overdo the contours, and then when you speed them up, they're ridiculous.
Here is perfect because it's designed -- I was talking to Jack about this exact same thing, how he made them subtle enough to where he could slow them down and the members could putt them and enjoy them, and when they speed up for the tour players, the subtleties come out. It's a very well-designed course.

Q. Do you think Fowler can hang on, a first-timer can keep this up?
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I know what a great player he is. I think he's already proven he can do that. The challenge will be for us to go out and try to catch him.

Q. There's supposed to be a lot of stops and starts tomorrow, delays. How do you deal? Just mentally have to get ready?
PHIL MICKELSON: It's really not that big of a deal. It really isn't. They've got a great setup for us here. They've got houses for us to go sit in. The homeowners have been giving us food and drink and a couch to sit on. We cruise back on out.
It's just -- it's very nicely done.

End of FastScripts

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