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THE BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPENJuly 7, 2010Phil MickelsonLUSS, SCOTLAND MICHAEL GIBBONS: Phil, good morning to you, and welcome back to The Barclays Scottish Open. PHIL MICKELSON: Thank you. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Big two weeks for you obviously in Scotland, but if you could start us off with your initial thoughts on this week and we'll go from there. PHIL MICKELSON: I always look forward to these two weeks. I really enjoy this tournament and obviously really enjoy next week's event, too. So I'm looking forward to these two weeks. The golf course looks like it's in good shape here, I haven't played yet; I'll go out in a few hours. But it looks lush and green and beautiful. It's always sunny and warm here in Scotland, so it's great. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thank you for those opening comments. PHIL MICKELSON: I don't think so. I think the best way to get in playing condition for The Open is to play well, get into contention and compete on Sunday for the title here. Having lost a couple of times in close matches here, I would like to win this tournament. Plus, with my special relationship with Barclays, it would mean a lot for me to win here. Q. Have you walked into a door or something? PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, one of the other players and I just got in a little tiff there -- (laughter). I don't know what happened. I just scratched myself accidentally there. But we must carry on. No, I'm all right. Q. How many times have you played St. Andrews this week and how many times will you play before the week is out? PHIL MICKELSON: I was scheduled to go over early, and a couple things came up and I haven't been able to; I just got into town, nothing I care to get into, but I just wasn't able to get into town early like I had hoped. I may go over after Friday's round when I play early, but what I will most likely do is add a practise round. What I usually do is take Mondays off the week of a major but I most likely will play a practise round Monday. Q. What would it mean for you to go to The Open, home of golf, as the world No. 1? PHIL MICKELSON: It would be cool but it's not something I think about yet. I'm just trying to get my game sharp. I always felt like if I play well enough, the results would happen. But that would be cool, more because I've come so close to winning this tournament, and it would mean a lot to me to break through and finally win and that would be the result of that. Q. You did so well at Troon; is it a puzzle to you why you haven't done that more often in Europe? PHIL MICKELSON: No, it's not. I'm kind of figuring out that early in my career, I didn't have the best technique for controlling the ball in the wind. I was coming in too steep, putting too much spin on the ball. Even when I would hit it low, it would have too much spin; and so not just hitting the ball low, but taking the spin off of the golf ball has been a big part of my improvement in the wind. And so I feel like from 2004 on, Troon was really the first year where I keyed into this. I've had much better performances in The Open here, but still not what I would hope. But early in my career, it wasn't a surprise; I didn't have the proper technique, I don't feel. Q. Now every time you play in The Open, do you feel like you should contend? PHIL MICKELSON: I feel like I should have a good chance, yeah. In my opinion, the thing that I've struggled most with over here has actually been the green. A lot of the fescues on the greens, it's a stronger blade of grass, and I haven't adjusted properly, and that, to me, has been the biggest area is that I haven't had great weeks on the greens. If I can change that, I think I should be able to contend. Actually I've had my most consistent success at St. Andrews, and it's where I've been up on the leaderboard at some point all three times during the week. Q. The thought of winning in Scotland, the home of golf, where does that figure in your dreams and ambitions, given that the game originates from Scotland? PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I've had dreams of winning the British Open ever since I was a kid and came over in '91 and played at Royal Birkdale. My caddie, we talked about some of the past Opens that he had worked and the Open that Johnny Miller won in '76 and some of his other close calls. It's a tournament that I wanted to win regardless of what setting. But I have read quotes from Jack Nicklaus saying that there's nothing more gratifying than winning The Open Championship at St. Andrews. Q. Can you tell us what your first thoughts where on St Andrews and what your attitude to it is now? PHIL MICKELSON: I had read a lot about it, a lot of the reversals that players go through, the love/hate, where Bobby Jones came over and disliked the golf course at first and learned to love it. So when I came over for the first time, I tried to look at all the positives and all the aspects of brilliance that the golf course has, and one of the things that was interesting the first time I played it in one particular wind was that there were bunkers that were not in play; that I wondered, why is this bunker 80 yards out of play. And when I played it a couple of days later and had an opposite wind, it was those bunkers that were in play. And it was fascinating to me at how well-placed and strategic a golf course it was, regardless of which wind you received that day. I just thought that was, to me, the most intriguing element is that it was so well thought out. Q. What did you think when you first played it? PHIL MICKELSON: Let's see, well, I liked it immediately. I think you learn to love it, but I knew that I was going to love it, just because of what it represents, the home of golf. Q. Last year you played with Ryo and tomorrow you will play with him again and how do you feel about him? PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I like Ryo a lot and I think he is a wonderful person and a tremendous player. I've had a chance to see him play quite a bit of golf in the last year, especially in The Presidents Cup, where he played so many matches and played so well. I forget that he's so young. He strikes the golf ball with such authority, and hits it so solid and flush, and the ball just penetrates through the air; that not many people are able to strike the ball the way he does. He's an incredible putter and rolls the ball very well on the green and has a very complete game; and the fact that he's so young, it's hard to believe. We have a couple of players like Ryo that are so young that hit the ball so good. Rory McIlroy is a player I can't get over how well he hits it. And there are a number of good, young players coming up now, too, not just in their 20s but in their teens. I think it's a good time for the game of golf. I think we have a lot of good, young players coming up. Q. Tiger said he's going back home before The Open to spend some time with his family. Will that put him at a disadvantage, not only the transatlantic travel but not practising -- PHIL MICKELSON: No, I think living in Florida, it's only a five-hour time change, it's not as drastic as coming from the West Coast. It's not that long of a flight, and I don't think that it will make a big difference. Q. Just following up, in 2005, I think most critics expected Tiger to win that Open because of the way St. Andrews sets up for him and what he had done in 2000. Could you sort of -- particularly given the No. 1 position, compare your chances a little bit in the context of Tiger next week, what you might expect or what we should expect from him and what we should expect from you over St. Andrews? PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, it's probably hard for me to answer. I probably have as good a guess as you do. But I think that after playing St. Andrews a number of times over the years, I feel as though it's a very playable golf course. I feel like you don't have to strike it perfectly. I feel like you have enough room to play off the tee and you have opportunities and options on every hole that are endless on how you want to play a hole. So one of the things that I think that gives a player a great advantage, and I've seen it in the three Opens I've played, Tiger has won and John Daly the third, is that length is a factor; the further you're able to carry the golf ball, the more bunkers you are able to eliminate. One of the things I've been working on in my preparation for St. Andrews is trying to swing the club head faster because I feel like the driver is going to be a key club there. Q. Will you have the long driver next week? PHIL MICKELSON: No. Into the wind I think it's a little tough to swing that with control. But I will be swinging much harder at the golf ball than I would normally in a number of Open Championships where you're trying to keep the ball in a tighter fairway. Q. Just a jet-lag question; how long does it take you to get over jet-lag? PHIL MICKELSON: A day and a half. Usually the second day I'm on schedule. Q. Just going back to the question of the emergence of the young players, is there some reason why you can think of that there are so many good, why young players at the moment, and if so, what is it? PHIL MICKELSON: I don't have answer other than a theory, and my theory is that that swing instruction has improved so much over the decade. We have so many top-quality instructors and such high-tech equipment to get people dialed in, as well as better athletes, better fitness, strength, speed. These elements combined are leading to better golfers in general. But for these players at a young age to play golf at such a high level, it takes a certain mental maturity to be able to handle the travel week-in and week-out and the different golf courses and the outside distractions, in addition to just playing great golf. And yet I see these kids, like McIlroy and like Ishikawa just handling everything so well that I can't imagine myself ever doing that at that age. Q. Can I just take you up on the length, you say you are striving for more length, and yet we can remember you hitting a 4-iron 240 yards on the 18th at Pebble Beach. How much more do you think you need? PHIL MICKELSON: It's not that I think I need more. It's that I'm trying to maintain or increase to be able to take advantage of some golf courses that pose that opportunity. St. Andrews is one; Augusta National is the other. I never would have won Augusta without the distance that I had and the ability to hit some short irons into some of those holes. I think that it's still an integral part of the game but not in every tournament. The U.S. Open, I hit driver twice the last day and one of the holes I probably shouldn't have, on the second, it went a little bit further than I wanted. But even with length or speed or what-have-you, it's still very helpful in majors even if you can't hit driver to be able to hit that 4-iron, to be able to hit irons off the tee and have control. I think speed is a factor. And I look at the young guys today, McIlroy, Ishikawa; Rickie Fowler hits the ball hard. I think these guys have so much club head speed that it's a necessity now. Q. Just to follow up on that, what is entailed by speed training, what do you do? PHIL MICKELSON: It's a three -- it's a long story, and I don't want to bore you with it and share with anybody. Q. Go on. PHIL MICKELSON: That's okay. (Laughter). Q. I understand you're focussed on trying to win the tournament and not the world No. 1 spot, but if you achieve it after having been No. 2 for over 250 weeks, where do you rank that accomplishment? PHIL MICKELSON: You know, I have a good answer for you, but let's talk about that Sunday night. Let's see if I can do it on Sunday. Let's not do hypotheticals. Let's play well this week and then chat. Q. Ryo respects you very much; could you tell him some advice to be a good player like you? PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I would feel out of place giving him advice. I think everything that he's been doing is right on, not just with his golf game but the way he treats people, he's very well liked amongst the players, amongst the caddies. He's just a quality individual, and I think he's doing everything very well. Q. British players have been dominating on the PGA Tour over the last couple of months. What's your take on that, and how nice would it be for you or one of the Americans to put one over the Europeans here? PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I think the talent level is the reason. There's just a lot of talent coming out of here. There's a lot of good, solid players. I think that it's not like anybody is trying to put anything over on anybody. We just want to try to come over and win one of the biggest events in golf, no matter what country we are from. Golf has become such a global sport, global game but the strength of the players from the U.K. is just very impressive. Obviously the last few week, Justin Rose has played some incredible golf. Lee Westwood has played stellar the last few years and has had so many opportunities in majors. Watching him hit a golf ball is very impressive. Ian Poulter has had some great finishes. There's countless strong European players -- U.K. players, and you can't rule out somebody here from Scotland. Although he's had a lot on his mind with The Ryder Cup and a lot of things the last two years getting ready for that event here in Wales; but Monty still hits the ball extremely well. Q. Is it more impressive than you've seen in your career, the level of players -- PHIL MICKELSON: I've been out here 18 years and I've seen the game evolve into a very global sport. We've had players from all over the world, but we now have players at the highest level from all over the world. I think that's what's been so neat to see and interesting, too. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thank you, Phil. Thank you very much for joining us. We wish you luck the rest of the week. End of FastScripts |
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