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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE INSURANCE

June 1, 2011

Phil Mickelson

DUBLIN, OHIO

Q. Can you go over your experiences here and the number of times you've visited and what you've enjoyed about making this part of your schedule?
PHIL MICKELSON: So, since I have played this course in 1986 in the U.S. Junior, I've always been fond of coming here. And it's funny how I have not played as well in this event as I would have liked. It feels a lot like Riviera to me where I have loved the golf course and loved Riviera early in my career and never played Muirfield Village and have not ever played that well. And I'm hoping to turn that around.
For whatever reason, it clicked at Riviera and I started playing well and winning it a couple times. I'd love to win Jack's tournament. This is a special tournament.
This course is just a terrific course, one of the better ones we play. I'm hoping that it clicks and I play as well on this course as I know I can, I just haven't done it yet.

Q. The new 16th out there, what was your experience like on that?
PHIL MICKELSON: It's certainly more difficult. You know, you're hitting over the water. I thought that you were going to hit more up the green, kind of like 16 at Augusta, but really, you're coming at it from a whole different angle where you're having to fly over the water. I had to change the way I look at that hole.
I thought if we shot up the green I might think about 2 a few times, but really, I'll just try to make it 3 there.

Q. What did you hit in there today?
PHIL MICKELSON: I hit my first shot in the water and made 5, so I'm going to try to not do that in the tournament.

Q. Where was the pin?
PHIL MICKELSON: Right in the middle of the green, but still, you've got to go over the water no matter where the pin is.

Q. What is it about this place where you say maybe it hasn't clicked?
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, I feel like I've kind of forced it. I feel at times when the course has been soft and there's been rain and there's been a lot of low scores, I kind of force the round; and then when it's been tough for me to adjust when it's been playing tough because we've seen this course play totally different from year to year, where you think that 6-, 7-under par is what you need to shoot and then there's times where if you shoot even par, 1 or 2-under, you make up a lot of ground. It's been difficult for me to adjust scoring-wise on the conditions.

Q. Looking at the results of the pro-am, there was a lot of low rounds out there today.
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, that's because of the amateur partners. That's not really the score of the pros. It's hard to really tell exactly what the scores are.

Q. What do you expect out of this weekend? Do you expect this to be a tough weekend?
PHIL MICKELSON: I'll tell you, the course is in great shape, it just depends on if we get a little bit of rain or not. If we get rain, I think the scores will be lower. But if it stays like this, which is beautiful, it's going to dry out and it'll be a little bit tougher to score low.

Q. Where do you put this on your wish list of winning behind majors and maybe Cog Hill?
PHIL MICKELSON: Given the fact that I haven't won here and I've played here a number of times, it would be higher up on my list. I like the feeling of coming back to a tournament knowing that I've won it. It brings back special memories and I don't have those yet here and I'd like to see if I could change that.

Q. What's your U.S. Open preparation schedule look like?
PHIL MICKELSON: Yes, I'll be over there next week. I've changed it a little bit not playing the week before, so I'll have a little extra time. I am excited about the three clubs that I'll use off the tee as far as driver, 3-wood and I have a 2-iron that I feel very confident with off the tee. And so I'm excited to get over there and see how exactly I'm going to attack the golf course.

Q. When was the last time you were at Congressional?
PHIL MICKELSON: It's been a few years. I played there -- I played the Open in '97, but I played the Kemper Open there four years ago maybe. Yeah, Booz Allen.

Q. Are you glad they changed the 18th, the finishing hole, so it's no longer a par-3?
PHIL MICKELSON: I think it's cool having the downhill long par-4 as the finishing hole I think more because of history than anything. It's where Ken Venturi won the U.S. Open there, it's where Dave Stockton won his PGA. I think it's a more challenging finishing hole. The one in '97 was a fairly easy par-3 to hit the green and make par and so you didn't have that opportunity of a one or two-shot swing really on the last hole.

Q. Are you curious what the psyche of the people is here after what happened last week as a college football fan?
PHIL MICKELSON: Not really because the community here is like a really big sports town and they've always supported this event, and so it's been one of the better supported golf tournaments that we have. And I think Nicklaus obviously has a lot to do with it, the way people have loved him throughout his career and what he's meant to this community. They've kind of given back and shown support for Jack by supporting this event.

Q. A lot of parity right now in golf, a lot of people positioning for No. 1 in the world, including yourself. Does that make things a little more exciting right now?
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it doesn't really factor in. I mean, I want to get ready -- golf right now is an exciting time because we've got three big events coming up, we've got our three major championships over the summer coming up here. In two weeks the U.S. Open is here, we've got some of our great PGA TOUR events here with the Memorial. And I think what's exciting is getting ready for those events. I think those tournaments are going to be -- prove exciting.
I think that it's great that we have a number of guys competing for a top spot in the World Ranking, but it's hard to get excited when you don't understand the formula as a fan, looking at it, not understanding what has to happen for so and so to move up and so forth.
It's more about winning these tournaments and winning the major championships right now. If we can have some exciting events and play our best golf during these events, then that's what's cool.

Q. Tell us about your 2-iron.
PHIL MICKELSON: I've had it about six years, but it hadn't quite worked right until I bent it, tweaked it a little bit, now it feels pretty dialed in. I've been experimenting the last few weeks trying to get the right 2-iron that flies about 255 or so off the tee, which is kind of what I'm gunning for. I think this one is dialed in just about right.

Q. It's more of a hybrid.
PHIL MICKELSON: It's a straight 2-iron with a little bit of a hybrid back, but it's not a hybrid.

Q. Did you bend it stronger or weaker?
PHIL MICKELSON: I just had to bend it so it sat a little bit better. It just kind of sat closed. This is a different one, I've had it for a number of years, but I just haven't quite dialed it in. So I spent some time with it and I hit it very well today, so I think it's going to be the mainstay. It'll be in for the U.S. Open.

Q. Is it a Ping i2?
PHIL MICKELSON: Callaway.

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