PHIL MICKELSON NELSON SILVERIO: All right. Welcome two-time champion, Phil Mickelson. Followed up a 65 with a 67 today. Just some general comments on your round. PHIL MICKELSON: I shot 5 under. QUESTIONER: That's general... PHIL MICKELSON: I probably let a few shots go in the first nine or ten holes and I picked up some shots the last eight or nine holes that I probably shouldn't have. So it was a good day. NELSON SILVERIO: Questions? QUESTIONER: Phil, is there something particular about an event like this or the Bob Hope as we've seen in the past, that seems to bring the best out of your game. Seems to at least. PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know. I don't know if it's this event. I certainly enjoy it, I enjoy coming here, I enjoy the courses, but just for me personally I started to feel my game turn around last week and had some good practice sessions before I came here so I was optimistic before I came here that I was going to do well. QUESTIONER: Has nothing to do with the Pro Am format? PHIL MICKELSON: I enjoy it. We have great partners. I've had a lot of partners, good conversations. When you're out there for six hours 20 minutes, you have to have good partners. It's not a frustrating aspect, you just expect it. QUESTIONER: Were you disappointed by the conditions today? You said you were looking for some tough conditions. PHIL MICKELSON: I wasn't disappointed, actually. No, it was a good day. We got a pretty good draw there. It was a little windy the last three or four holes but I'm not going to complain. QUESTIONER: Your last hole... PHIL MICKELSON: It was windy then, 18 was windy. QUESTIONER: Eagle, birdie, nice way to finish every day, huh? PHIL MICKELSON: It was really good. I was really happy about it. We were standing on the 18th tee there for 15 minutes in the cold rain and got to stand up and hit that tee shot. I was going to try to go for the green at 2. QUESTIONER: You were going to go anyway? PHIL MICKELSON: It's kind of the game plan. You know me. Layup is the last resort. QUESTIONER: How much did it rain today when you were out there and how windy was it? PHIL MICKELSON: It rained off and on and it wasn't too windy until the last probably four holes the wind picked up pretty good, but it was a nice day. QUESTIONER: Did it affect your play at all? PHIL MICKELSON: It made it tougher. When we started out it was pretty calm. We had a great day to take advantage of scoring, in fact I probably left three or four shots there the front nine, that could have made it an exceptional day. QUESTIONER: How key was 15 and was that a difficult one? PHIL MICKELSON: Tom, I think it was more that it was kind of a lucky putt, when you get a downhill putt like that you try to get it the right speed and get it out there at the break but to get it to go in, the odds are much much less for the same distance uphill. You want to leave yourself uphill putts and I actually hit a good shot in there and it landed in a spot that was sodded, so it didn't grip the grass and come back like I was expecting, it just kind of skidded through it and left me a downhill putt, because you really want to leave uphill putts. Your odds greatly increase. QUESTIONER: It was what, left to right? PHIL MICKELSON: Left to right. It went in, yeah. You were out there putting in rain pants. It just rolled in kind of side door. QUESTIONER: Phil, we've got a very good leader board, the top five, three Major champions and the guy who won the Match Play. Does that sort of excite you, stimulate when you see a good leader board or the golf tournament, do you play it by yourself? PHIL MICKELSON: It's certainly challenging when you have guys like Jim Furyk on top of the board, he's a tough player and some very good players right behind. It's going to be a good weekend. QUESTIONER: Did you see who was behind you? PHIL MICKELSON: It can be a bit intimidating. You're talking about Watson? QUESTIONER: Tom, yeah. PHIL MICKELSON: He was right behind me the first two rounds and he's playing great. Where did he finish at? QUESTIONER: Six under. PHIL MICKELSON: He's playing great. I saw him birdie 17. That was nice. QUESTIONER: He's done that a few times hasn't he? PHIL MICKELSON: Yes, he has. QUESTIONER: Phil, you mentioned Furyk, possibility of him at all... going down the stretch of tournaments, what makes his game so good in your mind? PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not sure I have.. we've played very good on Ryder Cups. He's a great player, he doesn't have any weaknesses other than he's not the longest player but he keeps it in play and plays very solid golf. QUESTIONER: You said your game turned around last week, you felt it turning around. PHIL MICKELSON: I played very well last week, except putting, so I had an extra couple of days than I had planned and spent those working on my putting. QUESTIONER: What weren't you doing putting-wise that... PHIL MICKELSON: Just drills. Drills for speed, drills for alignment. QUESTIONER: Your alignment was off, is that what you're saying? PHIL MICKELSON: Alignment was off. Stroke was off a little bit trying to accommodate it. And didn't have very good speed on the greens. QUESTIONER: Is that the result of result of not playing for four months? PHIL MICKELSON: It could be. It could be. What was funny, I was putting great heading into the Hope. I really thought that was the one area I didn't have any concern over. It quickly went as I was spending all of my time trying to get my ball striking. QUESTIONER: We saw that you entered next week and you kind of touched on that yesterday. What are your thoughts... you mentioned something about you expected to be farther along the Hope, so... PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I'm starting to play well, so I want to play a little bit more. I want to try to get in contention a couple more times because I wasn't in contention the first three weeks. That's why I wanted to do it. Also, I'm real excited about how I'm driving the ball and Riviera is a course you have to drive the ball well at. I haven't played the best there in the past. QUESTIONER: Does this mean any change to any future stuff that you want? PHIL MICKELSON: Not that I know of, no. I'm going to try to logistically commute from my house, hopefully it won't feel like it's a week away. QUESTIONER: Fly back and forth. PHIL MICKELSON: That's what we're working on. QUESTIONER: Do you have stuff at home with the kids? PHIL MICKELSON: They're going to be at school and I want to be with them. QUESTIONER: Will you fly to Santa Monica? PHIL MICKELSON: Probably. QUESTIONER: You're a good golfer, why haven't you played well? Riviera which has a good reputation as a golf course. PHIL MICKELSON: Well, I haven't played there in five years, is probably the biggest thing. QUESTIONER: You played the PGA there. PHIL MICKELSON: I think because you have to drive it so well there in the past I would miss a lot of fairways. If you put it in play there, I think it's a course you can really attack. QUESTIONER: Your driving, it seems to be in the lower trajectory, is there anything to that? PHIL MICKELSON: It's one of the shots I've been working on and you'll see it a lot here. I'm trying to get the ball to skid through the wet grass but it's much easier for me to control and the misses are not nearly as big. QUESTIONER: Have you ever hit the ball that low? PHIL MICKELSON: At the British. QUESTIONER: You're not in the celeb rotation this year. I'm just wondering how the rotation is different at the Hope than it is at Pebble and if there's any difference at all. PHIL MICKELSON: There's not too much difference, no, I had the same playing partners. QUESTIONER: Crowds any messier here than they are at the Hope when you get into that mix? PHIL MICKELSON: No, no. It's great. Both tournaments are fine. But I just like the quiet course, that's all. QUESTIONER: Spyglass tomorrow. 62, 2005. PHIL MICKELSON: That'd be a great round, yeah. QUESTIONER: 63 today. Can you talk a little about... PHIL MICKELSON: Almost... almost tied the record. I was watching, I saw that. I was watching. Yeah, but it's a great course and that was one of the better rounds I've had. QUESTIONER: But the weather could be who knows. The forecast keeps calling for bad and it's never really been that bad. PHIL MICKELSON: Well, everybody will have to play it. Even though they might play Poppy or Pebble in tough conditions, it is still the same conditions.