Phil Mickelson - 2/11/07 Nelson Silverio: All right. Let's welcome Phil Mickelson, 2007 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Champion. Phil, you add to your already long list of accomplishments. This is your 30th career win and you did it equaling the tournament record, and you have moved up to 7th in the FedExCup points standings. So how about some initial thoughts on the day? Phil Mickelson: Well, I really had a fun day today. It was just a lot of fun. And I'm excited to have won this tournament. And I love coming back here. I was excited to get back here. I felt like I was finally starting to play well and was really looking forward to playing here and excited with the results, too, really a fun final round. Fun to share it with a partner, two, Harry You. He and I won the team championship, that was great. We had a great time walking up 18, fun experience of a lifetime. Questioner: I wonder if you could take us through 8 through 11. Phil Mickelson: I birdied 8, I hit a hybrid off the tee and earlier I had hit a hybrid six feet from going through the cliff. I was inches, just an inch on the fairway the last time I played. So I took a little more conservative line and left myself a 215 with a 5 iron and hit it in there about six feet. And it was a quick putt that broke a lot and it kind of wiggled and it went in. It was an important putt for me to have made because it gave me a little bit of momentum there when I needed it. Made an... almost made birdie on 9 and came back with a birdie on 10. I hit a good drive on 10 and I chipped a little 9 iron, took a lot off it to try to take spin off, left it 15 feet from the hole and ended up making that putt. Birdied 11 after a good drive, I hit a little sand wedge from only 80 yards and trying again to take some spin off of it but still have enough spin to get an uphill spin and ten feet from the hole and made it. You are right, those are probably the key birdies. Questioner: Phil, you know what we have been writing for the last few months. We have been writing, you know, how much Winged Foot would affect you and you get that everywhere you go. Do you think this will eliminate that and did you think we are full of crap when we were writing it? Phil Mickelson: Well... Questioner: Kevin said we were talking in code words, so no code this time. Phil Mickelson: No. You know, Art, I think the world of... the interesting thing about this is that at the end of last year it was the first time I really looked back on Winged Foot, I didn't want to think about it the rest of the year. I wanted to try to win a couple more majors. But when I look back I drove it awful all four days, which is almost unheard of to be in contention in the U.S. Open. I drove it horribly. That's when I realized I needed to fix my driving. I have never driven it this well as I'm driving right now. It's very easy for me to hit fairways, it feels that way. Feels very easy to hit fairways. When I miss them they are in the first cut or just off line and I just feel very confident with the driver right now. That's why I'm excited about playing Riviera, I'm excited about playing tight golf courses. I feel I can get the ball in play easy. Questioner: You didn't play well last week, you missed the cut and wham, you finish 20 under. How does that change so much? Phil Mickelson: I look at it as the progression. I drove great at Phoenix, I was hitting the ball the right distance with my irons, what I didn't do was putt well, and I didn't get close, I was missing left or missing a little right. My distance control was great, which was a big factor, so coming here I felt comfortable with my iron play and hit great iron shots this week. The last thing I need to do is fix my putting, I spent four or five days, I had Dave Pels here, he is in the back of the room, he was scheduled to come here Wednesday, he came here, looked at it, he watched me play Cypress, we went to Spyglass, putted a little bit. Suddenly it started to come together. Certainly you are not going to make every putt out here, but what I did do was start on line with the right speed and able to make my share. Questioner: Phil, following on from what you said about Winged Foot, what gives you more satisfaction, winning today or the way you have been driving today? Phil Mickelson: Well, certainly winning today gives me a lot of satisfaction. I think the coolest thing I believe I'm going to take what happened at Winged Foot and make it a plus for the rest of my career. Because I have learned a lot about my driver itself, about my swing with the driver, and I think I'm going to be a better driver of the golf ball for the rest of my career. At least that's the goal. Questioner: Phil, this is a pretty dramatic change you are talking about going from driving the ball awful, being as confident as you are now. Is there a synopsis of what changed? I realize there was an equipment and some swing changes, can you give sort of a summary why you feel so much different now than you did eight months ago? Phil Mickelson: Well, I don't want to go into details of all the things we are doing. I have been focusing and working on it and now it feels pretty good. Questioner: Phil, any significance to a couple of numbers, 30th PGA TOUR victory, over $40 million in earnings, do you take notice of two things? Phil Mickelson: They are nice. It's a cool feeling to have been on top or, come out on top 30 times now. I think, Tom, the best thing about this is now I have won more tour events and majors than Johnny Miller, so if he ever gives me a hard time up in the booth I can rough him up a little bit. I'm still working on Faldo yet, I don't have as many majors as Faldo. Questioner: Phil, you talk about Winged Foot and looking at those numbers, your driving numbers as being sort of a revelation or whatever, were there signs before that that you were ignoring or just didn't see? Or... Phil Mickelson: Just didn't pay that much attention to it. I always felt like I could hit the ball if I needed to, but I was looking at my swing as opposed to both the swing and club. Now I have a driver that has a whole different center of gravity, moment of inertia, all that technical stuff. My misses are very miniscule now, not because of anything improved in the swing, per se, although I have been working on a couple things, but the club now just performs the way I expect. Questioner: You missed one fairway today? Phil Mickelson: I missed No. 3. Did I miss any others? Questioner: 9, by a foot. Phil Mickelson: I missed 9, again. Not by. I missed two fairways. Questioner: (Inaudible) anything to worry. Phil Mickelson: He is on the Champion's Tour. Is he coming back? I will never lead the stat in driving accuracy, let's not overdo this. But you know, if I could improve 20, 25 percent in my accuracy that's going to make a big difference in my scores. Questioner: Phil, winning before the Masters, how much does that mean as far as a confidence and affirmation of your game? Phil Mickelson: I think it's probably an important thing, Todd. I don't think too much about it as far as to get ready for the Masters, I think about how my game is progressing and trying to get that sharp. But I think you need to see results and still get the confidence. So it's helpful. I felt after the Phoenix Open my game was coming around, which was why I was talking about adding LA, because I wanted to play a little bit more competitive golf with the way I'm playing again before I start my run up for Augusta, so I think there is some importance to it. I'm looking forward to playing next week at Riviera, it won't be a similar style golf at Augusta but it's pretty close to a U.S. Open. Questioner: Would you say you played better here or Atlanta last year? Phil Mickelson: Probably Atlanta, because I won by 13 and I hit every shot at the pin and made every putt. And here, you know, I had a lot of great stretches, but I was quite a bit more under par over there as well. Questioner: As far as the quality of ball striking, sounds like you almost feel like you are at a different level. Phil Mickelson: I'm excited, I've never had this type of feeling on the tee box, knowing that it's going to be in the fairway and not worry about it. Not seeing if it's going to go left or right or worried about that, I just feel so confident right now. Questioner: Didn't you say, though, after you won Augusta for the first time when you stopped hooking the ball and got it going, you know... Phil Mickelson: On the fairways. Questioner: Keeping it on the fairways? What was the difference from then... what happened? Did it drift away slowly or something? Phil Mickelson: No, I would, if I wanted to hit a high draw or hit a low shot I wasn't getting those shots to perform properly. So now I still have that cut shot but I have that draw like I hit on 14 which was a high draw or I hit that little low bullet that I was trying to hit into the wind throughout the whole week. Questioner: Phil, an interesting week out here for weather. Did it affect your game at all? Phil Mickelson: I'm sure it did. But it affected everybody. Everybody has to deal with the elements. So it's not a bad thing if the weather comes in. What was great was we didn't have any delays. I thought with the forecast we were going to have a bunch of delays, after yesterday I was hoping it would rain out. But that was for another reason. Questioner: Before this tournament, Phil, the big talk was Tiger Woods didn't come. Does that affect any of the other elite players, do you care if the other elite players are at the tournament? Phil Mickelson: We like competing against the best. We really do. But we will have plenty of chances here in the future to do that. I think for this community, as much as it supports this event, it would be great if they have the strongest field possible and AT&T and everybody does everything to make that happen. But you are talking one individual who can only play so many events. And we have two or three times as many as one person can play. Questioner: Phil, can you describe what happened on 5 and how surprised were you to reach? It looked like you were very surprised to reach the green and not find your ball. Phil Mickelson: I couldn't believe what happened on 5 because I hit a perfect 6 iron right at the pin and I had planned on being 30 feet short. I had taken... it was 202 yards, I hit that club only 180, the way I had hit it, and even though we had a little helping wind I thought it might fly 190 and be about 30 feet short. It was right at the pin and I was saying get up. Get there. Trying to get back to the hole. And it flew four yards too far. Flew within 12, 15 feet of the cup, but it hit hard and went into that grass and nobody ever found it. But I mean, the ball landed 12, 15 feet from the cup and I couldn't find it. Questioner: Was it the wind? Phil Mickelson: It must have rode the wind. Got some gust. Kevin Sutherland said the same thing happened to his, he hit it poorly and the ball flew 15 yards longer than expected. Questioner: When you think you hit a great shot and you have to walk back to the tee... Phil Mickelson: Yeah, that's not fun. Questioner: Phil, after the bad weather and there were predictions we might have more rain today... Phil Mickelson: I was pulling for it. Questioner: Was it refreshing to see the sunshine again? Phil Mickelson: I think everybody loves to play Pebble in great weather. And we had great weather today. We had a little bit of breeze. We didn't have elements, we didn't have it difficult, it wasn't a difficult day, it was a challenging, fun day. We saw a lot of low scores. To see the sun out and walk around Pebble letting memories come back of tournaments that I have done well here in the past or my grandfather caddying here, just cool stories, it's a great place. Questioner: Phil, have you ever experienced that kind of scene on 5 where you have that many people trying to help you find the ball, turns out it never turns up? Phil Mickelson: That's rare now. We have great marshals and volunteers that help us find golf balls, to have everybody there around the green, I thought the ball was short, nobody clapped, I thought it must have been short. I didn't see it fly that far. That was an odd hole. Questioner: If you could make a pie chart out of your brain, how big a slice would the majors be right now thinking about those and planning for those? Phil Mickelson: Well, I don't really want to get into pie charts and all that stuff, but certainly I'm thinking about it. I'm excited about Augusta, was trying a driver that I'm going to play there a couple weeks ago or one of the two that I'm going to play there. So it's certainly on my mind. It's been on my mind since the PGA, as it is with everybody. Our next thought is the next major, our thought or focus is always the next major. Now it's the FedExCup. Sorry. Questioner: Which choked you up more today, making the birdie putt on 18 or seeing your family coming running across the green? Phil Mickelson: To see my kids come. To look back and see tournaments I have won in the past, to see how little they were. I forget how little they were, what they were like when they were years younger. I'm sure I will look back on today in a few years from now and look back on today, I can't believe they were that small and how fast they have grown. It just melts me. Questioner: One day maybe Evan will be able to tackle you on the green he will be so big. Phil Mickelson: No, no. No. Dad always has to be... but it will be fun to see the Watsons play in this tournament together, that would be cool. I've played with my dad in the past, that was cool. I traded him in for the winner. Questioner: Phil, how many rounds prior to this have you played with your amateur partner and how well above his handicap did he play? What were his contributions? Phil Mickelson: Harry played incredible. He is a legitimate 18 handicap, he may be a little bit higher, he is a legitimate player, we had a great time. His demeanor is what I really enjoyed, we played a bunch. He is the CEO of BearingPoint. We have done a bunch of outings together. He is a terrific person, he knew when to pick up, when to finish, he capitalized on par 3s. That's where he did damage. What won the Pro-Am section for us was No. 5. When I made 5 he hit it over there to the left in the rough, well left of the green, hits this miraculous wedge shot on the green 40 feet and makes the putt for a par net 2. And that was the hole that really did it for us. He did great on the par 3s, he couldn't reach the par 4s in regulation but he was able to get up and down with wedges and he helped me 19 shots. And I played pretty good, but to help 19 shots. Questioner: Outside of '99 and '03, you had tough things going on off the course, has there ever been a length of time where you worried about your game? Phil Mickelson: No. Not really. I mean, the only time I'm worried about how I'm going to play is when I'm not mentally fresh and ready to play. That's why I take three four months off, I'm excited to play golf again. I'm excited about '07. I didn't get the results right away, but I knew I have the right drills now for my short game, to get my game sharp, I have the right drivers, same thing with wedges, irons, so forth. It wasn't a concern, I just needed a little bit of time to work on it and get it to gel. Questioner: Your drill the last few years at the majors of circling the green for a lot of time, does that stay the same? Phil Mickelson: Yeah, it's kind of the basis for my short game, you know. I've got to make those three-footers, I make a hundred in a row and I don't normally do the drill maybe three, four times a week, but I try to do that every day before a major just because it gets me sharp. Questioner: I'm sorry, I wasn't so much talking about the putting drill, but at some of the major sites of going chipping and just completely working your way around that's where it seems like you spent most of your time looking for that half shot. Do you stick with that or put more emphasis on driving? Phil Mickelson: The U.S. Open will probably change that way, but the Masters will certainly be short game. Driving is important there, but the short game is really where the scores are saved. Nelson Silverio: Couple more. Questioner: Your tee shot on 11, I thought you might hit one of those towering Mickelson shots and you hit the line drive. Is that the low drive you are speaking about? Phil Mickelson: Yeah. Questioner: What's the thought process there to not hit something high and towering and let the breeze take it and hit it low? Phil Mickelson: Minimizes where the miss could be. If it gets up in the air it could go farther off line. Questioner: I know... your grandfather's name again? Phil Mickelson: Al Santos. Questioner: Santos. Questioner: Phil, I know you get asked this question every time you win a tournament, I'm probably looking for the same answer, how special is this tournament to you? Phil Mickelson: It means a lot to me because it's a place where I've done well in the past, it's a place where I have family memories, and it's also a tournament that allows us to share the moment with somebody else, too, as opposed to just being an individual and competing for yourself, sharing it with your family, I was able to walk up to the 18th hole sharing it with my partner in '05, I was able to share with my partner today, it makes that walk more special. Questioner: Phil, Bob Verde did a really nice job of putting out the Conrad Dobler story, even if you don't want to speak specifically to that can you just talk about the greatness of being in the position you are to kind of help people in their lives like that? Phil Mickelson: Well, it's fun. I mean, I don't feel very comfortable talking about too much of it. But I feel very fortunate to be in that position. I want to do all I can. Questioner: Phil, having won your 30th PGA TOUR title today, I am wondering if you can recall in any of the previous 29 losing a ball in the final round? Phil Mickelson: Yes. My first. My first, yeah. Tucson I lost a ball in the hazard and made triple on 14 and fell from a shot ahead to two back, two or three back, and ended up birdiing the last and winning by one. Questioner: Still an amateur. Phil Mickelson: I've actually lost a lot of golf balls, so if you want to go back through them I have got to think there is a few more. Questioner: No pie charts needed. Phil Mickelson: Fortunately Callaway makes a lot of golf balls, I'm able to get a bunch of them. Nelson Silverio: Phil, thanks, congratulations. Phil Mickelson: Thanks, guys. (Applause.)