Q&A with Phil Mickelson

Q.  Corey was saying earlier that you had major Dan Rooney come in and speak last night.  What did he say to you and what did you take away from it and how important is it to have somebody that’s a combat veteran come in and speak to you guys?

PHIL MICKELSON:  Yeah, it was interesting, and I’d rather not discuss what was said, but I will say that it was like the quietest that I had ever seen an audience.  It was fascinating.

Q.  What did you take away from it?  Was it motivational?

PHIL MICKELSON:  I don’t really want to ‑‑ I don’t want to go into that.  That’s kind of our team moment, you know.

Q.  Could you talk about the course?  Is it a good match‑play course?

PHIL MICKELSON:  I think that it is.  I think it’s a wonderful golf course.  It’s in terrific shape, and the holes themselves have a lot of risk/reward, a lot of real big penalties if you miss‑hit a shot and a lot of rewards if you pull off a shot.  The par 3s are very challenging, shaved banks, drivable par 3 seems like a risk/reward.  This is going to be a great venue for match play where players can be aggressive without fearing the big number, because there are a lot of double and triple‑bogeys if we were to have a stroke‑play event with conditions as such.  But this is a great place to hold a match‑play event.

Q.  You have not won over here in 17 years.  What’s the difficulty of winning this on foreign soil, and how difficult is it going to be to overcome?

PHIL MICKELSON:  Well, I think the biggest challenge is the fact that the European Team is so strong; that they have so many good players.  That’s our biggest challenge.

There are other challenges, too.  They are going to have the support of the crowd and that can be a challenge.  And there are other variables, but it has been a long time since the U.S. has won over on foreign soil.  This is my eighth Ryder Cup, and the U.S. Team is yet to win when I’ve been on a team here on foreign soil in Europe.

It’s something that the U.S. side would really cherish if we were able to somehow pull off the upset.  But it has been a long time.  We’re trying hard to turn that around.

Q.  You mentioned the risk/reward holes.  As a guy who occasionally likes to take a risk in search of a reward, when you’re playing with ‑‑

PHIL MICKELSON:  Are you speaking of yourself or are you speaking of me?  (Laughter).

Q.  In playing with a partner, when you’re standing there and you’re holding a club, and you’re talking to Bones and deciding to go for it, and instead of having Bones say not so sure about that, or whatever, you’re making the decision.  When you have the partner, how much are you going to look at that guy and say, well, I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to try for this?

 PHIL MICKELSON:  In foursomes, it’s one thing, but in fourball it’s a different deal.  In fourball you try to set it up so one guy can go for it and usually on my two‑man team I’m the guy that’s doing that.  So it’s a good opportunity for me to have a partner that can keep the ball in play.

In foursomes, whether it’s me or my partner, I want them going for it.  I want them taking the risk and the challenge and if I don’t pull it off, I want the opportunity to salvage par.  I like that aggressive play in my partners and I certainly like it in myself.  You have to let the bad shots go and try to make up for it on the last hole.

Q.  You’ve had obviously very modest success in The Ryder Cup in the past, no need to tell you about that, but, a why, and b, does it hurt?

PHIL MICKELSON:  I think that, you know, whether we have won or whether we have lost, we have had incredible experiences during The Ryder Cup.  We have had great friendships that have been formed on the team.  We have had incredible experiences, life experiences, that I look back on and I saw Captain Strange out there on the course today and we were talking about ’02 at The Belfry where, even though we lost, we had so many great memories of that week, that we shared certain stories with.

And so win or lose, The Ryder Cup has been nothing but an incredibly positive experience.  I certainly would like to improve on our record.  I mean, the U.S. has not played as well as we would like, but we were able to pull off a win in the last Ryder Cup.  We are currently holding The Ryder Cup.  We brought it over here to show you what it looks like (laughter).  We are going to be fighting hard to bring it home.

Q.  You personally, though?

PHIL MICKELSON:  Me personally?  About what?

Q.  About your record.

PHIL MICKELSON:  Well, you can’t look at The Ryder Cup as an individual record, you have to look at it as a team, and that’s why when I refer to the record, I refer to our wins and losses, yeah.

Q.  Just in relation to the Tiger/Rory saga ‑‑

PHIL MICKELSON:  Saga, what’s that?  Saga?  Missing that.

Q.  Rory says he would really like to play Tiger.  It’s been in the papers a bit lately?

PHIL MICKELSON:  But that’s the feel that any player has.  Any player wants to play the best as Tiger is ranked No. 1 in the world.  That’s the type of charisma that Rory McIlroy has.  He’s just like any other top player that wants to take on the best.  That’s not any type of controversy or saga.

Q.  Do you know if Tiger has taken umbrage, because Corey was in here this morning, and he certainly gave the impression that Tiger was not happy at all with what Rory said.

PHIL MICKELSON:  They get along great, are you kidding me?  Rory is one of the nicest guys you can imagine.  He’s one of the classiest guys out on Tour ask Tiger gets along with just about everybody, usually because he beats them and he’s nice to them when he beats them.  Whether it’s in a PGA Tour event or what have you.  (Laughter).

Rory is as classy a guy as there is.  I’ve been paired with him a bunch and I really enjoy playing with him.  The whole European Team is built with a lot of classy character.

Q.  Turning attention to the main competition of week, the ping‑pong in the team room ‑‑

PHIL MICKELSON:  Yes, it is, Matt Kuchar dominates.  He’s very good.

Q.  We hear Tiger has the edge on you ‑‑

PHIL MICKELSON:  You must be getting your information from the same place many of your tabloids get it.  It’s false.  (Laughter).

No, we have had a lot of fun, and our big match usually takes place Sunday night.  So we have just kind of practised with each other.  We have hit it back and forth, but nothing fierce yet.  Our competition is Sunday night.  We play a best‑of‑five series.

So far, just like the U.S. Team is holding The Ryder Cup, so am I in our little match.  (Winking).  (Laughter).

Q.  You mentioned this being your eighth Ryder Cup, and in several of the earlier ones you went up against Monty as a player.  What do you remember about him?  Is there anything that stood out to you why he was so successful?

PHIL MICKELSON:  I’ve always had a good relationship with Colin because he’s got a great sense of humour, and he and I rib each other.  We have great little banter with each other.  We’ve played some pranks on each other over the years going back to the mid to late 90s.

Our matches have been always with a fun kind of light‑hearted spirit.  He’s played some incredible golf.  He’s putted incredibly in The Ryder Cup.  I mean, some of the best putting I’ve ever seen.  I remember The Ryder Cup in ’99 at Brookline when he was getting heckled a little bit by the crowd.  And that was a bad idea, because all he did was make putts left and right, and put it right back on them.  I thought his ability to bring his best golf out in this event was inspirational.

Q.  You and Tiger had a shocking partnership in the foursomes and fourballs I remember at Oakland Hills a few years ago.  Is there any chance of you two being paired together this week?

PHIL MICKELSON:  Oh, yeah, I think there’s a great chance.  Why don’t you just hold your breath and we’ll see till Friday.  (Laughter).