Mickelson: 'Excited by direction I'm headed'

Mickelson : 'Ready to take on the ultimate challenge at Oakmont'

Phil Mickelson claimed his first career victory at The Players Championship at Sawgrass yesterday with a closing 69 and a two-stroke victory. The left-handed Callaway staff player and World No.2 used the FT-5 driver, 13-degree X fairway wood, 2H and 3H Callaway X hybrids, the X-Forged irons and wedges the HX Tour Ball. He also used a prototype Odyssey putter.

Later he spoke about the state of his game, the influence Butch Harmon has had in his progress and his plans to claim next month's US Open.

Q: You said yesterday you had won a lot of tournaments with your short game, more than with your ball-striking. Didn't you win with this week?

MICKELSON: Yeah, what I'd like to do is have four days of ball-striking like today's final round and then it takes a lot of pressure off my short game. It was a very mediocre putting day for me. I could have run it high if I would have made some reasonable putts. I will gladly take the way the round went because it was a stress-free type round.

Chipping has saved him in the past

Have you ever had a win when your swing has been a work in progress?

Probably. I look back in the past when I won some of the first couple tournaments of the year in La Costa at '94 and '98, and I remember I was working on things then to start the year. But it does mean a lot to have the results that I've had immediately because it tells me that I'm on the right path and things that I'm doing are correct. And if I keep working at these things and progressing, I should be ready to take on the ultimate tough challenge at Oakmont (US Open in June).

Butch Harmon said you took away one side of the fairway today.

Yeah, that's our goal is to eliminate half the trouble. So then I only have to worry about half of the golf course. That makes it a lot easier.

Obviously this is a significant victory for you. How excited are you are to be able to take this game and the new swing and all the changes into the majors next month?

That's what's most exciting. I feel like we're just getting started. This is only week No. 3. I feel like in three months how much am I going to progress? In three years where am I going to be? I've seen an immediate difference in three weeks, and I can't wait for another three weeks to go by and start getting ready for the US Open. And another three or four weeks to go by and get ready for the British Open. I'm really excited about the direction I'm headed.

Can you recall a more airtight round of golf in your career? That was about as efficient as we've ever seen you play.

You know, I haven't had a chance to reminisce back on the past 15 years of my career, but it was a good round. I'd like to get the putter hot. I'd like to imagine what the round would be if the putter was hot.

'Two year process to get to No.1 starts now'

Do you think you can get to No. 1 in the world and how long do you think it'll take you?

I don't know, there's such a big lead in the way the points are that it's a two-year process from whenever somebody starts. But I haven't thought about that yet. I still have a lot of work to get my ball-striking to where I would give myself a chance to try to contend.

It's four weeks between now and the US Open. How much time will you spend with Butch? What will you do to prepare from now until that Monday at Oakmont?

We'll start preparation for the Open very soon. I'll make a couple of trips up to the course to map out a game plan. And in the meantime I plan on spending some more time with Butch to make sure that in the coming weeks I continue to progress in the changes and the direction we want. There were some swings out there that I feel could get sloppy and I want to try to correct those.

At what point, or what was the determining factor where you said, okay, it's time for me to get in great physical shape and Butch Harmon is the missing piece to the puzzle?

I don't know if there was a specific time to answer that, but certainly looking forward to '07 and wanting to make '07 a good year, I spent most of the time in the off season getting physically in shape. And then when I started the year the first couple of months and I wasn't striking it the way I wanted to. I felt like I hadn't hit it well since The Masters in '06, it had been about ten months, and I felt like when I got to Augusta and wasn't able to hit it again well after a year, I felt I needed to try something different.

Two hours yesterday and then 90 minutes, an hour this morning before the round. That's a lot, to be working on your full swing, by normal standards? That's grinding pretty good before a round?

I can only imagine the great articles that would come out if you put that much time into the articles instead of just kicking them out (laughter). I'm just kidding (laughter). No, it's not. I mean, it takes work to hit the ball well and to make changes. It takes time and effort.