Q. Phil, can you just talk about the happenings with the shorts and how happy you are?
PHIL MICKELSON: I mean, I think this is a long time coming in the game of golf. I think it just takes a disruptor like LIV to get things done. They've been leading in many ways, and I'm very happy that they are leading in this particular area, and I hope for the -- I have a lot of friends on TOUR and I hope for their sake the TOUR follows. I think it's good for golf. I think it's great for the players. It feels good. It's more comfortable, especially when we start getting into some hot temperatures, and I just think it's a great thing.
Q. Greg said you were very influential in the decision.
PHIL MICKELSON: Um, I might have given my input.
Q. Can you just talk about your play today; you said you felt like your game was coming around, and it finally manifested itself.
PHIL MICKELSON: I got off to a good start. I had a good opportunity. I was 4-under there with a few holes left. Made two 6s coming in, which hurt. But our team is doing well. Our team is right in it. That as a player gives you momentum even if you're not in the individual hunt.
I know that I'm playing better than I'm scoring and that I can contribute here, and I'm excited about the opportunity to come out tomorrow and really help out these guys because they've been playing some great golf and have put us in a really good spot.
Q. How fun is it to be in the mix from a team standpoint? You're probably getting tired of Four Aces --
PHIL MICKELSON: It's really fun for us. We've got a couple of really solid players in Cameron Tringale and Bernd Wiesberger, and we've got an explosive player with a lot of firepower in Matt Wolff.
We all got together and played some practice rounds early in the week. You could tell we all thought it was going to be a pretty good week, and those guys have all put it together. Tomorrow is going to be a really fun day. It's going to be a really fun day for us.
Q. Another day dominated by the Aces out there; what's it going to take for a team to dethrone these guys, and as captain of the Hy Flyers, what do you tell your team tonight to motivate them going into Sunday?
PHIL MICKELSON: I feel "dominated" might be a bit of a strong word to describe being three back, but they're playing some good golf. They have a very deep team. It's going to be an exciting day tomorrow because you've got a bunch of great names fighting it out for the individual title and you've got three or four teams that are right in there that with three scores counting can make a big move.
Q. How do we motivate tonight?
PHIL MICKELSON: We're all motivated. We just need to come out focused and play some good smart golf. I'm really putting that on myself because those guys are playing great. I had a good round going, and I let some of it get away instead of finishing it off, and I've got to finish that round off tomorrow. I've got to get off to a good start like I did today and then I've got to put it together because we're going to need it to catch those guys.
Q. You talked about the momentum it can give you watching your teammates do well; what does it mean to you to be a captain, and what do you think that the team aspect adds to the game of golf?
PHIL MICKELSON: It's going to add a lot more than you might see on the surface. Obviously it's fun, and it is a whole different element that we have. But what it's going to do is that as an individual when I play, I try to put together a support system to help me play my best, right, so that's going to be inclusive obviously of instruction; it's going to be inclusive of fitness and working out and getting my body to function right. So you've got to have the right kind of workout, and then you have to have the right physical therapy, the right recovery, the right nutrition, all these things to help you be your best.
The team aspect will be able to organize a lot of that, and so instead of having four individuals trying to find those guys on their own, the team puts together their team of maybe instruction, fitness, physical therapy, nutrition, travel arrangements, things like that, that can help those players all kind of be more synergistic and have the best out there. The team can supply those opportunities and not have each individual be responsible for that.
That's like one thing that's coming about over the course of the next few months, and then when you look at player development, when you look at players that will be coming up and you have a few guys on the roster that will be potential players if somebody gets hurt or whatnot, those guys will be working with the right guys to bring their best out. So that's one aspect that we haven't had in golf, because the individuals have been responsible for putting together all of that, and it can be overwhelming.
Q. Do you feel looser now than you did in, say, London when you were kind of right in the middle of everything going on in the golf world?
PHIL MICKELSON: I wouldn't say I feel looser. I'm actually struggling a little bit because I'm putting too much pressure on myself because I've been playing really well at home, I get out here and I'm playing tight, steering it. I'm just not playing the way I usually play, which is more free and fearless and letting it rip and swinging aggressive, and I've been making some tentative kind of steery hold-on swings, and that's not how I've been playing well at home, and it costs me coming down the stretch with two 6s, I doubled 10, I didn't birdie 8, I made a bogey on 8, which is a two-shot loss there.
I've got to play a little bit looser. I've got to get back to that to get my best golf out.
Q. Why is that?
PHIL MICKELSON: I just want it. I want to compete. I want to contribute to my team. I want to get in contention. I miss being in contention. It's been over a year since I won the PGA, and I want to get back into that mix, and that's what's fun.
Next week I'm going to be working hard -- like today there was some good progress made, but I've got to finish that round off. I've got to shoot 6-, 7-under par on that round the way I played. Instead I shot 1. I've got to come out tomorrow and play a good solid round, then next week I'm going to be grinding to get ready for Chicago.
When I say it's not as far off as it looks, it's because the shots are there, I'm just mentally not playing as free because I'm trying to force it.
When I free up a little bit and relax and play loose like you're saying, I'm going to get some good scores again.
Q. You talked with SI early in the week, which I appreciated, you talked about vindication, talked about some regrets. I wonder if there are any specifics you'd be comfortable sharing?
PHIL MICKELSON: I didn't say I felt vindicated, I said I felt happy for the guys, that they have a voice and they're being valued and they're being heard, and changes are being implemented to show that appreciation, because that hasn't been the case, and it hasn't had to be the case because there was no other option and no leverage.
Now they're being heard and things are changing. So things have gotten better for everybody in professional golf and I believe for the fans, too, because they're seeing golf in a different environment with LIV. They're seeing on the TOUR, the TOUR is bringing their best players together more often. LIV is moving professional golf throughout the world. LIV is adding a team aspect, which is different. They're adding a different viewership to watch golf without commercials and shot after shot.
I think the fans are getting a lot of benefit out of this, and all golfers, all professional golfers are getting a lot of benefit. The guys on the TOUR are playing for a lot more money. It's great that they magically found a couple hundred million; that's awesome.
Out on LIV, we have as players an incredible opportunity here to play for a lot of money and to be part of a team aspect and to really build this brand up and showcase it throughout the world.
Everybody is I think in a better position now than they were a year ago.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports