Three-time champion Phil Mickelson answered questions about his round and tournament after shooting a 72, tying for 22nd on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club. (Excerpts of his post-round interview):
Q: Much better feeling coming off the course today?
A: It's Masters Sunday; it's the greatest week of the year; it's the greatest day of the year. I didn't … I made a lot of mistakes this week, I didn't play the way I wanted to, but this weekend the course was just perfect in that the pins were gettable, you can make some birdies, the weather was nice, but the greens were a little bit quicker, a little bit firmer than they had been and I just thought it set itself up for a terrific weekend.
I didn’t capitalize on it, but and that’s disappointing, but, again, there’s no place I would rather be, Sunday at the Masters.
Q: What were the problems at No. 3 yesterday and today?
A: Just bad shots. I was trying both times to hit a 4 iron up on top of the fairway, so I had a full shot into those front pins. I felt I could make birdie.
But I hit two terrible 4 irons in the bunker and … my short game was not good this week, it was very below par, but and it cost me a lot of shots but I just, I love it here. There’s some positives that came with this week, too and I started to, my speed’s come back, I started to hit some good drives, I hit some good shots, but I didn’t play the way I wanted to. But it was a fun day today.
Q: Nobody has shot four rounds in the 60s here and you’ve come closing four times, you had three rounds in the 60s. Just talk a little bit about that and how difficult that is and do you think it will ever happen?
A: I think it will happen, but we'll have to have the right conditions. It will have to be probably wet, maybe a little bit of rain, and very little wind. And then I think it will happen.
Q: You always talk about how much you love this course and love this tournament, how disappointing is it not to be playing at the end of the day on Sunday?
A: It really is, to come down to the final nine, right about this time as the final group is making the turn, there's nothing better. But again, it's fun, it's fun to be here and that's not the attitude that I want, but it was fun to be out playing today and to feel like I had a chance and get it going a little bit, but I made a lot of mistakes all week long and just couldn't recover from that.
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