Phil Mickelson discusses his dominant Masters win

Sunday at the Masters was set up to be a climactic battle between some of the world's top players. In the end, however, Phil Mickelson was steady and spectacular, pulling away from the field to walk home with his second career Masters' title and the third major victory of his career.

Phil Mickelson

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Having to play extra holes on Sunday to make up for a Saturday rain delay, Mickelson took the lead in the third round and never looked back, holding off Tim Clark and Fred Couples to finish 7 under for the victory.

Defending champion Tiger Woods put himself in position for a charge, but was unable to tame his putter, finishing in a tie for fourth place.

Here is what Mickelson, Clark and Couples had to say following Sunday's final round at Augusta National:

Phil Mickelson

Question: Phil Mickelson, congratulations and please share some thoughts.

PHIL MICKELSON: It was a really fun day. I just had an incredible time playing the final 18 and had a great time playing the 13 holes this morning with Darren Clarke. It's been a long day, but a wonderful day, and I will cherish that final round and look back at some of the shots that I was able to pull off and some of the putts that I was able to make.

Q. Did you become a different golfer, whether it was inside your head or in your game after you won here the first time, and if so, how has that played out on the course?

PHIL MICKELSON: I don't know if it happened after. I would say that it probably happened before, where I started to prepare better for tournaments. Where I started to play a little bit differently, to control my game, control the ball flight, control putting. Got a little better at the start of 2004 and I think that it started with the win here in 2004.

Q. Would you now advocate everyone going out and putting two drivers in the bag?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, if they are the proper brand. (Laughter).

Q. And in all seriousness, how much did that actually help you?

PHIL MICKELSON: Oh, it was huge. It was a huge help. Because I worked with the technicians over at Callaway and I've got 20, 25 more yards with this driver that draws. I call it a draw and a fade, but the fact is, the draw is like an additional driver; it makes my normal driver a 3 wood, because it goes so much farther. And I needed it to combat the added length here at Augusta.

This is the only course that I can think of that I will probably do it, and I did it last week at BellSouth to get accustomed to it. I don't know where else I'll end up needing to do that, but it was a huge help here, and I started going to that driver exclusively, only on holes that I thought I would play cuts. Like on 14 and 17, I ended up hitting that draw driver because I needed the extra length.

Q. In each of the two previous majors that you have won, you walked up to 18 having to execute a pretty difficult. Wondering if you can describe the experience this time?

PHIL MICKELSON: A lot better. I loved it. (Laughter) the stress free walk up 18 was incredible. I had actually been wanting like a four- or five-shot lead, but three was okay, too. It was a great feeling walking up there, knowing that I had the tournament in hand.

Q. Fred Couples talked about your pairing being good for him, how you two were actually encouraging each other along.

PHIL MICKELSON: I love playing with Fred. We had a great time and we kept saying how lucky we were to be in the final pairing on Sunday at The Masters and how much fun it was. It made for a very fun day, and we were pulling for each other to make some birdies and encouraging each other.

Q. As you well know, we made a great deal of the fact that you were 0 for 42 in the majors and asked you all the time.

PHIL MICKELSON: 3 for 9 sounds better, huh? (Laughter.)

Q. What's the difference, are you a new guy because of that and can you describe the feeling?

PHIL MICKELSON: I'm having the best time right now playing golf. I'm having so much fun being able to compete for major championships, it's just incredible, and to win a couple now, it's just an amazing feeling.

I couldn't have done this by myself. I have practiced hard but I maybe didn't practice the right way or on the right things. To have the help from Dave Pelz and Rick Smith, it has really given me the guidance. So that when I do spend time practicing, I'm spending it on the right things to help me prepare my best and play my best. I feel as though with their commitment to me and my commitment to them, we are going to hopefully be able to compete and contend in future majors, as well.

Tim Clark

Q. Talk about the chip on 18, what was going through your head when it was rolling toward the hole?

TIM CLARK: When I got into the shot, it was a fairly easy bunker shot, if there is one, on the 18th, and pretty much could see the line clearly and had seen a lot of putts go in, similar to one that Mark O'Meara holed. I thought if I could at least get it running down there, at least have a chance, you don't make those kind of shots all the time. I knew I had to have a go at it to post 5 under.

Q. I suppose you realize you beat the world's No. 1 today, hole by hole. He shot a 70 and you shot a 69.

TIM CLARK: You know, it's one day out there. But obviously, Tiger's game is extremely impressive. On the back nine when he needed to turn it on, he hit some unbelievable shots that you sort of sit there and look at and realize, there's no way I'm ever going to be able to hit that shot as long as I live. He's still the world's No. 1 player. I just happened to have a great day today. It's always just great to play with Tiger.

Q. Runner up in the Masters, this is a great moment. Assess where this is in your career, highlights wise?

TIM CLARK:Yeah, this is obviously one of the highlights. I'll look back and say, gee, I finished second there. Obviously it would have been great to win. I felt the way I finished up last night, getting a putt to go to 6 under and the way I was playing at that stage, I thought I've got a great chance to win this tournament. Unfortunately this morning, just didn't go the way I wanted to. But coming out here today, I really felt I had a great chance to win and obviously there will always be a little bit of disappointment not winning and hopefully I get another shot at it around here.

Fred Couples

Q: We had quite a bit of excitement this week and thank you for that.

FRED COUPLES: It was a lot of fun. I had a great pairing with Phil today. You know, watched a great player win his second Masters, and I felt like at least from tee to green, I was close, or if not, maybe a little better today. You know, these guys that win this thing, you've got to putt well and I felt like today was just it wasn't horrible, but it was just mediocre and I couldn't get one to go in the hole and get any momentum.

But like I say, I'm disappointed, but I like the way I played and it was a lot of fun. You know, I'm certainly tired now, but I made it through 31 holes, and hung in there a long time. The 14th hole was just really a killer, but at the same time, it just leads up to that. There's several other putts that I just couldn't get one to go. I had a tap in on the first hole, and the second hole, I hit it just over the green in the perfect spot, putted down there four feet and missed it. Then the next hole, drove it down there and hit a little pitch shot maybe ten feet straight up the hill and missed it. You know, three-putted 8, knocked it on in two, which were a couple big hits.

Q. Is there something about either being comfortable in a pairing, because you two seemed to be having a good time?

FRED COUPLES: You know, to be honest with you, there was no real major time where Phil and I were in a spot where we just were going to struggle to get out of it. So I don't want to say we didn't feed off our games, but he was standing up there and smoking these two drivers that he has. I was hitting it quite with him, and we were laughing about that. We were hitting good shots and we both birdied the 7th hole by hitting it very close.

I think, you know, I've known Phil a long, long time and I respect his game, I like the way he plays. He has a family now so I don't hang around with him much anymore, but when we play, it's a nice time. It's a great pairing for me.

Transcripts provided by ASAP Sports.

April 10, 2006