Player reactions part 1: Mickelson, Haas and more

After interviews with only two players about course conditions on Monday the Golfdom crew made it a priority to talk to more pros coming off the course on Tuesday. We came back from the hunt with a successful bevy of interviews.

Mickelson signing autographs after singing the praises of the course conditions at Whistling Straits.

Phil Mickelson:

The course conditions are perfect, as good as I have seen.

Anirban Lahiri:

Some of the holes are playing soft and long after yesterdays rain. There are a few holes that have a fair amount of yardage on them but the course is playing good.

If the greens get a little firmer they’ll be a lot harder to score. The rough is up so you have to stay out of the long stuff. If you hit a shot in the bunker it’s a coin flip. You can get penalized really badly but you might get a decent lie. You need a little bit of luck but moral of the story is just stay out of them.

It was my first time playing this course and I love it. It’s one of the best tracks I’ve played all year and I would rate it in the top three course I’ve played ever. I was talking to my caddy and obviously Augusta is Augusta but this is right up there.

Bill Haas:

Overall the condition of the course is excellent. I found it to be pretty soft which is good for the greens, a little more receiving, but makes it very difficult to get it down the middle of the fairway. As long as this course is, it would be nice to hit some shorter irons in there. Overall with it being soft you would see some good scores but the wind is supposed to pick up and that will make it difficult to score.

The rough is thick, you have to hit it on the fairway first and foremost and right off the fairway is the thickest rough. The further you go away from the fairway you may get a bad lie in a bunker but if you are in the rough it’s OK. It just depends, there will definitely be guys that just spray it and get a good break but there will be other guys if you hit it in the junk you are just going to have to chip it back in the fairway.

Hoffmann juggling two of his golf balls after finishing up his practice round on Tuesday

Morgan Hoffmann:

It was a nice course to play but very soft from the recent rain. The bunkers are interesting because with the sand you can’t really hit it high. There’s an inch of sand and then it gets pretty muddy underneath. The rough is tough, it’s really thick around the fairways and the greens.

Photos: Golfdom