Q&A With Phil Mickelson
1998 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Champion

Your string of six consecutive years with a victory leads the PGA TOUR. To what do you attribute your consistency?

It's something I'm very proud of. But, at the same time, I'm not satisfied with just that. Each time I go to a tournament, I go there to win. I want to keep winning and not sit back and look at what I've done.

The great thing about winning -- not only each of the last six seasons but 13 times since 1991 -- is that each victory gave me more confidence. You learn so much each time you win a tournament. You learn how to win under different circumstances, and your confidence just soars. Confidence is a big part of this game, and when you have it, you feel great. When you lose a little confidence, it can be frustrating.

In a way, winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was a double victory. You won the tournament and you won the Bank of America "King of the Swing" title.

It was great to get both. You first have to take care of winning; the rewards come after that. But getting the bonus from Bank of America was neat. My wife Amy and I have enjoyed the extra money and the IBM ThinkPad.

But winning the tournament will always be a special memory for me. I know we had to go back late in the season to finish the tournament, and it wasn't the type situation any event would like to have to go through. But my hat is off to the tournament staff and the sponsor for not giving up and doing what they had to do.

Winning a tournament with so much history and with so many great champions is really cool. I would like to win it a couple more times and try to catch Mark O'Meara. But I don't know, he seems to own the place.

Do you change your mental approach when you play in a tournament that has a pro-am format?

The one thing I try to keep in mind when playing at Pebble Beach is that there are people playing with you who are just as nervous as you are on the first tee. I think trying to help them settle down helps me in a way. It's really fun, though. Seeing the amateurs enjoy themselves and working together as a team keeps you concentrating. As a professional, you don't want to let them down. So you concentrate pretty good on getting the ball in the hole and helping not only yourself in the standings but your team as well.