Phil: "I feel like the changes have been for the most part very positive"

Phil Mickelson on the eve of the Masters, now says he thinks the changes to Augusta National have been positive "for the most part."

Q. Are you in the camp that believes that the changes made in the golf course eliminated a Sunday charge or made it more difficult given extreme weather conditions?

PHIL MICKELSON: The weather the last two years has made the golf course play much more difficult than previous years. And it's very hard to mount a charge when it's cold and windy.
But I don't think that was due to the changes in the course. I think it was more due to the conditions that we were facing. Now, though, there are more options in case we get the same kind of weather, but the forecast is to be warm and sunny. In that case, the course will play, I don't want to say short, but it will play much shorter than we saw the last couple of years, and we will see some reasonably low scoring, I believe.

When I played here a couple of weeks ago when it was warm, 75 degrees, I was able to hit the same clubs into the par 4s and par 5s that I did back in the early 90s. So I feel like the changes have been for the most part very positive.

He's made comments contrary to that elsewhere, including in this George Willis piece about bringing back the roars. Maybe he's (understandably) gone into Norman Vincent Peale mode, or maybe that Augusta member sitting next to him can hit a button and have little electrodes zap the interviewee:

"After the changes a few years ago, we don't see the same type of excitement and birdies that we're used to seeing," said Phil Mickelson, who made five birdies on the final seven holes to shoot 31 on the back nine and defeat Ernie Els in 2004.