Twice winner Phil Mickelson has high hopes for his Pebble Beach National Pro-Am title defence this week on California's picturesque Monterey Peninsula.

Despite not feeling totally comfortable with his putting, the US PGA champion has produced top-eight finishes in his first three PGA Tour starts of the year.

"I go to Pebble with a lot of confidence, although it's a tough tournament to play well at because there are a lot of
factors that you can't control," Mickelson said after tying for seventh at the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona on Sunday.

"You can't control how the ball bounces on the greens, you can't control some of the weather conditions and some of the pace-of-play issues and you just have to kind of accept it and hope you get some good breaks."

Although he finished last week's tournament in style with a five-under-par 66 that featured five birdies in the last six holes, Mickelson needs to improve the consistency of his putting.

"I made a couple of putts coming in but I didn't putt well," the American world number four said after ending up eight strokes behind Phoenix Open winner JB Holmes.

Three other members of the world's top eight are playing this week - second-ranked Vijay Singh who won the 2004 title, Jim Furyk (seven) and Chris DiMarco (eight).