|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BANK OF AMERICA CHAMPIONSHIPJune 24, 2007Jay HaasCONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS THE MODERATOR: Jay, congratulations. Before we get started, just some notes on your win. It's your fourth win of the season. You're the only multiple-event winner. It is your 10th in 49 starts on the Champions Tour. Won consecutive events for the second time in your career. You've won over $20 million in career earnings today, and it's your 19th victory on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour. And you picked up 248 points in the Charles Schwab Cup race and opened up a commanding lead in that race. With that, maybe share your thoughts on your come from behind win today. JAY HAAS: Well, obviously I've been playing very well this year and came here with positive thoughts about a couple of weeks ago, winning that tournament in Des Moines and holding on to the lead there, having a big lead. I did it a little bit differently this week. As soon as I saw the golf course, I had good feelings about it. It just looked good to my eye, and I think -- I say that when I'm successful at a tournament, but I think that's so important for me, all the different tee shots that we have. There's a couple that I'm still not 100 percent sure about, and that kind of showed a few times, but overall, this is kind of the style of course I grew up playing, a couple little hills here and there, a tough set of greens, you have to be underneath the hole, you have to be cautious and everything going into the -- you can't be too aggressive, even though it's a fairly short golf course yardage-wise, it doesn't play that just because it's -- you just can't overpower the course. All that being said, again, I felt comfortable coming in here. I've been confident most of the year. But coming in here, would I say I would win this tournament, no. I was just hoping to get into position to have a chance, and it looked like I shot my way out of it the first day, Tom Watson shot 7 under, Tom Purtzer 6 under, and I'm 1 under, although I didn't feel like I had given it my best effort that first day. It was funny, I told somebody that I felt like I needed a couple of 66s, maybe. I don't know if it would do the trick or not, but it would certainly push the guys. Yesterday's round was one of the strangest rounds I've ever had. I made eight birdies and an eagle, made one par maybe the last nine holes. But that was a key round just to get me into position a little bit. I still thought that Tom Purtzer was going to be the champion. He's been playing so well, and having a three-shot lead, and it didn't seem to bother him coming out of the blocks. He made a couple birdies early there and it looked like we were all playing for second place, but I was still trying to put some heat on him. I hit some good shots early, but I made a bunch of mid-range putts this week, say in the 10, 12-foot range to 20-foot range, I made six or eight putts in that range. You have to do that to shoot 6 under par out here on 18 holes. I had a hole out of the bunker yesterday, that got me right there for a tie in second place. Throughout the week I can go through the round and think about shots that were key shots, but obviously the one at 17 today kind of sealed the deal for me. I would have paid somebody for a par there and not played the hole, but to make a 2 made the 18th hole that much easier, just keep it in bounds. Q. On the 17th tee you had it teed up and then you physically pulled the tee out of the ground. JAY HAAS: You're the third person that's asked me that now. I was just nervous. I was in my routine, and I was getting ready over it, and something didn't feel right, so I wanted to re-tee it and go through my whole routine again. I was in between clubs. I really wanted to hit an 8-iron. And Tom Jenkins right after me hit an 8 and it was plenty club for him. I was pumped up. When I'm nervous I don't like to hit a three-quarter shot, but I just felt like even if I went long in the back bunker, I could make a 4 from there. If I hit 8-iron and didn't flush it, it's in the water and now I'm tied for the lead. I just didn't want to give two back on that one hole. But it boils down to the fact I just didn't feel comfortable and it looked like it might have been teed up too high, and I didn't want any negative thoughts in my head so I started over again. I didn't hit it 100 percent like I wanted to, and that's why I took the 7-iron. I just mis-hit it a fraction. A solid three-quarter 7-iron was probably going to go to the back fringe, and it probably went four or five yards shorter than that. The cat is out of the bag. It looked like I knew what I was doing, but -- No, it was a good shot and I'm being critical of myself, I guess. Under the situation, I felt like I needed to shoot at the flag. I looked to the right of the green and it looked like there was some fluffy grass over there that didn't look too bad. I didn't want to hit a pull hook 8-iron 50 feet left of the hole and three putt. If I'm going to make a bogey, I want to be shooting at it and I got lucky. Q. Are you going to be on the same banner next year as Bob Colby? JAY HAAS: Yes. He's on with two other guys, so I don't know if they reprint those or not, but that would be pretty cool to be on the same one he's on. He was the very first winner here in 1981. Q. Not here? JAY HAAS: At Marlborough. I have to watch these. Q. When are you going to call him? JAY HAAS: I haven't called him. I will call him before I take off. Q. Do you think he watched? JAY HAAS: Yes. Q. Did you talk to him yesterday? JAY HAAS: I didn't talk to him yesterday. I talked to him actually maybe Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon I called him and I was teasing him. I said that they misspelled his name on the banner, or something like that. He appreciated the call and just to remind him that he did win here. He said that's not where we played. He said we played at Marlborough Country Club. Q. (No microphone.) JAY HAAS: It sure does, without question. In 1981 I was just getting started. That was my fourth year on the PGA Tour, fifth year on the PGA Tour. At that age, 50 was so far in the distance. I don't think I appreciated what it meant to him. I say that about the Masters, too, and I was only -- I guess I was 14 or 15 years old when he won the Masters. I couldn't appreciate what that meant to him at that time, so I don't know. I can appreciate what it meant for him to win in '81. I think we figured out that he was 51. He's at 78 now, 27 years ago, he was 51 when he won this tournament, so I never thought I would be that old. (Laughing). It's special, each time that I've had success out here in any golf, amateur career, college career, professional career, I always feel good for him, what he gave to me and his time he gave to me and all the support, everything. He's in my thoughts a lot. Q. Is it possible you're playing better than you ever have before? Would you like to go back and play the other tour? JAY HAAS: Last year I played seven PGA events and I made the cut in five. I played pretty well, but I didn't have a top 10, I don't think, even a top 20 in any of those tournaments. I didn't play great in that stretch or whatever. The first third of the year last year I didn't play all that well on the PGA Tour. And then I won the Legends Tournament in Savannah, and from then on I played well. But I played five out of my seven events prior to that and I really wasn't playing that well. I think I've come to the realization that I don't want to play PGA Tour golf anymore. I'm just having the time of my life out here. I think this is so much better than I ever thought it would be. And not because I'm winning. That's certainly a great thing for me, but the things that I think that the players miss when they don't play anymore is what we had here the other day when we had the rain delay on Friday afternoon. We were telling stories and laughing like little kids. I think that's what I miss the most when I'm not at a tournament. I miss not seeing my son Bill play. Who wouldn't want to see their children do well, do what they want to do and all that. I'll stop short saying it's the best I've ever played. I feel more comfortable for some reason in the lead or by the lead. I feel like I'm able to handle it a little bit better than I ever did before. But I don't know if I got into the lead at a PGA event if I would handle it the same way, but I don't think I'll find out. My goal is to play a U.S. Open, a PGA, a British Open, a PLAYERS Championship in the future by winning one of those Senior events to qualify me for it. That's my goal. I have three more chances to do that. Q. (No microphone). JAY HAAS: Actually, I played with my wife and a couple of my daughters. They don't really play golf. They just kind of want to start get in it a little bit. Actually, we had a little match. My son Bill was the captain of one team. He had two of my daughters -- actually, he had his girlfriend and one of my daughters, and I had one of my daughters and my wife on my team. We played a scramble at a par 3 course. We played there like three days of the week. We had a ball. Q. Who won? JAY HAAS: Bill and his partners. I lost. It's fun for me to see them wanting to get into it a little bit. And it is a game for families. You can go out and it won't be too much longer that I'll be playing out here anymore, but I don't think I'll quit playing golf, so it would be fun if the kids would want to go out and play. Q. Were you here last year? JAY HAAS: I was not. I was watching it. I don't know if it was Muirfield maybe. I was playing at a PGA event and I don't remember which one it was, but I remember seeing the fish swimming in the fairways and everything. I felt terrible for them. That was 18. Q. Is it just your schedule that prevented you from playing here? JAY HAAS: Yes, I don't know why, maybe it was opposite the Memorial Tournament, which I loved playing in, always did love playing in that. Bill got in that one. It seemed like the few that I wanted to play in, he was playing in. I think that's just it. I don't think I sat home a week while this tournament was going on. Q. The second shot into 7 (No microphone). JAY HAAS: That was one that I was kind of in between, and I thought 6 or 7. I had 172 yards maybe, but thought the wind had kind of switched, maybe at my back a little bit. I didn't think it was a huge 6. But at that stage, still early in the round, I felt like I needed to be aggressive. I made three birdies, but Tom had made a couple and so he was not backing down. And I felt like I needed to force the issue a bit. I thought a 7 would come up 20 feet short best, but I was proud of that shot. A little cut 6-iron and probably eight feet behind the hole. Tom Jenkins hit about 12, 14 feet behind the hole, kind of on the same line and left it short, and I putted and actually almost thought I left it short. I thought it would get there, but I could see it pulling up short, and it just fell in at the end. Q. The Senior Open on Long Island, talk about returning there after playing in '04? JAY HAAS: I enjoy playing Whistling Straits. I didn't know what to expect there, a Scottish look created on a flat piece of ground, from what I understood. But I really did enjoy it. And I thought that it was a great test. And I'm looking forward to it. I didn't play well for about three days, and then the last day kind of fell flat. The wind started kicking up a bit and it was a lot of course for me, then. So hopefully we won't play all the way back like we did then. I'm excited about it, and obviously playing well. Hopefully I'll get some rest this week prior to going down to Long Island, but I'm looking forward to that. Q. Do you empathize with Tom that he didn't have it today? JAY HAAS: It's hard to see with him back there. Like I said, I thought he was playing well. And I thought I was going to have to shoot 14, 15. When I got to 11 after No. 7 there, but my mindset was to keep on making birdies. Yes, Tom is one of my best friends out here. He and Curtis, I go to dinner with them all the time. I guess my best hope would be I was wanting to get into a playoff with Tom. I thought that would be pretty cool if we could do that, and if not, hopefully finish second. And I was surprised at 13, I looked up and I had made a nice par putt at 12. I hit a short second shot and putted up to six or seven feet short and I made that putt. And then hit a nice iron -- I guess that was 12, and then 13 hit a nice iron and two putted. I looked at the leaderboard and I was one ahead. I really thought I was one or two behind at that time. I felt like Tom was going to birdie 10. I thought he could reach that hole, and I thought he would get to 12. So I felt like I needed to stay aggressive. And so it was probably a good thing that I didn't know that he had had trouble there. But yes, after the fact -- you can't feel sorry for anybody out here while you're doing it, but after the fact, sure, I wish he would have had a better day. Q. Did you look at the leaderboard on 12 or 13? JAY HAAS: 13 green. There was a manual scoreboard right there, and I was just kind of surprised. I hadn't seen a board since 10, probably, and so I was a little surprised that I was ahead. Q. (No microphone). JAY HAAS: We did not. I stayed at a friend's house here and he was at the hotel somewhere, so we just never connected. Down in Kiawah Island, we rented a house down there and we had him over there. He was by himself that week. He's got five small kids at home, and I can empathize with that because that was us, we had five children and my wife didn't get to travel any. So I know he spends a lot of nights by himself, but I'm sure we'll do dinner next week. Actually he's not playing next week. Q. With four wins by this point, do you start readjusting your goals? You could have a monster year out here. JAY HAAS: I guess I don't try to put too many numbers on how many wins I want to have or anything like that. I wanted to win the Schwab Cup last year. That was a huge goal of mine. And I want to do it again this year. That's important out here. And to lead it for the season and all that, and the money list, I didn't get an opportunity to do that. I had an opportunity, I didn't take advantage of the opportunity on the PGA Tour. It's just fun to play well. I don't know that I want to say -- there are guys out here that have won eight or nine, maybe Peter Thomson, he won nine times, Hale Erwin, I can't imagine doing that. I guess I'd like to have a chance at the Senior Open and the Senior British Open, Senior Players. Those three I'm pointing toward right now. Those would be -- it would be great to play well in those three events and have a chance. Q. Jay, can we get real quick your birdies starting with No. 2? JAY HAAS: No. 2, I hit a 5-iron to about 20 feet, made that. 3, hit a 9-iron about 15 feet. 5, I hit a 3-wood up in front of the green just on the fringe and two putted from about 25 feet. 7, I hit a 6-iron to about eight feet. 14, sand wedge or gap wedge there to about 18 feet, made that. 17, a 7-iron to two feet. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|