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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 29, 2005

Jay Haas

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

DAVE SENKO: Just a couple of things I want to pass along. His 63 tied the tournament record today. His 6 shot lead ties the tournament record for the greatest or largest 54 hole margin, and it's the largest 54 hole margin in the Champions Tour since '98.

It was the 16th straight subpar round Champions Tour. With that, Jay, just get us started

JAY HAAS: Like I said, I'd love to go right back out there now. It was one of those days that things felt right from the start. I drove the ball well. My irons were good. I really only missed one putt that I would consider makable, a 10 or 12 footer on the 8th hole for birdie.

Other than that, when I had a chance, I seemed to make it. I probably made 2 or 3 others that were surprising, I guess, you might say, but I just was sharp all day. I didn't miss many greens. I got off to a great start, birdied 2 through 5 and got on top of it right away and felt comfortable, relaxed, everything.

My putting was good, my pace was good on my long putts and my lag putts. I never really got into too much trouble today. It was just a beautiful day, just like the weather out there.

DAVE SENKO: Maybe go through your birdies real quick, that stretch 2 through 5.

JAY HAAS: 2, I hit sand wedge to about 12 feet.

3, an 8 iron to maybe 25 feet, made that.

4, I hit a 5 iron probably one of the best shots of the day there. It was kind of between a 4 and a 5 iron shot and I was trying to rip something up there and it landed short and ran to about 10 feet, I guess, made that.

The next hole, I hit 4 iron to about six feet, and probably one of the best putts of the day. It was straight downhill, really fast, and made this one right in the middle.

And then missed the green at 9, hit a beautiful drive and sand wedge just short and right there, a tight little pin right there and I was trying to get too close, but I pitched it close and made par.

10, I hit 8 iron out of the right rough to about 15 feet, made that.

11, I hit sand wedge from the left rough to 20 feet, made that.

2 putted from the fringe at 13, made about a 5 foot second putt.

16, I chipped to about 6 or 7 feet there.

And then 17, I hit a wedge to about 15 feet. A lot of mid range putts, 6 to 20 feet, things you have to do to shoot a low score. I felt I was going to make them. It was one of those days where the hole looked big, I guess, a shooter in basketball or something.

Q. Did you think that as well as you were playing, there had to have been three or four guys who were doing the same thing?

JAY HAAS: I think when a guy does that, I think we all think that same thing, that the course is right in front of you. And the hole looks big, and you think everybody else must be doing the same thing. So I had to keep ongoing.

I never felt like I should play conservatively. I fired t at the pins when I could. I felt like there was still obviously a long way to go and if I can shoot this round today someone could tomorrow. There are so many guys right there, five guys at 8 under par. The chances of one of those guys getting hot, or two of them, are pretty good, when you look at those names. I didn't feel like, you know, ever sitting on my lead, so to speak.

Q. Lonnie Nielsen said it felt like a clinic out there today. Did you feel that way?

JAY HAAS: I hit it in the fairway, I knocked it on the green, I made some putts. It was just the way you dream about it, I guess. I didn't hit them unbelievably close, but I was right there, had a lot of chances, and converted. But I won't ever say anything like that.

Lonnie was great to play with. I made the putt at 17 and we were walking to the 18th tee and he said, "How much fun are you having today?" I said, "Let's just go play this afternoon, finish this fourth round off."

Q. I don't know what hole it was but he said your biggest struggle was you had a 3 footer for par on one hole?

JAY HAAS: I was pretty sharp. I didn't have many real tough putts for I guess No. 12, I knocked it on the green there and left it about a 40 foot putt about four feet short and made that one. That was kind of my only real chance it looked like I was going to make bogey.

Q. On 17, were you thinking that was a chance to really put some real comfortable distance between you and

JAY HAAS: I wasn't totally sure on the line there. And I had been seeing the line real well all day. And I called Tommy over to get his input. I hadn't really called him over much. That's a good sign of being comfortable on the greens. I wasn't too sure it was outside the hole. I just wanted to hear his opinion. I kind of thought it was like a ball outside. I just wanted to hear his opinion. He agreed with me, so that kind of you know, and I was just trying to calm down, because I was so excited about the way I was playing and hitting the ball and trying to take one shot at a time trying to slow everything down there. It did what I thought it was going to do.

Q. How significant or how much did it reduce the anxiety to not be up two or three, but up five or six?

JAY HAAS: I did a good job of staying in the moment and thinking about the shot I had coming up. I didn't get ahead of myself today.

Q. (Inaudible)

JAY HAAS: Well, that certainly helps. Like I said out there, I was trying to get as many as I could, and when I realized I had the lead, certainly 1 or 2 or 3 is not safe, 6 is not safe, but 1 or 2 or 3 that I don't have to get tomorrow. I plan on playing the same way I've been playing the last few weeks. I've been playing very well, putting the ball in the fairway and on the greens and I've putted very well. I've been consistent with my putter. I love the greens. I just love the speed of them.

I've put the ball in the correct places on holes, underneath the holes. I haven't had a lot of downhill putts. They look good to me right now.

Q. It would seem your temperament is good

JAY HAAS: I've blown leads before. I think we all have, probably. I think I feel anxiety before every round. I don't think I ever go out and feel so relaxed that I'm yawning or anything like that, and I shouldn't. I should feel pressure. If I don't, then something is wrong with me. I don't know. I haven't led by large margins very much in the past, so it's kind of a new experience, I suppose.

I've watched other guys do it, and I just have to go out and I'll have to play well. Like I say, there are a lot of guys out there, and they'll be posting their scores. I just can't give them any easy strokes to make up. I've got to make them work for it.

Q. (Inaudible)?

JAY HAAS: No. I think 5 one time, and I lost that one. That was at Disney World one time. I think I was up by 5. Hal Sutton beat me. I shot a good round. He just shot a real good low one. That was a long time ago. This is now. I won't be thinking about that. I know I did it for sure, but right now I'm thinking about that first tee shot tomorrow and hitting it over that tree in the fairway.

Q. Do you have a different mindset on this Tour than the PGA Tour?

JAY HAAS: You know, maybe a little bit of one. I know there is no cut out here. I think that definitely is a different mindset. I've played my entire career thinking about the first two rounds.

When I first came out, we had to Monday qualify and then you had to make cuts and then you had to finish high and win tournaments. You had steps to go through. Now you're on the Tour or you're not on the Tour. You still have to learn to makes cuts, but if you don't make the cut, you have next week. Back then if you missed the cut you had to go Monday qualify. I can't ever shake that emotion, I guess, of trying to make that cut on Friday afternoon and have a chance to grab some gold at the end of the week. I think that's a different mindset.

But I think when I play well out here that I'm one of the better players. I think that I would be in contention if I play well. If I don't play well, I will not be, and I've proven that on both counts this year.

When I've played well, I've won a couple. I missed the cut at the PGA Seniors and finished a bunch of 20ths and 23rds. Okay for the regular Tour, the PGA Tour, but I'm not beating anybody's brains out.

Q. Are you in the transition now of more and more finding yourself as someone who plays on this Tour than the other?

JAY HAAS: I really don't know what I'm going to do. I guess I'm feeling more and more comfortable out here. I can't think, you know, what if I would have played this way this week at Tampa, would I still be leading the tournament. I can't think of that, because I'm not there, I'm here. It is what it is. This is what I'm dealing with right now.

I think if I played well on the PGA Tour, that I could still contend. I can still do well. Can I win? No, I haven't in 12 years, so maybe I can't, but it's been a lot of fun trying the last few years.

But I really honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I guess if you had to have an answer before I left here, I would say I probably would play more Champions Tour next year, but it could depend on how Bill does tomorrow. If he gets on the Tour next year, I may play a few more with him, but I really can't answer right now.

Q. When you think about this and when you see yourself maybe on one Tour or another, if you were to play more Champions Tour as opposed to PGA, does it make you sad that you're saying good bye to a part of yourself?

JAY HAAS: Yes, in a way, it does, yes, because again, this is all I've ever known, or that is all I've ever known, the PGA Tour. I did it for 29 years. I won't say it's changing jobs, but I'm moving my office. I don't know, that familiarity is gone.

There are guys obviously out here that I've competed against for a long time, but it's just different. It's a different feel, and I have to decide that that's right for me. It has been for the last month.

Q. Are there a few events that might alter your schedule?

JAY HAAS: I don't know. Early in the year, the Champions Tour is maybe a little thinner. We don't have as many events early in the year, so I could maybe play a few with him. At the same time, if I played 22 events over here, I wouldn't want to play more than five or six PGA events. I don't want to play 35 events. I don't want to be away from home, away from my family, any more than I have to be.

We've done the father/son thing. We've played in tournaments. And as I said yesterday or the day before, he needs to fly on his own. He's learning, and sometimes you learn a lot more when you're doing it yourself than having somebody in your ear all the time.

I've been guarding against that, not trying to get into his game too much and his mental look and everything, but it's still a lot fun to watch him play and be there firsthand and go to dinner with him, things like that.

Q. Did you talk to him today?

JAY HAAS: No, I got the printout and I saw he made bogey at 17. That's a par 5 that's reachable for him. I don't know if he went for it. He's at the point now where one or two shots means a lot, and hopefully if he shoots under par tomorrow I think he'll be fine. If he doesn't, it's going to be tight. He knows that. He's probably feeling much more pressure than I am. I would just as soon finish 28th than him finish 1st.

Q. There was some comment that he putted with his wedge today. I don't know if that's a new technique or an issue out there?

JAY HAAS: I don't know about that. I watched him putt on No. 12, or something like that, and he was putting using his putter, so hopefully he didn't break his putter, because he's been putting pretty well. Maybe he was just on the fringe or something like that.

Q. Jay, a number of guys like yourself with PGA Tour careers are not big headline players all the time and then they come out here and are top dog. Is that something you would relish?

JAY HAAS: Not necessarily. I think if I really wanted that desperately that I probably would have played or attempted to do that last year and this year more and everything. I kind of have just gone with a feel of what I should do, when I should play and things like that. I haven't sat down and looked at the schedule and said, you know, this is where I should play. It's a sense of what I should do at that time.

But I think a part of that, going back to the guys you say that didn't have an unbelievable career. I think part of it is that those guys, I guess I'm included in that, we didn't ever get to the mountain. We never were No. 1, or a major winner or multiple major winners. There's still a lot of drive there by some of those guys to prove that we can still do it.

But then again you look at a guy like Tom Kite and Hale Irwin and Tom Watson, they were there and they're still there. It's just personalities can deal with that, getting to that mountain and then looking for another one. But I think that's helped me be hungry and come out here with not anything to prove, but just want to continue to do well.

I've got give kids and three more to put through college and all that stuff. I still need to cash a few checks.

Q. How do you decide which tournaments to play in and if you're going to play on this Tour or the other Tour?

JAY HAAS: Again, like I say, it's just a feel, a sense of how the schedule in the next few weeks will play out. I'm not going to play in Jackson next week, the last tournament of the year of the PGA Tour. This is my fifth tournament in a row. I played in Greensboro and I played the last four here on the Champions Tour.

Starting out next year, I may go to Hawaii. The Sony tournament I think is right before the MasterCard, and then Turtle Bay. I don't know. I haven't seen a schedule just yet. I would love to play the Bob Hope, but it might conflict with one of those.

Riviera has always been one of my favorite courses. Most of the time when I make my schedule, it's the golf course that brings me to that tournament, my past experiences there and just the feel of playing that golf course. Riviera has always given me a great thrill to play there.

Again, I'm not real certain yet. I need a couple of months to think about it, six weeks to look at that schedule, but we'll see.

Q. Based on how you've played in the past, how will that shape how you play tomorrow?

JAY HAAS: Certainly if I have a shot that's a testy shot where there is a potential double or triple if I don't pull it off, then I'll probably play safe and play for bogey and get a putt for par or something like that.

Like I said, you look at those guys behind me and they've got nothing to lose. They're firing away. Dana is probably the only guy who maybe is not thinking so much about winning but more about the championship, the season long points thing. But at the same time he's probably playing pretty well.

For me personally, I just go out and play the best I can at that particular time, that shot. But again, I'm thinking I'm going to have to shoot under par tomorrow to win this tournament. I don't think I can slop it around and expect to win.

Q. You played lift, clean and place today.

JAY HAAS: I was little surprised that we did that today. There was quite a few times that we picked up mud. That's not necessarily there's no casual water, and the mud on the ball is not necessarily why we play lift, clean and place. But we never obviously had a bad lie in the fairway, and I drove it in the fairway quite a bit. It just made it that much easier to hit good shots.

End of FastScripts.

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