CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 28, 2005

Jay Haas

Dave Senko: Maybe just get us started, talk a little bit about your day. You had 70 yesterday and 3 under today. You're now a shot back.

JAY HAAS: I probably played a little better yesterday, and I'm learning the course a little better as we go. I wasn't perfect today by any means, but when I missed some shots I was able to get up and down, made a couple nice saves during the round and never went too far off line. I kept it in play most of the day, a couple bad iron shots here and there, but overall I'm pretty comfortable at 3 under par.

It was a little tougher out there. I guess the wind switched a little. It's cooler, the ball is not going as far, and for somebody like myself who's only seen it a few times, when the wind switches each hole is a little different, a little longer, things like that, so I'm just learning it as I go. Nobody seems to be getting too far away.

I like my position, would like to be 12 under, but I like where I am.

Q. Birdies, start at No. 1.

JAY HAAS: : 1, I hit a wedge to about ten feet.

And bogeyed No. 7. I missed the green there, bunker shot out to about six feet and missed the putt.

Birdied 10, hit a 7 iron to four feet.

11, hit a sand wedge to about ten feet.

13, just short of the green in two, pitched it by, not a very good pitch, maybe 18 feet by, made that.

And then I had a couple nice saves at 15 and 16. I made about an eight footer at 15 and about a 10 footer at 16 for pars.

Q. Between the two tours, standing around waiting for the next shot, are you ever thinking you should be on the other Tour?

JAY HAAS: Yes, yes, yes. I think more when I play PGA TOUR golf and not playing well, I think I need to be playing Champions Tour golf, and then when I play well over here, I think, well, maybe I can still do it over there.

And this week obviously when I have any kind of down moment I think about Bill and what he's doing, and hopefully he's playing well. He's a good player. I think if he can get his card and get out on Tour that he will do well. He's kind of the prototypical player of today; the young player of today hits it long. That cures a lot of ills.

On a day like today, he'd be 30, 35 yards longer. He carries it a long way. That can make up for a lot of faults and bad shots. When you're that long, you know, you look at Vijay and Tiger and Retief, all these guys, Phil, hitting it up there, Sergio, when you're that long, your par is 68 or 69. You can reach par 5s in two, so if you're off line here and there, it's not that big a deal. You can make up for it.

There are some courses where it's not as important, but you can give me that extra 30 any time.

Q. How do you do out here?

JAY HAAS: You know, I'm middle of the pack here. I'm 30th, 35th, I don't know exactly. I'm not the longest by any means. Somebody told me a couple weeks ago I told them I was 180th in driving distance on the PGA TOUR, and they said, well, by signing up this week, you've just picked up 100 spots at least (laughter), and that's the truth.

Q. How did you find out how Bill was doing? Is someone calling you or are you checking

JAY HAAS: No, just when I finished there, my caddie said he shot 1 under. I didn't get any updates during the round today. My wife yesterday left three messages for me that I got after I finished, and so I should have gone to the last message because that was how I ended up.

I knew that he was 1 under through 7, and that was before I teed off, so I knew he was finished and I was hoping with someone would come with a big smile and tell me that he shot something good today.

I think when he and I and Jay, Jr., have played, I told them a long time ago I hope they beat me every single time we play, by a lot, but I would never, ever lay down for them. I don't think that's the way to build confidence is to say, "oh, I beat dad, but he shot 75." No, that would be an unbelievable scenario, just the fact of him getting on Tour, us playing together in a tournament, you know, in the same field is one thing, but playing in the same foursome, threesome or twosome would be incredible.

Q. Do you like playing a traditional course where it's not a birdie fest?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, you can never tell. They could put some tough pin placements out there, cup placements, hole locations not a pin placement, right? Yeah, right. But the greens are very quick. It kind of depends on the wind. I think if the wind picks up a little bit on the weekend, then I don't think you'll see really, really low scores. You might see I saw Tom Kite was 6 under and doubled the last hole. Guys who are 4 , 5 , 6 under is not out of the question, but the leaders doing that, I don't know. I think 10 or less will probably be the winning score.

Q. Do you think you are too nice to be a great golfer?

JAY HAAS: My Uncle Bob used to tell me that you need to get meaner and you've got to have a little more in you. I'm just myself. I don't agree I don't think I am. I mean, on the golf course, what I'm thinking inside you probably wouldn't want to know. That would probably blow my image (laughing). I am what I am and I can't change that. I can't all of a sudden get mean or be a jerk out there. I don't think that would help me in any way, shape or form. No, I think that I probably didn't have as much self confidence as I needed in certain situations to believe that I could do this.

I guess maybe I look at some of the other guys I look at Tom Watson, and I played with him in his prime when he'd go to the golf course, and it always looked like his name was painted on the leaderboard. He didn't have to put it up, it just came with it on there. He just showed up and was 4 under every day. I watched him play and he was long and aggressive and holed putts. You know, you go down the list of all the great players, and it's seeming like I lacked a little bit of what they had maybe here and there. I won tournaments and I felt I could compete with them, but probably didn't feel like coming down the stretch I needed more confidence maybe.

Q. Did it ever maybe cost you winning a major?

JAY HAAS: I don't know, I guess I always thought I was a pretty good driver of the ball, but I think as I got longer and the equipment got better and everything, I think that I was more an erratic driver and I was never in Mike Reid or Calvin Peete where I just hit every fairway, Fred Funk. I wasn't strong enough to muscle it out of rough and things like that. I didn't play well at the right times. I had a chance to win Augusta at one time and I didn't do that. I always thought the U.S. Open was my ticket, and I never did well as an amateur, made cuts, low amateur, things like that, so I thought a natural profession would be to do well there as a professional, but I never really had a great opportunity to win there.

Q. There's obviously so much on the line for Bill this week. Will you talk to him?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, we talked last night. You know, I'm just trying to keep it light. He obviously knows I don't have to tell him what it means. I think it was the same thing last year at the Tour school. I just keep him pumped up and say great playing. He was 2 under after 4 yesterday, so to come back and shoot 2 under yesterday, I just told him, "great going, atta way." It's a tough golf course. I think it's right you up his alley I text him on the phone I have an understanding my 13 year old has shown me how to do that. It's just, "way to go. Keep it up."

He's played exemptions and Nationwide this year.

Q. (Inaudible).

JAY HAAS: Yeah, you know, I guess I don't know what old style, new style is. I think new golf courses try to look like an old golf course, they just don't have 50 years under their belt. But I think everyone loves this golf course. It's in wonderful condition.

I think the greens being they're 11 or 12 on the stimp meter. I mean, they are really quick. With very little effort they can be as fast as we've had all year, PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, no matter what. I mean, they are perfect. I think everyone enjoys that.

I don't know I guess you don't think so much about, wow, I wish we were playing a different golf course or I love this golf course, hate this golf course. It is what it is when you get there, and I just deal with it. But I enjoy it. I think most of the guys do enjoy it. It's just you know, with golf today, you have to go where they want you, not necessarily you think about, well, why don't we play Winged Foot every year. Well, Winged Foot doesn't want a golf tournament every single year. Seminole doesn't want an event at their golf course every year. You know, you go to places where so and so wants to put up X million dollars to show off his real estate, and it's like, "hey, sign us up." Somebody is going to win and somebody is going to be real happy with it.

End of FastScripts.