U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 17, 2004

Jay Haas

RAND JERRIS: It's a pleasure you're to be joined by Jay Haas, five birdies, one bogey, 4-under par round, ties for your lowest round in the U.S. Open. Must be a good day out there for you today.

JAY HAAS: It was really pretty fortunate with the weather this morning. The fog kept the greens with a little moisture in them until maybe the last 6 or 8 holes, and then I guess they started to firm up a little bit. But it was a day you had to get it, sort of.

Raymond said he'd never seen it play with as little wind as we had today. He said even when there's no wind, the flag is still doing like this in the clubhouse. If you shoot it even par or over par, you're out of it, but it helps to have played well today. I made some birdies, made some putts. I felt like if I could do that, if I kept the ball in play, kept it around the fairways, it was -- I don't know, it was just the kind of day that you had to feel you could be aggressive at a U.S. Open.

RAND JERRIS: Could you walk us through the birdies and bogeys on your card?

JAY HAAS: I birdied 1, hit a 3-wood in the left short rough, hit a sand wedge and hit it to 3 feet. Made that putt.

2, I hit a 5-iron that I hit a good shot, I lost it in the fog, and kicked left and went in the greenside bunker and hit that out to about 15 feet and missed that putt.

4 I hit an 8-iron to about 5 feet, made that.

5 I hit it in the greenside bunker, hit sand wedge by maybe 18 feet and made that putt.

11, I hit a 9-iron to 12 feet, made that.

17, I hit an 8-iron to about 40 feet and made that putt.

That one and the one at 5 were going pretty firm, they went right in the middle, but they were going to go by a little bit. So that was -- I felt like I stole a couple there.

But I hit a lot of good shots. I had a lot of good opportunities. I was looking on the card, I didn't hit all that many fairways, but I hit probably four, and just the short cut, and it really -- the short cut is almost as short as it was 20 years ago I think in the fairway. So I felt like I could still be pretty aggressive out of those lies.

Q. Did you have any par saves today?

JAY HAAS: I had a par save on 7. I hit it in the left bunker, it hit the green and went down in the left bunker and hit that out to about six feet, made that.

10 was probably my best par save of the day. I hit it just in the right short rough and hit an 8-iron short and right of the bunker, and the pin was right there. And there was a pretty good-sized rock right in front of my ball. I could see that, it wasn't going to affect the shot, I didn't think. But I lobbed this thing up, it went straight in the air, the ball was going one way and the rock the other, the ball was about 20 feet, the rock was 8 feet from the hole.

Tom Kite picked it up, and said it this your Titleist 1? Do you want to play this one? And I said I'd like to play that one. I made that putt, about 18 feet. I made a par save there. That kind of kept my round going.

I birdied the next one from 12 feet. That was a nice little key right there.

Q. On 16 and that chip, was it just trying to get greedy?

JAY HAAS: Not really. There on 16 I had kind of a funny lie. It was a -- I played a little bit to the right. I felt like if I came up short -- I felt like it was easy to come up short there, but I didn't want to get too cute going to the left. I felt like if it got up short on the green and rolled back down, it could go in the bunker, and it didn't come out of that lie.

I was really kind of surprised there. I felt like the best I could have done was 10 or 12 feet. I probably should have just blown it by 20 feet and tried an opportunity from there. But, no, I just -- it just didn't come out a lot. I thought it would come out better.

Q. Raymond mentioned after the round how great you putted. Tiger mentioned you were putting that way for a year. How much better a putter are you now and why?

JAY HAAS: Well, it's hard to put a number on it, but I feel confident with my putting. I have for the last couple of years, two and a half years or so.

I don't think it's any secret that I worked with Stan Utley. He gave me a different approach to putting, say, a different theory on my putting. And one theory, not 50 that I used to have, I guess. And I used to try something the first few holes, and if I didn't make a couple, I tried something else. And under pressure I didn't really know what to stick with.

So today or any day that I putt well, I feel like I have one idea, one theory in my putting and I stick with that, whether I make them or I don't. I putted really nicely today. I made probably two or three putts that you can't say I'm going to make those every day by any means. The one on 17, 40 feet, at least. But I made a nice -- I had a lot of opportunities, too.

But to shoot 4-under anywhere, but especially in a U.S. Open, you've got to make a few.

Q. What holes do you think are playing most difficult, and which ones do you think you can take advantage and try to get a good score on?

JAY HAAS: The most difficult hole is probably No. 7, I think the par-3 there, even though the green, I think, is a little softer; I think they've softened it up some from early in the week, just to give us a chance. But I still think that's one of the hardest holes on the golf course. And I think No. 10 is just unbelievably difficult. I think it's a tough drive. If you can suck it up and take it over the top and go in the flat down there and have 80 yards, that's great.

But it's still not an easy shot from down there. On top of the hill you've got knobby fairways. And then the green, you have to be exact with your second shot yardage. Overall today it was pretty easy because there wasn't much wind. I think through the course of the week, I think you'll see No. 10 being the most difficult.

Q. Tiger said you were hitting the ball longer and putting better than you had in your prime. For most golfers if you were doing those two things, wouldn't that make it your prime and might not this be your prime?

JAY HAAS: That's a good point. People asked me if this is the best I've played. And I can't say it is, because in the early '80s I went a couple of years where I won two tournaments, and when I won a tournament in the '80s there, I won't say I was really good, but I won tournaments. And I have not done that in the last -- '93 is my last win. I can't say that it's the best I've ever played.

I'm hitting the ball longer than I ever have. I feel more confident with my putting, my chipping, my short game is better because of my putting, I believe. But until I win, I won't say it's the best I've played. I think it's probably equal to the most consistent stretch I've ever had.

In '95 when I last made the Ryder Cup team, I played well most of that year, I made a lot of points, got a lot of top-10s. In '81 and '82 I was top-10 in greens in regulations, top-10 in driving accuracy. So I think maybe I was maybe a better player then.

But I think the equipment has allowed me to stretch my career a little bit, my renewed passion for the game. I think in 2000 I was 148th or something like that on the Money List, and I just didn't want that to be it. I worked a little harder, I think. And along with better equipment, I think I'm doing some things that I wouldn't have thought, say, four years ago. But I don't think it's an upset, I guess.

Q. How well are you driving the ball relative to Raymond and Tom? You're talking about driving being the key element to your game.

JAY HAAS: Compared to Tom and Raymond? I was dropping a big package on them (laughter). I'm maybe a little bit longer than Tom, maybe a little bit longer than Raymond. I hit a really, really good one at 16 and Raymond was only about 6 steps behind me there; he hit a really nice one. I hit my 3-wood today quite a few times, and it's really a hot 3-wood, and I've probably got them -- when they were hitting 3-woods, mine is longer than theirs, but driving-wise, I'm a little longer, but not anything to -- can't build a Wal-Mart between them.

Q. Are you consistently longer all the way through your bag? The second thing is when you get to a course like this that isn't really long, does that make you more competitive with the big ones?

JAY HAAS: I'm consistently longer, yes, from driver down to my pitching wedge. I think the driver, because it's a graphite shafted 45-inch titanium head Titleist driver, and it just seems to go much farther than the old wood-and-steel Tommy Armour. Iron-wise, I think the ball allows us to hit much longer shots than we used to do. We used to hit them -- than we used to hit them 15, 20 years ago. Through the bag I'm longer.

I hit an 8-iron into 17 today, the par-3. 6-iron, 5-iron, maybe ten years ago, nine years ago. I think I'm quite a bit longer.

The second part was -- oh, the course. Yes, I think the course -- I hit maybe -- I hit driver at 4, 5, 8 and 16 and 18. So what's that, five drivers? So for me to only hit five, you think about Tiger, he might only hit two or three, I don't even know if he did. So, yeah, I think that -- it allows everyone in the field, I think -- you look at the two winners, Corey and Raymond, wonderful shot makers and wonderful short games, and I think that -- not that I put myself in that category, but I think it allows most everyone here, length-wise, to be in the hunt.

Q. Why does technology and experience seem to favor you guys? What would you have shot today if you used the '86 clubs?

JAY HAAS: That's a hard question to answer there. You know, hopefully it wouldn't be too much different just because I played so well. And the course is playing so fast right now. The balls are rolling like crazy. Even then I might have hit more than five drivers, but maybe not that many more. And I'm sorry, the first part of your question was?

Q. The technology and the experience.

JAY HAAS: I think it helps us everywhere, I don't think just here. I think experience maybe helps in a U.S. Open and a course like this, where you get quirky bounces here and there, but I don't know technology any more so here than any other course.

Q. This has gotten slightly less hypothetical; if you were to lock up a Ryder Cup spot here, would that change your summer schedule? Would you play some Champions Tour events or would that whet your appetite to stay on this?

JAY HAAS: It wouldn't change all that much. Hopefully that would be the case. Hopefully my next two majors I can get a bunch of points and be in there and relax a little bit and not think so much about it. But I don't think -- I think the more I play on the regular Tour, the more I want to play on the regular Tour. I don't think I would say now I don't have to focus so much I'll go play there. I enjoyed the heck out of the PGA seniors, and I'm sure in the future I'll enjoy all the senior events. But right now I feel I want to do this, and the better I play here the more I want to play here.

Q. In your early teens you watched your uncle win The Masters, so obviously you have a sense of what a major championship victory can do for a golfer. It's been 36 years since he won that, what's your feeling about winning a major championship when you put that in the back of your mind?

JAY HAAS: When Bob won in '68 I was only 14 years old, I guess, so I didn't really appreciate what it meant to him and how difficult it is, and now how many years later I realize it's a pretty special feat for anyone to win a major golf tournament. You only get four chances a year, you might not be playing terrific those times, so cut those in half. So it's terrific to do that. And I guess as my career has gone on, we've talked about that and he's been my biggest fan, pumping me up, telling me I can do this. It would mean -- I can't tell you what it would mean for me to do something like that. But I guess I've never been one to dwell on that, I'm disappointed it didn't happen or hasn't happened. But I guess I feel -- I'm more of a glass half full. I feel like it's been a pretty successful career. And who knows what's going to happen in the next ten years.

Q. Could you elaborate on the changes in the putting theory? You sort of mentioned it, but could you sort of put it so a layman might understand it?

JAY HAAS: Stan's theory is basically that the putter should travel on an arc, and the putter head should stay square to the arc, not square to the line. If it's traveling on a, arc, it comes slightly to the inside and slightly back through to the inside, but staying, again, like a door opening and closing. He changed my grip a little bit. I feel like now I release the putter a little bit more, and just like a golf shot. And I guess he says he feels like it's not really a revelation, this is the golf swing. It goes on an arc and the club stays square to the arc and all that. To him putting is just a small golf shot. It doesn't matter if it's chipping, pitching, bump-and-run, putting, driver, it's the same. It should be on that arc. So that's his theory. I've embraced that, just because it's helped me immensely. It's made me a better putter, and I'm not foolproof by any means, but I feel like I'm much better than I was in the early parts of my career and in the middle and latter parts of my career until the last three years. I think if I putted the last three years in my first 20 years, I think I would have won more tournaments.

RAND JERRIS: Jay, thanks for your time.

End of FastScripts.