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MCI HERITAGE

April 16, 2004

Jay Haas

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

LAURY LIVSEY: Jay, thanks for joining us today in the media center. Shot a second round 69 leaving you at 137. We looked and in '98 you shot 66, 66 here, and were in the lead and then didn't do so well on the weekend. How was it out there today?

JAY HAAS: I think we got a break, probably playing yesterday afternoon, and then this morning the wind really didn't bother us until the last couple of holes, and 18 was downwind. So that was I think it was a little bit easier for our segment. Yesterday morning was pretty difficult, I think. And by playing yesterday afternoon gave us a little advantage. It was a perfect morning, really. The course is in immaculate shape, as it has been the last few years here. I'm a little surprised that the scores aren't better, but I think the greens are firm. They're a little difficult to read. And our group, you didn't see a lot of putts made. I made a few. But you just see a lot of them burn the edges. So I think the greens are a little too subtle maybe for a lot of the guys, and a little more grain in them maybe this year. You would think after all the years I've been here I would figure them out. But I get fooled on many holes out there. I played about the same today, I guess. I drove it pretty good and hit a lot of good iron shots. I think I missed five greens yesterday, maybe missed six or seven today, but a lot of them were just off the edges. And you can do that here pretty easily.

It was a good day. I did a lot of good things. I had some chances. I made I guess all pars on the back nine. I had a couple of decent runs at it and just couldn't get that next birdie.

Q. Jay, we know the outcome in several years hasn't been that great. Do you love the tournament and can you explain

JAY HAAS: I love the golf course. I think it's one of our best that we play. You've got fairly wide fairways here with very little rough, and the greens are not outrageously quick, and they're fairly flat. And 4 under was leading the first day. To me that says a lot about the golf course. The fact that you have to hit it in certain places on the fairway. You can take, for example, No. 12 today. I was a little in the right center of the fairway, had to cut an 8 iron around the tree. Normally you have a clear shot at the green. But I just attribute it to this great golf course. That appeals to me so much. If this was a course that I didn't care for, I don't think I would have played here every single year. But I love it. I think you have to play extremely well to do well, and that's why I keep coming back.

Q. Following that up, can you explain the difficulties you've had here as far as not

JAY HAAS: You want to talk about the negatives, is that right?

Q. Not really talking about the negatives.

JAY HAAS: I never won here. I had a chance when Fuzzy won. I had about a 5 footer. If he hadn't made it, I had a 5 footer to tie, and that's as close as I've come. I don't know why. There are some courses that I love going to. Pebble Beach, I love playing that golf course and everything, had no success at all. And I haven't been in the last three or four years. But this place, I don't know why I haven't done any better. I would think that this type of golf course would suit me. It's not a real long golf course. I just haven't gotten the job done here.

Q. You've had a lot of success here in the last couple of years. Do you feel better about your chances this year than maybe before?

JAY HAAS: Yeah, I've been playing very well. And I was playing pretty good coming into this tournament last year and the last couple of years, and just didn't get the job done real good. I feel confident out there. I feel like I'm going to hit a good shot. I didn't putt great last week, but my putting is coming around. There's not many holes I come out and stand up and I don't like this drive or don't like this iron shot, I just I guess the way I feel inside I feel like I should have Davis's record here. I feel like that's how good I feel when I come down here. But I just haven't done it. I feel yeah, I feel any week I'm playing I feel I can do it. But it would mean a lot to me here to play well enough to have a chance on Sunday.

Q. This course has changed somewhat over the years, the trees have been grown in and then they've cut them back out. Your game, like everybody's has changed over the years. Do you see a convergence, kind of the way the course has changed and the way your game was 15 years ago? Is there something that's bringing them together today?

JAY HAAS: I'd like to think so, but I don't know. It's funny, most of the time the trees get bigger and grow over more. Here they were already that way and by trimming them back it looks more open to me. I was telling Justin Rose that the first hole you had to hit probably the best drive of the day to hit it in the fairway years ago, because it was so narrow coming out of the chute. And if you didn't get way on the ride side of the fairway, you couldn't fit it in there. In a way it looks more open, maybe it looks easier. I hate to say that, but the scores don't indicate that. But I don't know if there's any correlation there. I just feel like I'm playing pretty well now, and hopefully it will be a good mix.

Q. One of the first things you said is the fairways are fairly wide here. I imagine half to three quarters of the field will say what is he talking about?

JAY HAAS: I guess there's a little bit of different rough cut this year, they actually have rough, but it's only an inch and a half long. But to me I guess I'm looking at the tree. If I'm inside the tree line I feel like I'm in play here. And maybe that's what I mean. And with those No. 8 they've cut a big limb out there, where you don't have to cut it if you're in the right side of the fairway. Almost every hole they've done some pruning to open things up to give us more grass. So therefore it does look more open.

Q. You've seen it tougher than this?

JAY HAAS: Well, seems like it is.

Q. Visually tougher?

JAY HAAS: Visually tougher, tighter.

Q. Are you thinking about keeping Jay Junior on the bag maybe permanently?

JAY HAAS: Well, we've had good luck together. I think we've only missed a cut one time when he's caddied for me. We have a ball out there. To think that I think this was his first tournament when he was about three weeks old, to think that he's out here carrying my bag is pretty special.

Q. And how often has he caddied for you?

JAY HAAS: This is maybe a dozen times, maybe more. He's 23 now, I think when was the PGA Medinah, '99? I finished third there with him caddying for me. So that was one of his first, I guess. What was he, 17, 18? That was probably one of my more special tournaments. But it's always a great time when he was out there. I know he's rooting for me, and he agrees with everything I say. So he's an easy caddy for me to have.

Q. Do you want to go through the card?

JAY HAAS: Birdied 2, hit a 4 iron left of the green, and pitched to about seven feet, made a putt for birdie.

6, I missed the green with an 8 iron to the right, and hit a poor chip and missed that.

8, I made a probably 40 feet I was off the green maybe 15 feet, and had another 25 feet of green and made that, just trying to lag it up there and went right in the hole.

And then 9, I hit a pitching wedge to about eight feet and made that.

Q. How many good chances on the back did you have?

JAY HAAS: 10 I had a pretty good opportunity, maybe 18 feet, but it was dead pin high, pretty easy looking putt.

15, I had it about 12 feet.

16, about the same.

17 and 18, reasonable distances, but not one that you'd expect to make. I think anytime you get a 25 or 30 footer here, there's not a lot of break to it, the speed, like I said, is not out of control, so you kind of feel like you can run at it, at least I do, so you feel like you have an opportunity.

Q. Even though you're tie for second and played a great round, do you feel like you left a lot of shots out there, especially on the backside?

JAY HAAS: Maybe not a lot of shots, but I feel like I missed about a six foot putt at No. 5 for birdie. No. 6 was a pretty easy shot from the fairway and missed the green. 7 I lipped out from about 15 feet. So I had a few chances. But I'm certainly not saying that I putted poorly. Especially making one from off the green. That was a good putt. But I'm rolling the ball pretty well. And I'm confident if I keep doing that and keep getting chances that I've played kind of in streaks this week. Yesterday birdieing 4, 5, 6 and 8 and then today with the 8 and 9 birdie there. So it doesn't take much here to kind of jump over some people and get there.

Q. Is all the family here this week?

JAY HAAS: Just my son. Bill is playing in the A Clark County Tournament, my wife is up there. And my other kids are in school.

Q. That's a change.

JAY HAAS: It is. At times this has been spring break for the kids, and they've been in public schools. Half a dozen times we've all been down here, and Easter Sunday has been here before, I think. So this has been a pretty kind of a paid vacation.

Q. Probably seems fairly obvious, but can you talk about what it would mean to win this tournament?

JAY HAAS: Probably besides the Majors, it would be the next in line to win this tournament. Being here 28 straight years and like I said, I met my wife here. We were dating the next year, engaged the next year, married the next year, a couple of years later there was Jay, and then Bill, I don't know, we should have taken a picture standing under a big oak tree or something and had an album by now and watched everything grow, to have that foresight. But, again, I think this is one of the top courses in the world. And to win on a golf course like this would mean a lot to me. But just with my personal history here would mean that much more.

Q. Are you trying to is your goal making the Ryder Cup team, is that why you're still playing most of these events instead of the seniors?

JAY HAAS: That's probably my major goal this year is to continue to play well enough to have a chance to do that. But I don't know, I guess I'm almost afraid to go there, to feel like I won't come back. And I still want to do this. I feel like I can still do that and proving that to myself over the last 18 months. I don't know, it's so much fun for me, this has probably been one of the more gratifying stretches of my career, the way I've played. I won't say I'm playing as well as I've ever played. I'm playing very consistently, but I've played consistently in the '80s and '90s in certain times in my career. So I can't say this is the best. But it's and I don't really want to say at 50 it's gratifying either, because I don't feel that much different than I did last year or the year before or the year before that. And someone said do you want to be the first 50 year old, the oldest man to qualify for the Ryder Cup? No, I just want to qualify for the Ryder Cup. I'm not really thinking I'm 50 and that would be really something. At 30 I think it's really something to qualify. And I don't really want to dwell on that so much, but that's when I'm getting tired or I don't want to go to the range or spend an hour on the putting green or something, that will be my incentive to go out and do that. And there seems to be a correlation between practicing hard and playing good.

Q. Could you elaborate on your putting changes in the last year or two?

JAY HAAS: About it was almost three years ago now that I made some changes with Stan Utley who played out here for quite a few years and whose playing on the Nationwide Tour now. Basically I went from being a square to the line, square to square type putter to kind of an open and closing type putter, in the simplest terms. And it kind of revitalized my game, I think. I won't say I didn't putt well before, but five years ago I was in kind of a funk with my putting. And what I noticed, I think what made me want to change or kind of give myself to Stan and say, hey, see what you can do here, fix me, was watching the Champions Tour on TV. And I noticed that the guys who were winning those tournaments, they weren't all hitting it this close or chipping it up or chipping it stiff, they were still making the putts, the hole was still the same size on the Champions Tour, the regular Tour, you still have to make the putts. I felt like if I wanted to be successful ten years down the road I was going to have to learn to make putts, to putt better than I did. So I was kind of at rock bottom and Stan just made some changes. It felt like I feel like I'm opening it wide open and shutting it coming through. Now I watch it on TV and it doesn't really look that way. But it's really kind of it's changed my outlook on putting. I've putted much better, just the stats prove that. I've made more putts. My scoring average has gone down. I looked in 1982 or 3 '82, maybe I finished the top 10 in greens in regulation and driving accuracy. And I was a hundred something in putting at over a shot and a half different last year on the greens than I was 20 years ago. And our mindset out here is at 50 you're not supposed to be able to putt good. And Stan says age should have nothing to do with it if you've got a good stroke. But that was kind of a long winded answer to your question. But that's kind of what I've done. His theory is the putter stays square for the arc, it doesn't stay square to the line, it stays square to the arc. If your putter is at an angle, none of us putts straight up and down, if it's at an angle that club swings on an arc. And he doesn't think it's a revelation, it's what he's done all of his life. But it was to me.

End of FastScripts.

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