WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 28, 2003

Jay Haas

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jay, congratulations on beating Nick Price, and making it to the quarter finals. May we could get a couple of comments about your round today. You ended on a great note, and a couple of comments about Nick Price. He's certainly a great competitor.

JAY HAAS: It was nice not to have to deal with the weather today so much. I played very well, except for about three drives, and it was fun being with Nick. We talked quite a bit until toward the end there and both of us were kind of gasping a little bit, leaking oil, and hitting a couple of questionable shots. It was back and forth all day. We both gave each other maybe two holes. We hit some good shots. It was kind of what I expected, I guess. I was very fortunate to come out on top. Nick, I don't think he played as well as he could play, obviously. He hit a couple of wayward drives. But it was just -- to end it like I did was just such a bonus, and to still be here is pretty amazing.

Q. Was there a little too much excitement on that round, especially when you hit the wires?

JAY HAAS: Well, yeah, that was the best drive I've hit in a month, too. And I hate -- not hate that driving hole, but it's not an easy drive. If you don't drive it in the fairway there you can't reach the green. A Creek on the left, and rough on the right. I pounded this thing. And I looked up and mine hit the wires and came back 30 yards across the creek, and his dropped in the creek. It was pretty unusual that both of us would do that. We hit good drives, and managed to get the next two in the fairway. But that was pretty unique there.

Q. What about the up-and-down nature of the match? He was up, you were up.

JAY HAAS: He went up early, then I tied it and then he went up and then I went up. I probably hit one of the best shots of the day on No. 12, a 5-iron from 190, went over the flag, and the wind swirled, and it carried 195 in the air up that hill. I've hit 5-iron there twice, and put it right in the middle of the green. So the same conditions, basically. I was real surprised it went over the green and made bogey there. But I made some real nice putts.

I 3-putted from the fringe at No. 14 and then 3-putted 15 from about 45, 50 feet, back-to-back there. So that was disappointing. But I hit some good putts doing it. So I was staying aggressive. Nick misclubbed or -- I think, at No. 16 he hit a 7-iron there. I guess he was trying to put it in the middle of the green and make birdie. He pushed it a little bit, went in the bunker, and didn't get a good bunker shot out of there.

He hit a great putt at No. 18. He hit a bad drive and a nice iron shot, to probably 14 feet or so. And I hit my two best shots of the day, hit it in the front bunker there, and hit a beautiful bunker shot to about two feet. He said, "If I make this, I'll give it to you." And I was -- it was a downhill -- it was straight in. He just poured his right in. I knew he would.

In match play, as I said yesterday, I always expect the guy is going to hole out or do something, even on the 20th hole there. I knew he was going to make the bunker shot after my tee shot. But the last man standing, I was fortunate -- I hit a 4-iron this morning there on No. 2, and hit a nice shot, almost pin-high, there was a little more wind this afternoon. I probably could have hit a 5-iron in the middle of the green, but I just felt like I was going to have to make a birdie to win the match. He wasn't going to mess up. And when I hit the shot it just felt like it was the right distance and everything, as you were watching it fly through the air. It almost went in. Somebody said it might have hit the pin, but it was six inches, basically. And he kiddingly said, "You had to hit it that close, or I wasn't going to give it to you." But then he didn't hit a very good iron, and didn't hole the bunker shot. I don't know, I feel great.

Q. What was the yardage there?

JAY HAAS: 219, straight downwind, probably playing just over 200 yards. I'm sure that some of the guys were hitting 5-irons.

Q. You went with 4?

JAY HAAS: I went with 4, yes. It's a tough pin, because the green starts to narrow, and the bunkers pinch in. To get it back there, there's not much width to the green. But straight downwind, you've kind of got to go with that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: What do you know about your opponent, Adam Scott?

JAY HAAS: I played with him at the U.S. Open. We played the first two rounds. He didn't have a very good tournament. And we played at maybe Westchester, and he was struggling with his swing at that time. But you could just tell, he was just this far off. A beautiful swinger. He's in the Butch Harmon camp, and I watched his swing on film. He's a classic Tiger Woods-type swinger: Good, young player. He's a year older than my oldest son.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: This is your 730th PGA TOUR event this week, but you haven't played match play since the '95 Ryder Cup.

JAY HAAS: That's right.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: What kind of adjustment was that and do you enjoy that?

JAY HAAS: I guess this has been a little different because it's not a team format. And I've just been going out there not thinking so much about what the other groups are doing, just trying to focus on what I'm doing, and trying to beat the guy I was playing. But it's -- I don't know. I guess I've taken a little bit different attitude, kind of a -- I'm the underdog and just let it rip and see what happens.

But there's been -- I guess I could say there's been less pressure on me, just because you would expect me to go out early, so -- but in this format, anybody -- 18 holes, quick match. If Nick and I played 50 times, he'd win 35 of them, probably. But I got him today. I was lucky.

Q. Jay, how does your game compare today with 15, 20 years ago?

JAY HAAS: Well, I hit the ball longer. Everyone hits the ball a little longer. Early '80s when they first started doing the stats I was 263, the first year they did the stats, and last year I was 273 or 4 or something like that. So I've picked up 20 yards off the tee. But I'm not saying I'm a better player. Maybe I'm smarter, but who knows.

When I play well, 15 years ago I won tournaments, now I don't necessarily win tournaments. So probably not as good, but I don't know. I'm just -- golfers are -- you can't -- there's nobody telling me I can't play. There's no coach or no owner saying you're done, retire. So that's the beauty of this game, you can always kind of catch the magic, and get a hot streak going. And strength and speed and all that stuff is not as important in golf as it is in other sports.

This course, the way it's set up, it's good for me, because it's -- you have to drive the ball in the fairway. And I've managed to do that most of the day. Not great the first few days, but when I had to I put the ball in the fairway, and that's kind of an equalizer right now for the shorter hitters.

Q. While there's no coach or owner telling you to retire, where is your own desire at this point?

JAY HAAS: Well, it's picked up from maybe a few years ago. I played very poorly in the year 2000. I didn't want to think that was it. I didn't want to think I'll just wait until the Senior Tour. I just felt like I was a better player, even though I was at the time 46, 47. I just didn't think that that was it. So I worked a little harder and just realized that I wasn't qualified to do a lot of other things, so I needed to practice a little harder. I think now I might be a little smarter on when to play, when not to play. I think years ago I would just play. Another tournament, I've got to go play, even though I don't like the course or it doesn't suit my game, I just need to go play. But now I think maybe I've cut back a few tournaments and I try to be emotionally ready, as well as physically ready, when I play a tournament now.

Q. At least half of the final eight are Harmon students, is that a credit to Claude, their dad?

JAY HAAS: You know, Billy has been -- caddied for me out here a dozen or so years, and caddied for me three of the tournaments already this year, so I bounce things off of him all the time. And I talk to Butch some. All four brothers are very knowledgeable and very easy to be around, easy teachers. And yeah, I think probably you look at it, and that's the common thread there. I would go to any one of them.

Q. Is Billy your teacher?

JAY HAAS: Yes.

Q. And has been for a good while?

JAY HAAS: A good while, yeah. I learned the game from my Uncle Bob, and still he watches me hit balls and everything, but he's not -- it was kind of an adjustment for me back in, oh, I guess the mid '80s, when he stopped doing TV -- I guess it was -- actually late '80s, early '90s, when he was with NBC. I would get to see him those weeks he was doing the tournament. And I'd say, how does this look and all that. And since then, it was right after he left NBC, it was -- I had a little bit of an adjustment, because I just didn't get to see him that much. And I had him as a security blanket to kind of get me straightened back out. But since then it's been pretty much Billy.

Q. What is your view about the Senior Tour? How much would you expect to play there?

JAY HAAS: I think I'll play a good bit there. I don't know how much I'll play out on this Tour. I'm having the time of my life right now. I love being out here. I love the competition. I think any athlete, that's the thing that you miss the most when you stop playing, is just being around great, great players. And these are the best in the world here. And to -- I don't know, talking with Tiger Woods and Darren Clarke and all these different guys in the locker room, it's just -- that's a big part of it. I will definitely miss that, not that it doesn't happen on the Champions Tour, but this is it, this is what we all strive to be, playing in the Major Leagues here.

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