BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

February 2, 2003

Jay Haas

JOE CHEMYCZ: Jay Haas, final round 69 today, 28-under par. Difficult finish, but just talk about the day, if you would.

JAY HAAS: Well, it was a difficult day today, quite different than what we've had last week and this week. The course was playing very tough. Greens were firm. They looked like U.S. Open greens a couple of times out there with the wind blowing and drying out.

I played very well. I did so many great things. Mike played a beautiful round of golf, too. He probably only mis-hit one shot all day today, the second shot at No. 6 and he didn't make a birdie there.

He and I both played very well. It was fun to duel him down the stretch there, and he responded with some great shots. He just hit a couple more good shots than I did.

But, I don't know, I have mixed emotions, I guess. I played very well. I did so much different than last year at this time. I was kind of devastated last year and I guess I should be there this year, coming so close and hitting a poor shot at 18.

I don't know, I just -- seemed like last year at the end, I was almost expecting bad shots, and today I was expecting good ones. I was shocked that that I didn't hit a good shot there on 18, and that makes me feel good, that I can build on that a little bit.

It was a tough day, very tough.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Talk about the 18th hole and standing up there with Mike.

JAY HAAS: Well, he hit a really good drive. I knew I had to hit a good drive to get to it. Almost got too close down there. I'd almost rather go in there with a 5-wood or something where I could stick it up in the air. I hit a great drive. Mike was on the downslope, and I could not really tell what he had in his hand, but it would have been a very difficult shot going for the green.

I'm sure he felt like I was going to go for it, but he probably felt like his best opportunity to make four was laying up.

And then when he did, I was between a 4- and a 5-iron. I took the 4. After he laid up, I felt like even in the back, middle of the green or back bunker, would give me a good opportunity for 4.

I just mis-hit it a little bit. I was a little surprised it didn't carry. Yardage-wise, I don't know, it was 194, 196, something like that. You know, I was just trying to hit a solid shot and just didn't quite pull it off. I had a pretty tight lie. I was close to a sprinkler head but not close enough to get a drop.

There was not much cushion under there, but I hit so many good iron shots this week, long iron shots, that I just was expecting a fourth good one there.

I'll look back, I guess, on the red-eye tonight and think about what could have been.

Q. Did you ever think about laying up at the last hole?

JAY HAAS: I really didn't. I guess I felt like after Mike did that, I felt like it was an advantage for me. I mean, a 4-iron shot, I know it's over water and everything, but, I don't know, I felt like I could put it on the green. I think I would have been second-guessed had I laid up and then he made 4 and I made 5 laying up. I know Chip Beck got a bunch of crap for laying up one time with a wood in his land. (Laughter.) I don't think I would have been able to show my face.

Q. How far removed was it from being just the right shot and how much did you miss it?

JAY HAAS: It wasn't an awful shot, but had the pin been way in the back and I'd hit that shot, it landed on the front third of the green and rolled back to the pin, if I had the same yardage.

Obviously, it missed carrying by about three or four yards.

Q. Did you hit it off the toe at all?

JAY HAAS: I just caught it a little heavy. Let's don't talk about that. (Laughter.) It wasn't good.

Q. What was the yardage?

JAY HAAS: 196 maybe. I think it was 187 -- no, I guess I was 194; 187 and 7.

Q. You started four back and by the sixth hole you were leading. Could you have imagined it would turned out like this?

JAY HAAS: No, I couldn't. It was almost too soon. Now I was the hunted, I guess you might say.

I really felt good. I thought those were maybe the tougher holes - 1 through 5, especially, four holes into the wind and one a crosswind. I played those a couple under, and then I made the eagle at 6. Then we had three holes straight downwind, but those turned out to be difficult holes because you could hardly stop the ball on the greens out there.

I don't think any of us had played the course in this condition, so we don't know what shots to hit off the tees or what shots to leave ourselves for second shots.

Then we turn around, 10 through 13, very difficult holes again. I didn't hit a terrible drive at 10, but pushed it in the right rough and ended up making a 5 there. Made a nice birdie at 11.

Then the shot -- other than the shot at 18, the shot at No. 13 was probably the best shot I hit all week, a 4-iron from 190. The pin is over there to the right. You could not have stopped a pitching wedge over there hardly. I was just trying to aim at the middle of the green, and I haven't hit a 4-iron that good, or an iron, any shot that good in a long time. Where I was looking, it was 25, 30 feet left of the hole, ran it by four or five feet and coming back.

I gave one back there, so it turned out, you know, to maybe be the difference. If I would have had a one-shot lead going into 18, I might have considered laying up - if I had a one-shot lead and make him make birdie.

Q. How tough is it adjustment-wise after having four days of pristine conditions?

JAY HAAS: That's part of our job, I guess, to adjust to that.

I looked on the board, kind of a rundown, looked like 5-under was the low score today. So it was very difficult, when you're looking at 61, 62, 63 during the week. It made it much harder.

No. 2, guys usually hit irons into that green on a par 5, and we're hitting driver, 3-wood today.

No. 3, I hit an 8-iron on Thursday. I hit a 4-iron today. So it's a big adjustment. The greens got really firm. You have to realize that everyone is having those difficulties, too.

Q. From the start it looked like you were pretty relaxed and you talked about wanting to go out and not lose the tournament like you did last year. How did you feel, and were you happy with the way you took off initially?

JAY HAAS: I think that's the thing that I will take out of this is that I felt so good out there. Like I said, when I got leading, all of a sudden, I've got these holes and I kind of got a little tentative. 7, 8, 9, 10, I hit some good shots. I hit a bad iron into 9, but then hit a beautiful pitch shot. 10, pushed it in the rough. But, you expect those in conditions like these.

Then I just kind of settled down and I felt great coming down the stretch. I felt like I was going to do it. I really felt very comfortable.

Got a little -- I hit it in the water at 17 last year off the tee, and that seed was in there. I hit it okay, pushed it, hit the downslope and went all the way to the back of the green, but then hit a beautiful bladed pitching wedge down there and almost made that.

I probably wasn't expecting Mike to make his putt there. That was a beautiful putt he made. He missed a bunch of putts early on and then he started rolling the ball really well and hit some. The one he made at 16 was not easy, and that was a beautiful one at 17, and 18 went right in the heart, too. That was a little bit easier, though, after what I did.

He just played. He deserved it. He played great.

Q. Is wind like you had today, is it the one thing of the game that's still technology-proof?

JAY HAAS: Yes. I think you saw that maybe at the British Open this past year where the scores just tapered off after some pretty good scores the first couple of days.

Yeah, with these greens, they have gotten very, very firm and fast. You couldn't stop a ball where you wanted to. The wind was drying them out. It was gusting wind, and with the mountain right there, sometimes it was blowing, you get on a tee and it was howling at you. The next tee, it was kind of calm.

Yeah, that's a good point. I would say the conditions like that today kind of bring everybody back down to earth a little bit.

Q. You became the fan favorite out here the last couple of days, and maybe because you won here before. Did that help you out here today? Were you feeding off the crowd and everything?

JAY HAAS: A little bit, but, you know, if you were out there, there were more Canadians out there screaming and hollering. I tell you what, I thought it was the Canadian Open there at first. Mike made one on No. 7 off the edge of the green for birdie, and I asked him if he thought he was playing the Canadian Open.

He said, "A lot of them come down at this time of the year."

It's great to have the people pulling for you, and hear, "Go, Jay," a couple of times in there. I was glad to help that along a little bit.

Q. You and Billy go way back. How much interaction or input did you have from him?

JAY HAAS: He's great. That's Billy Harmon who caddied for me for ten years, from '78 to '88. He's a teaching pro at Bighorn Club here in the desert. He caddied for me last year and we left here a couple of sick puppies after we were driving home after last year's rounds.

He was great. He was calm. That meant a lot, to have him on the bag. Normally, I'm kind of saying, come on, "Billy, give me something. I'm dying out here."

Today I was hitting a lot of good shots and he was riding me. He didn't have to put the whip to me at all today.

Q. Speaking of sick puppies, do you have some special empathy for Tim, what he went through today?

JAY HAAS: I guess now that everything's over, yeah. Even when it was happening, we've all done that. Maybe not in that exact manner, but we've all just given strokes away when everybody is watching us. It's just right there and he had done a great job after bogeying 13 and 14 to make eagle -- all of a sudden he's tied for the lead and back in it.

You could just see him lifted by that. Then I think he just kind of got fooled at 16 tee, and he hit maybe the wrong club off the tee. He just crushed a 3-iron and went through the fairway in the bunker in just a terrible spot there. He had no green to work with and you don't want to chunk it in the bunker. He hit it a little thin -- it was just one of those things.

I told him on 18 green, I said, "I know I don't feel any worse than you do, but it just happens. We've all done it."

JOE CHEMYCZ: Take us through your round quick.

JAY HAAS: 2, I hit a 3-wood just in front of the green and pitched to about five feet and made that putt.

3, I hit a 4-iron to 25 feet, pin-high. Made that.

6, I hit a 5-wood from 259 or something like that. The wind was really blowing it this time. Just on the back edge, maybe 18 feet from the hole and made that.

10, I bogeyed. I drove it in the right rough, hit a 7-iron out just short and pitched to about ten feet and missed it.

11, hit a driver, 3-wood up in front of the green. Hit a really nice pitch over the bunker there to about six feet and made it.

3-putted 13. I told you that hole, 4-iron to 30 feet and ran it 12 feet by. It looked like you could ice skate on that green there.

16, hit a 3-iron and a sand wedge to seven feet and made that one.

Then, I don't remember anything after that. (Laughter.)

JOE CHEMYCZ: Jay, thank you.

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